This is my current top 10.

1. Johnny Unitas - I can't really explain. Possibly the best playcaller of all time. Gritty winner. Tough as shit. You can't really explain. You just have to watch him. Its kind of like John Elway. You have to see it for yourself. Its all about the intangibles.

2. Joe Montana - Nothing could rattle this guy. He was always cool under pressure. He was very efficient. At the time he retired, he had the highest career passer rating (now 5th all time). He holds broke most post season records. 4 time Super Bowl champ, 3 time Super Bowl MVP. Two time league MVP.

3. John Elway - Known for his bazooka for an arm, as well as the ability to throw caution to the wind and rally against all odds. For those who claim Tom Brady was able to do incredible things with a poor supporting cast, they need to look up Elway's Broncos in the 80's. They didn't suck by any means. But when you look at them, it does make what Elway did all the more impressive. Like I said earlier with Johnny U, its all about the intangibles here.

4. Dan Marino - Forget the fact that he never won a Super Bowl. He was never on a team good enough to win. This includes the one year he actually went as well. If anyone has any doubts of Dan Marino's ability, look up his second year in the league. This alone should silence all non believers. Not only did he have one of the best years ever statistically, but in only his second year in the league, he was awarded league MVP. At one time, held a lot of the league passing records (several recently passed by Brett Favre).

5. Brett Favre - When I think of Brett Favre, the first word that comes to mind is reliable. He started his first game in week 4 of 1992. He has started every single game since. The only person even remotely close to this achievement is Peyton Manning (Favre has 253 consecutive regular season starts while Manning in second has 160. This doesn't even include post season.). He has been league MVP 3 times. He has had 8 seasons in which he scored 30+ TDs. This is twice as many as both guys (Marino and Manning with 4 each) tied for second in this stat. 9 times Pro Bowl. 7 times All Pro. He holds the all time career record for passing TDs, yards, completions, and attempts. He holds the record for most games with at least 3 TDs. Only John Elway has more 4th quarter/OT comebacks.

6. Steve Young - The most efficient passer in the history of the NFL. IMO, the best scrambling QB since Fran Tarkenton.

7. Peyton Manning - One of the best playcalling QBs in the history of the game. The only real play calling QB since Jim Kelly. Only Favre has started more consecutive games. Aside from Steve Young, he is the most efficient QB in NFL history. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about Peyton Manning. I don't think I really need to. All I need to say is that he currently holds the record for most seasons with at least 4,000 yards, most consecutive seasons with at least 4,000 yards, consecutive seasons with at least 25 TD passes, most games with perfect passer rating, consecutive starts by a QB to open a career, passer rating in a season, games with at least 4 TDs, and most consecutive games with at least 2 and 4 TDs. He is on pace to break the all time TD record in 5 seasons, all time yards in 5, completions in 6, attempts in 7, and if he can go 6 more seasons without missing a start, he could potentially pass Favre's consecutive start record. Okay, so I did go into a lot of detail.

8. Tom Brady - Running neck and neck with Manning, but for completely different reasons. You could realistically go with either guy. I just went with Manning because while others have done what Brady is doing. Manning is doing things statistically that have never been done before. But don't let this fool you. Brady is only 3 TDs away from the 200 mark. He lead his team to the 5th perfect regular season in NFL history. He also hasn't missed a start since he took over that responsibility. On top of all of that, he has the 4th highest all time passer rating (behind Young, Manning, and Warner).

9. Terry Bradshaw - Bradshaw was your classic gunslinger of the 70's. I'm not 100% sold that Bradshaw should be top ten. But he is the only QB aside from Montana to win 4 Super Bowls. So I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

10. Fran Tarkenton - As with Bradshaw, I'm not entirely sure Tarkenton should be on my top ten. But I will give him this much. If there were no Dan Marino, Fran Tarkenton would have held most of the major passing records up until just recently. On top of that, he is one of the all time great scramblers. He is 4th in rushing TDs by a QB behind Cunningham, Young, and Vick. Though the only one of those in the same calibur is Young. Also, a great deal of his scrambles resulted in a pass rather than a rush attempt.

