Nick's Lists: Top 10 Quarterbacks in NFL History (5-1)

Great start to our quarterbacks countdown yesterday.  I know that this is just one man's list, but you will see that many of the same names appear, just not in the same order.  It always makes for fun discussion, and hopefully that will continue today as we move into our top 5.  Let's start as always with our honorable mention list:

Troy Aikman (Dallas Cowboys 1989-2001)-Sure he was a good QB, he had weapons in Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin, but the signature moment of his career as far as I'm concerned is this.  Enjoy :-)

Terry Bradshaw (Pittsburgh Steelers 1970-1983)-While I said in my intro yesterday that Bradshaw doesn't make the official list because of his help, it doesn't take away from the fact that he was a pretty good quarterback.  Somebody had to feed it to Swann and Stallworth, but on the other hand, he was credited with a 60 yard TD pass to Franco Harris in the playoffs against Oakland that quite frankly should have never happened.

Kurt Warner (St. Louis Rams 1999-2003; New York Giants 2004; Arizona Cardinals 2005-2010)-One of the best feel good stories  around, Kurt Warner made a living bagging groceries in Iowa and toiling in obscurity in the Arena League.  Perhaps it was fate when Trent Green got injured in the preseason and he had to step in.  All he did was lead the greatest show on turf to a win in Super Bowl XXXIV.  Perhaps his biggest accomplishment was leading the Cardinals to the Super Bowl, period!

Steve Young (San Francisco 49ers 1987-1999)-This one will probably be a bit controversial as many view Young as a quarterback who never really had a chance to show off as much as he could have.  Being Joe Montana's backup can do that to you.  Nevertheless, he did do enough to win a Super Bowl for himself (XXIX) and make the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, so somebody noticed him.  Young made a name for himself in a way that Montana never could have imagined, with his legs.  Young made the running quarterback an en vouge thing to be.

Brett Favre (Atlanta Falcons 1992-1993; Green Bay Packers 1994-2007; New York Jets 2008; Minnesota Vikings 2009-2010...Who knows where else?)-Favre is a sure-fire Hall of Famer.  Nobody is doubting that.  However, his diva-ish antics of the last few years retiring and unretiring and trying to get back at Ted Thompson in Green Bay had made him just look downright foolish.  Behavior aside, Favre is a pretty good QB (notice the word is...I'm not convinced he's done done).  Kind of in the mold of a Steve Young, he led the Packers to the Super Bowl 2 years in a row, winning Super Bowl XXXI.  Oh yea, he also had a cannon (emphasis on the had...)

Alright, enough HM bashing...let's move into the main course of the day.  Let's take a look at Caputo's Corner's TOP 5 QUARTERBACKS IN NFL HISTORY!

5) Peyton Manning (Indianapolis Colts 1998- )



From espn.com

 Peyton has a way of getting into your head.  He is one of the few quarterbacks in the game today (and really the only one who's any good at it) who calls his own plays on the field.  Offensive coordinators (most recently Tom Moore) give Manning play "suggestions," but Manning usually makes his own decisions.  The Colts rarely huddle (running their own version of the hurry-up offense) and Manning always makes different cat calls at the line of scrimmage.  Nobody really knows if he's really checking the play or if he's just saying a bunch of gibberish.  Whatever it is, it works.  Manning dissects a secondary with surgical precision.  Manning has had quality receivers (Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, etc), but Manning's ability to throw to a spot helps make unknown receivers turn into fantasy superstars (Pierre Garcon comes to mind).  Manning's ability to dictate the pace of a football game with his line of scrimmage cadence (and his ability to throw a ball anywhere on the field) makes him probably the best in the game today.  He probably won't put up fantasy numbers (especially this season coming off of bulging disc surgery), but you know his teams have a very good chance to win because of the way he masters the flow of the game.  How do you beat him?  AK would say you can't, but the formula is pretty simple.  You have to harass him.  You have to get to him in the backfield, but that's alsothe problem.  His offensive line works so well together, that even the best sack masters barely breathe on Manning, allowing him as much time as he wants to survey the field and throw.  The cadences at the line surely mess up the defense's thinking as well.


