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Posts Tagged ‘Joe Montana’

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THE GREATEST QB OF ALL TIME – THE RESULTS

In Greatest QB of All Time on February 17, 2012 at 6:14 am

I’d like to thank everyone for the feedback of our Greatest QB of All Time Preview article. A lot of votes came in for Otto Graham, Johnny Unites, Joe Montana, Dan Marino and Joe Namath. As we discussed in the preview article we selected 14 QB’s and performed a statistical analysis to try to determine who the Greatest Quarterback of All Time is. As we stated the passing craze that began in the 1970’s eliminated many great QB’s from earlier times when the ball wasn’t thrown every down. Greats like Johnny Unites, Bart Starr, Otto Graham, Norm Van Brocklin and others of that era just couldn’t compare statistically, which doesn’t take away from them in any way as all time greats of the game. We will do a second study that would include just QB’s prior to 1970.  We have selected the following as our Top 14 in alphabetical order:

  • Troy Aikman
  • Drew Brees
  • Terry Bradshaw
  • Tom Brady
  • John Elway
  • Brett Favre
  • Dan Fouts
  • Jim Kelly
  • Peyton Manning
  • Dan Marino
  • Joe Montana
  • Ben Roethlisberger
  • Roger Staubach
  • Steve Young

Each of these QB’s are either members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, won a Super Bowl or have won a Super Bowl and will be members of the Hall of Fame in the future.

We selected 8 regular season statistical categories that we felt would put all of the players on a level field without showing bias to a QB that played longer than the rest, Brett Favre, and holds many of the career QB records. What we did was break it down by how they performed in the categories by percentage across their career.

If a player did not play in at least half of his teams games in a season that seasons numbers were not included. For example, Tom Brady played in just 1 game in 2008 due to injury. Also, one of the hardest guys to include in this was Steve Young. There are several seasons in which Young missed games, mainly because he was backing up Joe Montana when he was in San Francisco but he also split time early in his career in Tampa Bay. With that said here are the 8 regular season categories:

  • Career Total Yards Produced versus Teams Total Yards %
  • Career Passing Yards/Game
  • Career Yards per Pass Attempt
  • Career Yards per Pass Completion
  • Career Pass Completion %
  • Career Pass Interception %
  • Career Pass TD’s  %
  • Career Game Winning Drives

Each QB was given 14 points if they finished 1st in the specific category 13 for 2nd, 12 for 3rd, down to 1 point if they finished last in the category. All 8 categories were added up and the QB with the most total points in the 8 categories becomes our Greatest Regular Season QB of All Time.

We will show you who finished 1-5 in each of the categories and we will show you how all 14 finished and what their total points were. You may want to match how the QB finished and who had Hall of Fame running backs in the same backfield.

Once we came up with those results we added 2 Playoff stats, Super Bowls played in and Super Bowls won.  We used these 2 categories since playoff stats are all over the board and impossible to compare based on numbers of games each played. Obviously doing this helps Tom Brady and John Elway, as it should since they’ve played in more Super Bowls than any other QB with 5 but also helps Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw who have won the most Super Bowls with 4. It also helps Jim Kelly with his 4 Super Bowl appearances even though he didn’t win. Making 4 Super Bowls is an amazing accomplishment. The guys it really hurts are Dan Fouts with no Super Bowl appearances and Dan Marino with 1. You will see how the addition of the Super Bowl stats changed the overall ranking.

Here are the results. See what you think and feel free to click “Respond” and say your piece. Did we miss anybody that should’ve been included? Did we include statistics that didn’t make it fair? Finally, did you like the results?