HONORABLE MENTION: You may have noticed that I commented on not being sure if Bradshaw and Tarkenton should have been in the top ten. This is because there are two specific people I had in mind that should be on this list. But I didn't feel I could make an accurate guess as to where exactly they should rank. This is because while I know a great deal about them, due to having not seen as much of them with my own eyes as the rest of the guys on the list. So a lot of my feelings toward them are based on what other people have said about them rather than what I've seen for myself. They are:

1. Otto Graham - I really don't need to say a lot more than the fact that he only played for ten seasons. Out of those ten seasons, he lead his team to ten championships, winning seven of them.

2. Sammy Baugh - Not only was he one of the first great passers, but he was also an awesome defensive back and solid punter. In 1943, he lead the league in passing, punting, and interceptions.

homefry25 wrote:

That is one hell of a list, but I have to ask, where is Randall Cunningham? He was a great scrambler. But that's just my opinion, there are so many great QB's it's hard to make a top ten that everyone can get behind. Also what about Jim Kelly?

It actually took a lot of thought to put that together. So I don't know how I would rank 11-20, but I'm guessing I would have Jim Kelly somewhere in there. Possibly top 15. I really like Jim Kelly a lot. Kelly and Manning are pretty much the only real playcalling QBs of my generation. I find that very impressive.

As far as Cunningham, I do consider him one of the top scrambers of all time. I still think the top two are Tarkenton and Young. I think Vick was a great scrambler, but not necessarily a great scrambling QB. He would take off where somebody like Tarkenton would still try and get a pass off. His skill as a passer isn't anywhere near those two, or Cunningham for that matter. I talk about those four because not only are they four of the most notorious scrambling QBs, but they are also the top four on the list of all time rushing TDs by a QB.

I'm not sure where I'd list Cunningham on an oll time list though. There are still a lot of guys to pick from. Roger Staubach, Bart Starr, Troy Aikman, Jim Kelly, Warren Moon, Kurt Warner, Dan Fouts, Ken Stabler, Joe Namath, Norm Van Brocklin, YA Tittle, Bobby Layne, Sonny Jergensen, Bob Griese, George Blanda, Boomer Esiason, Ken Anderson, Jim Hart, Sid Luckman, Len Dawson, Phil Simms, Drew Bledsoe, Steve McNair, etc. To tell the truth, I'm not ever sure he is the best Eagles QB. I think I'd take Van Brocklin, Jergensen, and possibly Jaworski before Cunningham. Don't forget McNabb either. He may have been overshadowed by guys like Manning, Brady, Culpepper and Warner, but he is still a great QB. I do like Cunningham though. He deserves mention. I'm just not sure where.

Just another bad ass QB from Florida that can't get it done in the NFL. As a Bears fan, I'm curious of your thoughts on Brian Griese.

I actually like Griese and its not just because he used to play for the Broncos. He was actually a really solid QB until he screwed up his shoulder. But the thing I love about Griese is how when he goes to a new team, they always write him off and then he comes out of nowhere to make things happen.

I can actually remember watching them talk about him on ESPN. Brad Johnson was the starter for Tampa Bay. Chris Simms was the heir apparant. They were saying how it was important for Brad Johnson to stay healthy because Simms was still unproven and may not be ready yet. So somebody asks about Griese, who at the time was their 3rd stringer. Salisbury pretty much laughed it off. Took a couple of cheap shots at Griese's expense. They all pretty much agreed he was done.

Well, just as they speculated, Johnson went down. Simms comes in and he goes down too. Guess who was waiting in the wings. Griese took over the duties as their featured QB. From the time he came in to the end of the season, he lead the league in completion percentage and had a pretty high passer rating. I loved every second of it. I don't know if Salisbury and company ever ate crow over it. I doubt it. But I just thought it was just great.

Well, Brady has never missed a start. So hopefully, you won't have to worry about a backup for a while.

Michael Bishop was on the KC Brigade for part of last season. We was our backup. I'm not sure if he was traded or cut, but one day he was with us, then the next day he was with another team. I always kind of liked him, even though I'm not a big K State fan (I do like them better than KU).

But I remember what you are saying. Didn't he actually get to take a couple reps in some games when Bledsoe was in the doghouse?