4) Joe Montana (San Francisco 49ers 1979-92; Kansas City Chiefs 1993-94)



From espn.com

 A quarterback sure to be on everybody's top 10 list, Montana led the transition of the 49ers from also-ran of the 1970s to the team of the 1980s.  Under the tutilage of Bill Walsh, Montana ran the originial version of the West Coast Offense to perfection.  The West Coast Offense is very complicated, relying heavily on a mixture of short passing plays which do not require a whole lot of arm strength, but do require quick thinking and high level of accuracy.  Montana ran this offense so well he led the 49ers to 4 Super Bowls in the decade, winning them all.  When the stakes were the highest, Montana was at his absolute best.  Montana 3 times won the Super Bowl MVP award.  His signature moments came in playoff games.  In Super Bowl XXIII, just after the Bengals took a 16-13 lead on a field goal, Montana orchestrated a 92-yard drive in the final 3:10 of regulation culminating in a touchdown pass to John Taylor.  Montana threw for 357 yards and two touchdown, yet this was the one Super Bowl that he DIDN'T win the MVP (that went to Jerry Rice).  His other signature moment was "The Catch," caught by Dwight Clark in the 1981 NFC Championship, beating Dallas to send the 49ers to Super Bowl XVI.  Now, some might argue that "The Catch" was nothing more than luck for Montana since it appeared he was  throwing it out of the back of the end zone.  After all, it was only 3rd down and there was plenty of time for one more play.  Nevertheless, the touchdown pass goes down as one of the most famous plays in history.  Montana will always be remembered for all of his team success, and his ability to command the huddle and run one of the most complex offenses known today puts him into our top 5. 


3) Johnny Unitas (Baltimore Colts 1956-72; San Diego Chargers 1973)



From profootballhof.com

 He was the man with the golden arm...and the famous black high-top cleats.  Peyton Manning decided to honor Unitas once by wearing black high-tops once, and was subsequently fined for it.  Johnny U led the Colts to the 1958 NFL Championship in what is known as the "Greatest Game Ever Played."  That game was the first ever overtime game in history.  All Johnny U did was take the ball to start the overtime period and march it right down the New York Giants' throats to the 1-yard line where Alan Ameche punched it in for the first sudden death win in NFL history.  Unitas went on to win MVP awards 4 times in the 50s and 60s, leading the league in all kinds of passing categories.  His career high of 32 touchdown passes in 1959 is a strong total even by today's standards.  In the 50s when throwing the ball still was looked upon with hesitation, that number was out of this world.  Between 1956 and 1960, Unitas threw at least 1 touchdown pass in 46 straight games!  Johnny U knew how to find the end zone.  Unitas became susceptible to injury later in his career, but he was effective all the way to the end.  In Super Bowl III, he relieved an ineffective Earl Morrall and led the Colts to their only score in the game.  In Super Bowl V, Unitas threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to John Mackey, only to eventually leave the game with another injury.  He would be the starting quarterback for the Colts up through the 1972 season, throwing one more touchdown pass on his last pass as a Colt.  His career ended unceremoniously in a San Diego Chargers uniform. 


2) Sammy Baugh (Washington Redskins 1937-52)



From profootballhof.com

 Yes, I need to have at least one Redskin on this list, but who can argue the place of Sammy Baugh among the greats of the quarterback position?  He was a quarterback, punter, and cornerback.  He was an athlete.  There was nobody like Slingin' Sammy Baugh.  In a day and age when single-wing running plays dominated the sport of football, Sammy Baugh dared to do what nobody else would: throw.  Sammy Baugh and the Redskins teams of the late 30s and Early 40s took the bold step of making the forward pass part of a team's game plan.  The forward pass had been legal since the early 1920s, but nobody dared to use it because of the risk associated with putting the ball in the air.  It was "safe" to just run the football.  Baugh and head coach Ray Flaherty thought, "The pass is legal, so why not use it?"  Use it they did.  In the Redskins championship years of 1937 and 1942, Baugh only threw 11 and 14 touchdown passes respectively, but if you consider the era in which he played, those were ming-boggling numbers.  Baugh reached his career high of 25 touchdown passes in 1947.  With the Redskins proving that the forward pass could be an effective weapon if used properly, other teams started to follow suit.  The evolution of the T-formation put the quarterback in a much more pass-friendly position (while also supporting a strong running game) than the old single wing, which was heavily engineered toward running the ball.  In an ironic twist, the success of the Redskins passing game led to their biggest demise: the 1940 NFL Championship.  The Bears defeated the Redskins 73-0, using mostly the T-formation and 3 interceptions taken back to the house (2 of which were thrown by Baugh).  The Redskins would get their revenge, however, defeating the Bears 14-6 in the 1942 NFL Title game.  For his successes, Sammy Baugh would be a charter member of the pro football Hall of Fame in 1963. 