Career Total Yards Produced versus Teams Total Yards %

  1. Brett Favre
  2. Peyton Manning
  3. John Elway
  4. Tom Brady
  5. Drew Brees

Career Passing Yards/Game

  1. Peyton Manning
  2. Drew Brees
  3. Dan Marino
  4. Tom Brady
  5. Brett Favre

Career Yards per Pass Attempt

  1. Ben Roethlisberger
  2. Steve Young
  3. Dan Fouts
  4. Roger Staubach
  5. Peyton Manning

Career Yards per Pass Completion

  1. Terry Bradshaw
  2. Roger Staubach
  3. Dan Fouts
  4. Ben Roethlisberger
  5. John Elway

Career Pass Completions %

  1. Drew Brees
  2. Peyton Manning
  3. Steve Young
  4. Tom Brady
  5. Joe Montana

Career Pass Interception %

  1. Tom Brady
  2. Joe Montana
  3. Steve Young
  4. Drew Brees
  5. Peyton Manning

Career Pass TD’s %

  1. Tom Brady
  2. Steve Young
  3. Peyton Manning
  4. Terry Bradshaw
  5. Roger Staubach

Career Game Winning Drives

  1. Dan Marno
  2. John Elway
  3. Peyton Manning
  4. Brett Favre
  5. Tom Brady

FINAL RESULTS – REGULAR SEASON

1.     Peyton Manning – 88 points of 112 possible points

2.     Tom Brady – 84 points

3.     Drew Brees – 73 points

4.     Dan Marino – 68 points

5.     Ben Roethlisberger – 66 points

6.     Joe Montana – 65 points

7.     Steve Young – 64 points

8.     Brett Favre – 60 points

9.     Dan Fouts – 55 points

10.   John Elway – 54 points

11.    Jim Kelly – 48 points

12.   Roger Staubach – 48 points

13.   Terry Bradshaw – 40 points

14.   Troy Aikman – 30 points

The categories below were calculated like the rest. Due to my formatting they had to be listed in numerical order but the points were done the same way. For example on Super Bowl Wins both Bradshaw and Montana got 14 points and Brady, Aikman and Young got 12. This covers the ties.

Super Bowl Wins

  1. Terry Bradshaw – 4
  2. Joe Montana – 4
  3. Tom Brady – 3
  4. Troy Aikman – 3
  5. Steve Young – 3

Super Bowl Appearances

  1. John Elway – 5
  2. Tom Brady – 5
  3. Terry Bradshaw – 4
  4. Joe Montana – 4
  5. Jim Kelly – 4
  6. Roger Staubach – 4

 

GRAND TOTAL GREATEST QB OF ALL TIME

1.     Tom Brady

2.     Peyton Manning

3.     Joe Montana

4.     Steve Young

5.     Ben Roethlisberger

6.     Drew Brees

7.     John Elway

8.     Dan Marino

9.     Brett Favre

10.   Roger Staubach

11.    Terry Bradshaw

12.   Jim Kelly

13.   Dan Fouts

14.   Troy Aikman

The results are in. As we stated we’re open for any and all comments and opinions. Thanks again for your interest in Philly Pressbox. Feel free to follow us on Facebook at Philly Pressbox as well.

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The Greatest QB of All Time – Preview

In Greatest QB of All Time on February 8, 2012 at 11:10 pm

Following is our preview to our selection of who we think is the Greatest QB in NFL history. We will announce the results in a few days, however this will give you some food for thought. If you’ve read our posts in the past you know that we try to put a lot of thought and a lot of statistical analysis in to what we publish. This post will be no different. Here’s what we did try to balance the books and make it fair for everyone. Unfortunately the passing era has taken over and makes it impossible to include guys like Otto Graham, Norm Van Brocklin, Bart Starr, Johnny Unites and many others who were all obviously tremendous football players and great leaders. They just didn’t fit in when looking at stats. Maybe in the future we’ll look at the pre-passing era and see what happens. We’ve selected 14 QB’s and 10 statistical categories based on career stats not individual season stats. Also, if the QB didn’t start more than half of his games in a season the stats were not included. An example would be Tom Brady played in only 1 game in 2008 so those stats were not included for that year. Each player was given 14 points if they finished 1st in the category and 1 if they finished 14th. When all 10 categories were calculated the results were added up and the guy with the most points wins. This is not the most sophisticated way but not the worst way of doing it. Also, the only thing included in the post-season was Super Bowl appearances and Super Bowls won. Just because a guy never made the Super Bowl or never won one shouldn’t be held against him. Just as well a guy could be in one Super Bowl and his team gets blown out but he throws for 400+ yards he shouldn’t get extra credit for that. We will provide a list with the 8 regular season categories and then a second list with the Super Bowl s included.

I’ll be honest to tell you I have done of the categories and all of the legwork but haven’t tabulated the results yet because I don’t want to know how it works out until it’s time to publish the results.

Feel free to click RESPOND at the bottom of the post and let us know your opinion. Let the great debate begin!!!!

