re: Current NFL players that could be considered the best of all-time.

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Again, Lechler is the best answer here.

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well, tony gonzalez is probably the best answer here.

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If Elway had the talent and coaching of Brady he may have WON 6 Super bowls.

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if he had the talent AND coaching of brady, how would he do any differently than brady?

Brees/Brady/Rodgers/Manning

Patrick Willis
Ed Reed

Devin Hester KR/PR = best ever

No one should be using stats to defend the QBs of the era...half of the Top 20 in Passer Rating are sad sacks from this era...so that tells you something...when some bums from the last 10 years have huge passer ratings.

The video game pass-happy era QBs should be compared with each other and then use other criteria to compare to past greats. Doesn't mean anything to me that Brees or Brady threw for a gazillion yards...whoopie! The league is designed to prohibit the defense from doing their job.

Look at the passer ratings of the eras:

Super Bowl era avg. passer ratings:

1960s: 69.4
1970s: 65.2
1980s: 74.4
1990s: 77.3
2000s: a shade over 80.0

Thirteen of the 14 stingiest defenses in modern NFL history played in the Dead Ball Era from 1968 to 1977.

So you look at how QBs fared against their peers.

Staubach and Montana at their very best were better than Manning and Brady at their very best in terms of rating performance.

Staubach was 37% better than the average of all other quarterbacks playing at the same time over his career. In 1971 Roger Staubach notched a season passer rating of 104.8 when the NFL average for qualified passers was 62.2 percent. In percent, Staubach was 68% better than the league average, the best value achieved by any quarterback in the Super Bowl era.

By comparison the five other famous passing seasons of all-time in comparison to their peers:

In 1999, Kurt Warner (109.2) exceeded the league-wide rating (77.1) by 41.6 percent.
In 2007, Tom Brady (117.2) exceeded the league-wide rating (80.9) by 44.9 percent.
In 2004, Peyton Manning (121.4) exeeded the league-wide rating (82.8) by 46.6 percent
In 1989, Joe Montana (112.4) exceeded the league-wide rating (75.6) by 49.2 percent
In 1976, Ken Stabler (103.4) exceeded the league-wide rating (67.0) by 54.3 percent.

Especially with Brady and today's short passing/spread the field, dink and dunk game where pretty much everything is going to be completed.

Example:

Brady has thrown 9 TD passes in his five Super Bowls. The distances on those plays are 1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, and 12 yards.

Montana threw 11 TD passes in his 4 Super Bowls. The distances on those plays are 11, 33, 8, 16, 38, 28, 14, 10, 20, 7, 35 yards.

Career Super Bowl Passer Rating

Joe Montana 127.83
Jim Plunkett 122.83
Terry Bradshaw 112.80
Troy Aikman 111.93
Bart Starr 105.98
Brett Favre 97.61
Roger Staubach 96.33
Kurt Warner 95.94
Tom Brady 95.12
Peyton Manning 85.42

Montana attempted 122 passes and never threw an interception in the championship game.

We get seduced by numbers and passing yards and forget the era they are playing in. Brady/Manning/Brees - don't hold a candle - they're not playing better than QBs before them...they are just playing at a different time.

John wouldn't have a ring and probably wouldn't be in the HOF if Shanny didn't take TD in the 6th round of the '95 draft.

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Elway took teams to the SB that had No biz being there.Yes they got beat, But it wasn't His fault.

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See Dan Reeves.

I could never put Elway ahead of Montana as much as I admired Elway.

Montana had that extra "it" factor - he won everywhere - Elway was more talented, so was Marino. Montana was just knew how to play the game better than anyone.

And also the fact that I can't shake the memory of an old Montana out-dueling Elway head to head:

Great Video GOAT

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We will have to disagree on this. Elway didnt win anything until he had an awesome running game to go to.

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And Brady hasn't won anything without cheating.