1) John Elway (Denver Broncos 1983-1998)



From prosignatures.net

 John Elway made waves in pro sports going all the way back to when he was drafted.  A two-sport star at Stanford, Elway signed a contract to play baseball with the New York Yankees when he found out that the Baltimore Colts were going to draft Elway with the Number 1 over selection in the 1983 "quarterback draft."  The Colts were hoping to call Elway on his bluff and took him #1 anyway.  Elway didn't budge and it wasn't until the Colts were forced to trade Elway to the Broncos that he decided to take up football.  It didn't take long for Elway to make a name for himself.  Elway's first hints of greatness started with "The Drive" in the 1986 AFC Championship Game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.  He and the Broncos offense took the ball on their own 2 yard line, trailing by a touchdown with 5 minutes left.  98 yards later, the Broncos had tied the game while essentially taking all the time off the clock.  The Broncos would win in overtime, but lose the Super Bowl that year to the New York Giants.  That would be a recuring theme in Elway's early career.  The Broncos would dominate the AFC and the AFC playoffs, but would always end with a spectacular thud in the Super Bowl.  In Super Bowl XXI, after briefly taking a 10-7 lead, the Giants would score 32 of the next 35 points to crush the Broncos 39-20 (Elway did throw for over 300 yards in this game).  In Super Bowl XXII, after briefly taking a 10-0 lead, the Redskins would score 42 unanswered to hammer the Broncos.  Finally, in Super Bowl XXIV, the 49ers put their collective boot on the Broncos' collective throat and asphyxiated the Broncos in the most lopsided Super Bowl in history (55-10).  From then on, Elway had a reputation for not being able to get his team to win the big one.  His regular season success was nearly unmatched.  With the exception of his rookie season in 1983, Elway threw double digit touchdown passes every season of his career (although he never eclipsed the 30 TD plateau).  Elway seemed to get better with age, having 2 of his finest seasons in 1997 and 1998.  He set a career high with 27 TD passes in 1997, and in 1998 set his career high in passer rating with 93.0.  Oddly enough, in both seasons, the Broncos made it to the Super Bowl, and won it both times.  Elway's best plays in those Super Bowls involved his legs.  Remember the helicopter play?  He would go onto score touchdowns rushing in XXXII and XXXIII.  Elway is one of only two players in history (Thurman Thomas being the other) to score rushing touchdowns in 4 different Super Bowls, winning Super Bowl XXXIII MVP.  Following his second Super Bowl win after Super Bowl XXXIII, he told Terry Bradshaw in the post-game interview, "Well this throws a monkey wrench into it."  He was referring to his impending retirement, but since no team has ever 3-peated the Super Bowl, he had to at least consider it.  He did decide to retire on top.  Nobody ever really gets to retire on top anymore.  Elway will go down in history as the California golden boy who got his way in the draft, and then lit up the NFL in the regular season, failing to win the big one until his golden years.  When he did, he went out on top.  John Elway, Caputo's Corner salutes you as our #1 quarterback in NFL history!

There you have it, folks.  Let the debates begin.  Now that I'm back into writing top 10s.  I'd like to get started on another top 10.  I had so much fun doing quarterbacks, I would like to do running backs next.  Maybe then I'll do receivers, tight ends, linebackers, corners, who knows.  Tonight, as I still lay ill, I'll watch my Redskins play the Pittsburgh Steelers in our first preseason game.  I'll have a game report when it's all over.  Leave your criticism and comments in the comments below.