The Greatest NFL Quarterbacks Of All Time
One of the most reliable passers in NFL history, in 18 NFL seasons, Fran Tarkenton finished in the league’s top-10 leading passers 17 times.
He only led the league in passing yardage once and it was in his final season at the age of 38, when he turned in a career-high 3,468 yards. A legendary Minnesota Vikings star, Tarkenton led that franchise to three of the four Super Bowls it has ever reached, unfortunately losing in all of them. When he retired, Tarkenton owned nearly every major record a quarterback can have: pass attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns, rushing yards and wins.
After unequaled success in the Canadian Football League, where he won five championships, Warren Moon went on to have a great career in the NFL despite having virtually no playoff success.
Moon threw for more than 3,000 yards every time he played a 16-game season and topped the 4,000-yard mark four times. Moon’s gun-slinging style led to a fair share of interceptions and an average career passer rating but he was extremely popular, being named to nine Pro Bowls. Moon currently sits at 10th all-time in NFL career passing yards and 10th all-time in game-winning drives led.
If he hadn’t spent six years playing in the CFL, it’s scary to think what his final NFL totals would’ve been.
For eight out of 11 of his NFL seasons, Jim Kelly passed for at least 3,000 yards and averaged about 3,200 yards per season for his career. He also led the Buffalo Bills to the Super Bowl four times, which means he made it to the big game in more than one-third of all the seasons he played. Of course, the Bills lost all four times and Kelly didn’t play at his best in them, but he clearly had a gift for winning in the regular season and playoffs.
Always dangerous, especially in the biggest games, Kurt Warner is 1-2 in Super Bowls but turned in three of the all-time greatest quarterback performances in the big game.
Warner’s career was injury plagued — he only played a full, 16-game season three times — but he led some of the most explosive offenses in recent memory, including the “Greatest Show on Turf” with the St. Louis Rams. He was named NFL MVP twice and his career completion percentage of 65.5 is the highest of any current Hall of Famer and is currently fourth best in league history. He averaged 385 yards passing in his three Super Bowl appearances and his 1,156 career yards gained are second only to Tom Brady in Super Bowl history.
Arguably the league’s earliest long-ball passer, Jurgensen was a legend with the Eagles and Redskins who posted a career losing record as a starter but was still a marvel. He led the league in passing yardage five times, topping 3,000 yards in all those seasons, and was a touchdown machine. His 255 career passing touchdowns total still put him at 19th all-time, despite playing during the so-called “dead-ball era,” when running backs ruled the league.
While with the Eagles in 1960, he won his lone NFL championship, handing Vince Lombardi’s Packers their only playoff loss ever.
Severely overlooked because he never won the big game, Eagles legend Donovan McNabb is one of only four quarterbacks in NFL history to collect 30,000 passing yards, 200 passing touchdowns, 3,000 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns — and all of them are on this list.
He’s tied with Jim Kelly as the QB with the most playoff wins with no ring and finished his career with more passing yards and a better passer rating than that Hall of Famer. In 2004, McNabb had one of the greatest seasons a quarterback has ever had, becoming the first ever to throw for more than 30 touchdowns and less than 10 interceptions. For some reason, he’s still not in the Hall.
When “Big Ben” eventually retires, he will be ranked near the very top of virtually every passing statistic the NFL tracks. He’s won a pair of Super Bowl rings and managed to stay in step with contemporaries like Brady, Brees, Rodgers and Manning in terms of regular-season passing numbers. He’s only led the league in passing yards once but topped 3,000 yards in every season from 2006-2018 — and topped 4,000 yards six times in that span.
Roethlisberger is best known for his play when games are on the line, as he is currently ranked sixth all-time in comebacks and game-winning drives led.
Despite all he’s accomplished in the league since entering it in 2012, Russell Wilson remains somewhat underrated compared to his peers.
He’s never missed a start in his career so far and has thrown for at least 3,000 yards and 20 touchdowns every year. He’s also never had a passer rating below 92.6 for a season and has averaged nearly 500 rushing yards per season in that span. In league history, the only quarterback with a higher career passer rating is Aaron Rodgers.
Add to those numbers the fact that Wilson has won a Super Bowl — and was a yard away from winning a second — and you’ve got to count him among the all-time greats.
Pittsburgh Steelers lifer Terry Bradshaw benefited greatly from being surrounded by Hall-of-Fame offensive skill players and one of the greatest defenses in history. He never led the league in passing yards or passer rating — and his career total for both of those stats won’t blow you away — but he never lost in the big games. He guided the Steelers to four Super Bowls and won every one of them.
You can knock Bradshaw for throwing nearly as many interceptions as touchdowns in his career, but with that defense backing him up, who can blame him for taking some risks?
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