The Greatest NFL Quarterbacks Of All Time
An absolute monster when it came to racking up offense, Favre threw for at least 3,200 yards in every season from 1992 to 2009, also topping 30 passing touchdowns in nine of those seasons. Of course, he also threw more interceptions and pick sixes than anyone in NFL history, but his career interception rate — compared to the obscene number of passes he was throwing each year — isn’t bad.
Favre sits comfortably in the top five all-time in career passing touchdowns, passing yards, pass attempts and completions. He only won a single Super Bowl, famously bringing the Packers back to relevance in the 1990s, but sits at third all-time in playoff passing yards.
“Slingin'” Sammy was one of the NFL’s first true stars and he paved the way for future star quarterbacks who could take over a game.
He played his entire career for the Washington Redskins, winning two NFL championships in the pre-Super Bowl era. In 16 seasons, he led the league in completion percentage eight times and in passer rating six times, which is still a record. Baugh was also a first team All-Pro six times, showing how impressive his style was compared to other QBs at the time. In the end, Baugh threw more interceptions than touchdowns but his impact on the game is nearly immeasurable, ensuring his place in the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
No quarterback in NFL history has ever taken better care of the ball than Aaron Rodgers. He holds the league’s all-time best career passer rating and interception percentage.
But just because he almost never throws picks and has never led the league in passing yardage doesn’t mean he is conservative with the ball. Since 2008, Rodgers has thrown for at least 3,800 yards in 10 seasons, which is every season in which he’s started at least 15 games. Still in his prime, he currently sits at 10th all-time in completion percentage and 13th in passing yards.
Rodgers hasn’t had the luxury of playing on many great teams — resulting in just one Super Bowl win and a 10-8 career playoff record — but he has almost never caused his team to lose a game.
In 16 seasons, John Elway compiled a massive amount of passing statistics and wins, leading to perhaps the greatest finish to a career in NFL history.
The Denver Broncos icon passed for more than 3,000 yards in all but four seasons, somehow only leading the league in that stat once. He still ranks in the top 10 all-time in passing yards, pass attempts and completions but was perhaps most impressive when games were on the line. He is ranked sixth all-time in leading comebacks and seventh all-time in game-winning drives.
After losing three Super Bowls in his career, Elway won back-to-back titles and retired.
“Captain America” got a later start than most in the NFL after serving a tour of duty in Vietnam with the U.S. Navy. He didn’t play as a rookie until he was 27 years old, making his career numbers even more impressive and making you wonder how much higher they’d be if he’d joined the league earlier.
In 11 NFL seasons — all with the Dallas Cowboys — Staubach’s team went to the Super Bowl five times, winning two of them. If he hadn’t run into the “Steel Curtain” defense, he could have won four. He wasn’t a crazy prolific passer, never leading the league in passing yardage, but he led the league in passer rating four times. Staubach’s gift was winning games, as he was victorious in nearly 75 percent of all the regular-season games in which he started.
The greatest quarterback who never won a Super Bowl, Marino was a force for his entire 17-season NFL career.
His incredible 5,084 passing yards in 1984 was the league’s single-season record for 27 years — and the 48 touchdowns he threw that year was a record for 20 years. He led the league in passing yards five times, throwing for at least 3,500 yards every time he started all 16 games in a season, including six seasons of at least 4,000 passing yards. For now, he continues to sit in the NFL’s top five for career passing yards, passing touchdowns, pass attempts and completions. His legacy gets hurt by his 8-10 career playoff record and middling touchdown-interception ratio in those games.
Looking at Drew Brees’ career statistics will take the breath away from any numbers freak. He’s the NFL’s all-time best in terms of career passing touchdowns, passing yards, passing yards per game and completion percentage.
Despite all the passes he throws, he’s got the third-best career passer rating in league history. In an era where ridiculous quarterback stats are almost commonplace, he’s led the league in passing yards seven times, throwing for at least 4,000 yards in every season from 2006-2017. Brees is also the only quarterback in NFL history to throw for more than 5,000 yards in multiple seasons, having done it an unbelievable five times.
He’s only won a single Super Bowl, but in terms of pure quarterback play, it’s very hard to argue with Brees’ career numbers, especially given the fact that most people can’t name many of the skill-position players he’s been surrounded by in his NFL tenure.
No quarterback in NFL history has won as often as Otto Graham did.
Starting for the Cleveland Browns from 1946 to 1955, Graham won a record 81.4 percent of his starts and led the team to a league championship appearance every season, winning seven of them, including three NFL titles. He averaged 2,358 passing yards per season in his career, leading the league in that category five times and he still holds the all-time quarterback record for yards per pass attempt. Nobody could deny Graham’s dominance at the position, which is why he was selected to a record seven All-Pro first teams.
One of the first star quarterbacks of the NFL’s modern era, “Johnny U” consistently led the Baltimore Colts to victory in his lengthy career, racking up stats in the meantime.
Unitas was selected as a first-team All-Pro five times, which is second in history among quarterbacks, and he was a three-time MVP and four-time NFL champion, including one Super Bowl victory. He led the league in passing yards and passing touchdowns four times, with his career marks in both still standing in the top 20 all-time despite him not playing a down in 45 years.
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