{"id":3192,"date":"2010-02-12T18:53:08","date_gmt":"2010-02-12T18:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vip.local\/2010\/02\/12\/the-best-ever\/"},"modified":"2010-02-12T18:53:08","modified_gmt":"2010-02-12T18:53:08","slug":"the-best-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/the-best-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whitlock has a top 10 of all time QB list out.<\/a> I don’t want to split hairs with him; it’s not the worst list ever, even if his criteria is all over the board.\u00a0 His comments about Manning are what they are. Thanks to Garrison for the link.<\/p>\n

Personally, I don’t think you can rank QBs, but rather you have a pool of guys who did the most ever at their position.\u00a0 I like the tier idea more than a straight list.\u00a0 Here’s a rough idea of who would make my top tier.\u00a0 My criteria are:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Impact on the game. How was the game different because they played?<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Fear they inspired<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Huge numbers over a long period of time.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Unique skills<\/p>\n

In no real order at all my all time top tier is:<\/p>\n

Unitas<\/strong>-I love originals.\u00a0 The first one to do something new gets massive credit with me…even if others came along and did it better later.\u00a0 No one played QB like Unitas before Unitas. That earns him crazy cred with me.\u00a0 Inventing the two minute drill in the greatest game of all time?\u00a0 Seriously.\u00a0 Nothing can ever beat that.<\/p>\n

Montana<\/strong>-I love the passer rating.\u00a0 It’s my favorite stat.\u00a0 The reason is because it was the stat that Montana dominated.\u00a0 Four Super Bowls is nice, but Bradshaw won four, and he’s nowhere near this list.\u00a0 Montana might have been a ‘system’ QB, but he was the first of his kind in Bill Walsh’s West Coast offense.\u00a0 That makes him special in my book.\u00a0 Sure he had great talent, so what?\u00a0 Football is different because he played.<\/p>\n

Elway<\/strong>-Yeah, I know he doesn’t have the numbers, but he had a unique set of skills.\u00a0 My all time favorite non-Colts game was the Elway\/Montana Monday Night shootout.\u00a0 Incredible game.\u00a0 When I was a kid, Elway was the man, and everyone knew it.\u00a0 The two late in his career championships directly lead to Favre coming back this year.\u00a0 Every old QB has hope for one more like John…<\/p>\n

Marino<\/strong>-Same boat as Elway.\u00a0 I don’t worry about the postseason nonsense.\u00a0 Marino was incredible.\u00a0 I saw him play a half dozen times live at least, and it was always a thrill.<\/p>\n

Staubauch<\/strong>-Way underrated.\u00a0 In doing my “Old Manning<\/a>” research, he was the player who fascinated me the most.\u00a0 His volume numbers were suppressed by a career in the Navy.\u00a0 No way I dock him for that!\u00a0 As a late bloomer, he gives hope to every 26 year old QB who hasn’t figured it out yet.<\/p>\n

Young<\/strong>-Again, I love me the passer rating and he’s #1 all time (sorry Aaron Rodgers, I’m not counting you yet).\u00a0 He could run and throw.\u00a0 He was accurate and could hurl the deep ball.\u00a0 He was good right up to the very end of his career.\u00a0 He may have been best two way threat from the QB position ever.\u00a0 Because he could throw better than run, I love him.<\/p>\n

Starr<\/strong>-If I have to acknowledge the Brady\/Aikman\/Bradshaw crowd, I’m going to put Starr on the board well before any of those guys.\u00a0 You want championships and post-season glory?\u00a0 He had his fill first.<\/p>\n

Tarkenton<\/strong>-Another giant.\u00a0 Still ranks high on the all time lists in a lot of stats despite decades of retirement.\u00a0 He may not have one THE big one, but he won plenty of big games along the way.<\/p>\n

Manning-<\/strong>He is altering the way football is played forever.\u00a0 To me that trumps everything else.\u00a0 I’ve never seen other coaches fear a player as much as they clearly fear him.<\/p>\n

The next tier for me is littered with right place\/right time guys:\u00a0 Brady, Aikman, Bradshaw types.\u00a0 Honestly, the two players most likely to break into my elite tier are Roethlisberger (if he stays healthy) and Brees (he lead the league in passer rating…of course I love him).\u00a0 I love Roethlisberger because as I’ve said many times, he does something Manning can’t.\u00a0 He is the only guy in the league who possesses a skill Manning doesn’t have…he’s a freak to tackle.\u00a0 It’ll get him killed before he’s 30, but I love the way he plays.\u00a0 I suppose Brady would make the tier if he wins big with the Pats fielding a mediocre defense. Those three have the best shot.<\/p>\n

Anyway, sorry for the generic ‘fan’ post with no real numbers or stats.\u00a0 It’s not my finest work, but consider it a conversation starter for the weekend.\u00a0 Until the book is done, I’m saving my heavy research.\u00a0 Next week I’ll get around to updating some of the preseason prediction pieces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whitlock has a top 10 of all time QB list out. I don’t want to split hairs with him; it’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[703639887],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colts-authority"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Best Ever - The Sports Daily<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/the-best-ever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Best Ever\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/the-best-ever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Sports Daily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-12T18:53:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/the-best-ever\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/the-best-ever\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alan Draper\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2c8aadde2571800d0de74323730df7b5\"},\"headline\":\"The Best Ever\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-02-12T18:53:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-02-12T18:53:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/the-best-ever\/\"},\"wordCount\":785,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Colts\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2010\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/the-best-ever\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/the-best-ever\/\",\"name\":\"The Best Ever - 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