The statistical categories are as follows:

  • Total Yards Produced versus Teams Total Yards %
  • Career Passing Yards/Game
  • Yards per Pass Attempt
  • Yards per Pass Completion
  • Pass Completion %
  • Pass Interception %
  • Pass TD’s  %
  • Career Game Winning Drives
  • Super Bowls Played In
  • Super Bowls Won

You may want to debate the QB list but they’re all Hall of Famers, future Hall of Famers or Super Bowl Champions so here they are in alphabetic order:

  • Troy Aikman
  • Drew Brees
  • Terry Bradshaw
  • Tom Brady
  • John Elway
  • Brett Favre
  • Dan Fouts
  • Jim Kelly
  • Peyton Manning
  • Dan Marino
  • Joe Montana
  • Ben Roethlisberger
  • Roger Staubach
  • Steve Young

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The Word of the Day – WINNERS – Montana

In The Word of the Day on February 7, 2012 at 7:48 am

WINNERS

“Winners, I am convinced, imagine their dreams first. They want it with all their heart & expect it to come true”

 

Joe Montana

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CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND & THE PA. PERSPECTIVE

In Pro Football on January 20, 2012 at 9:10 am

I’m working in our office in Cranberry Township PA, 20 miles north of Pittsburgh, this week. Obviously this is Steelers country. I was at lunch yesterday with three work buddies so of course the conversation was about the NFL playoffs. It was very enlightening being from Philly and them being from Pittsburgh. The conversation started with, “”I don’t care who wins because I hate both the Patriots and the Ravens but despise the Ravens and everything about them.” I thought I was talking to my buddies about the Cowgirls, oops, Cowboys and the “Little “ Giants. The conversation went something like this. “I can’t stand Ray Lewis or anything about him. I hate him but he’s still a pretty good player” and “Joe Flacco is horrible, he might be the worst QB in the league”. That led me to say, “There is no QB any worse than Eli Manning unless you’re talking about Tony Romo”. The reply was “are you kidding me, Eli is the most clutch QB in the league in the 4th quarter, check the stats”. I didn’t because I’ve seen him play too many times. I don’t call tossing balls in the air to be caught by David Tyree on his helmet and jump balls in the end zone clutch. That discussion was followed up with this gem, “why is it that Tom Brady is so great? He can beat everybody except the Steelers. If it weren’t for the Ravens being the Ravens I’d hate Brady more than anybody”. Seriously? As usual it was a great time for a sports debate that was clearly being looked at from very different perspectives. It’s amazing what 300 miles across the turnpike can do for ones perspective.

On to this weekends Championship games.

Ravens at Patriots. If I were a betting man, which I’m not, I’d take the Pats to win and the Ravens to cover the 7 ½ points. I think this could be a great game. The way to stop the Patriots is to pressure Brady all day long but to do that the Ravens defense will have to take chances in man-to man coverage. With the Patriots tight end combination of Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez and the underneath crossing routes by Wes Welker it will be difficult to match up. Linebackers can’t cover these guys so the Ravens better get to Brady and do it quick. If he has time to sit in the pocket he’s unstoppable. Matt Light protecting against Tyrell Suggs will be a great matchup to watch. Both are among the best at their job. For the Ravens they have to have a big game from Ray Rice and not turn the ball over on offense. Snow is on the way to Foxboro on Saturday but Sunday temperatures are expected to be 35 degrees. It looks like a great day for football.

“Little” Giants at 49ers. My bias has to come out on this one because I wouldn’t pick the Little Giants if they were playing anybody except maybe Dallas. With that said Manning is probably playing the best football of his career. Hakeem Nicks has been unbelievable. The key for me is Ahmad Bradshaw. They are so much better when they can team Bradshaw with Brandon Jacobs. I can’t figure out how their defense can come alive in the playoffs because they’re not that good. The defensive line has been over rated since they had Michael Strahan. Osi Umenyiora is a New York media publicity stunt. Justin Tuck is over rated. They have gotten a great season from Jason Pierre-Paul. I’m just not a believer in the Little Giants. In order for the Giants to win they have to run the ball consistently with Bradshaw and Jacobs and minimize Manning in 3rd and long situations where he’s prone to turn the ball over. As for the 49ers they have to be able to run the ball with Frank Gore and not have to put the game in the hands of Alex Smith. Smith was huge last week but he’s not Joe Montana or Steve Young in that Niners uniform. On defense the Niners have to have big games from the outstanding linebacker group led by Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman (another great Penn State LB). By the way, Justin Smith is a beast on the defensive line. I’ll take the 49ers at home giving the 2.5 points. The 49ers will win on the foot of David Akers. Remember him Philly fans? They are calling for game time temperatures of 53 degrees with afternoon rains.

Let the great debate begin! I wonder what my Pittsburgh buddies think the results will be. I think they like the Little Giants and anybody playing the Ravens.

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