re: Bleacher Report: Ranking the Top 99 Quarterbacks in NFL History

Elway does not belong anywhere near the top 10

Terrible list, needless to say.

Here are my Top 10 most overrated selections from this atrocious rating system.

1. Brad Johnson (Played on good teams. Fair-Decent QB)
2. Doug Williams (nice SB. Period.)
3. Archie Manning (Fair-good. Happy-feet. Have NO idea how good he could have been since he famously ran for his life every game)
4. Trent Green ( )
5. Ryan Tannenhill ( )
6. Jeff Hostetler (loved the guy. BUT)
7.Kirk Cousins (great arm. Zero clutch.)
8. Earl Morrall (2 good seasons playing on great teams. Otherwise mediocre. Stunk up SB III)
9. Jack Kemp (future Senator defined mediocrity in the AFL 60s)
10. Joe Flacco. (one great clutch year does not a Top 100 make)

Bonus Over-rateds:

11. Michael Vick. (flashes of brilliance. Shambles during playoff time)
12. Bob Griese (game manager for great teams. Put NONE of them on his back)
13. Kenny Stabler (luxury of playing on great teams, sitting back in the pocket behind Upshaw and Shell for minutes before finding his 4th receiver)
14. Lamar Jackson. (ridiculously too high)
15. Drew Brees (rated waaaay too high.)
16. Pat Mahomes (strictly a product of the times. If a QB during the 60s-90s would have been taken off the field in a stretcher for his many shenanigans)
17. Tom Brady (rep benefited mightily from the QB-wears-a-dress era. Should be rated @ 20s.)

All QBs are the products of their times -- though in the last decade QBs are just game managers who ad lib run/pass with next-to ZERO risks of danger.

The following are singled out for NOT being rated much higher (as should EVERYONE who called their own plays and/or risked life & limb every play during the 60s-90s)

1. Dandy Don Meredith (great leader)
2. John Unitas (#11? This tough guy was the definition of "Field General" -- calling his own plays, picking apart D's)
3. Otto Graham (totally dominant)

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Dan Fouts is underrated. I've been watching NFL games from the later 70's and early 80's and he was better than I remember.

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Agree 100%. What a force. Going down field too. Plays as designed. FROM the pocket. Few inflated"dump-off" stats. Fun to watch.

Fouts was the first QB ever to put up pinball-type scores and stats. Typical Charger score during his career: 38-34 Too bad one of those truly great passing Charger teams had to play Kenny Anderson and the Bengals in Cincy (-15 degree tundra).

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Where is Doug Flutie? Did I miss him?

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He made the "Best Canadian Football League QBs list.

(seriously I loved Flutie. Didn't get a fair shot at the NFL. Winners like him and Tim Tebow were unfairly maligned and discarded. Their intangibles like leadership and clutch aren't ever "rated" in the stat column. )

Roger Staubach is top 5 in my book. Having him at 17 makes the list null and void.

I’d take Brees over favre and elway

I think it's unfair to compare QBs from different eras. In the 70s you had guys like Bradshaw and Tarkenton calling their own plays and dealing with defenders who were trying to kill them. Watch some of those old NFL films clips and you'll see defenders absolutely teeing off on QBs in a way modern QBs don't have to deal with. Those guys were basically playing a different game, so looking at stats, etc is misleading.

I feel like Jim Everett is remembered more for socking the shite out of Jim Rome than anything else.

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Jim Everett

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Everett was voted to one Pro Bowl in 1990 but had the most passing TDs in 1988 and 1989 but didn't make the Pro Bowl. Wade Wilson made it in 88 and Mark Rypien in 1989. These are the stats

Everett(88) 3,964 yards 31 TD 18 INT 10-6 record
Wilson(88) 2,746 yards 15 TD 9 INT 11-5 record

Everett (89) 4,310 yards 29 TD 17 INT 11-5 record
Rypien(89) 3,768 yards 22 TD 13 INT 9-5 record

I guess they felt bad for Everett in 1990 because they gave him the Pro Bowl that year and the Rams went 5-11