I recognize that many times people create arguments based on something other than logic and reason. Phrases like "greatest of all-time" become common place and thus lose their meaning. Certainly a 60 year-old Cowboys fan will argue that Roger Staubach was much better than Terry Bradshaw, but certainly the thought process to create that argument would involve a deep seething hatred for the Steelers. As I wrote previously, I believe Brett Favre is the greateset quarterback to have ever put on a jersey and my review of the fact may have been somewhat biased and my account of statistics somewhat cursory. In an effort to make a stronger point I, with the help of pro-football-reference.com, will attempt to show Brett Favre belongs not only in the discussion of greatest of all time, but is in fact THE greatest of all time. In order to do this, I will present facts and statistics, and then explain how relevant they are to our discussion.
With that in mind, in order to determine WHO the greatest is, we must first determine under what criteria is this to be decided. There are literally hundreds of statistics from which to choose, I will use and explain the importance of some of the most standard measuring tools we have for quarterbacks. Unfortunately, those old school NFL fans may be disappointed to see I have not included quarterbacks like Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham, or others from the pre-modern era. Peyton Manning could have played in the 50's, I'm convinced of it. Otto Graham could take a hit from Ray Lewis and walk again, end of discussion. Quarterbacks present an interesting problem in that regard. Many argue Don Hutson could take the field on Sunday and play for any NFL team with rumors he could run a sub-4.4 40. In other words, quarterbacks are different today than they've ever been; in this case, different is better...much better.
Games
The quarterback position provides a set of challenges, both physical and mental, unlike any other in sport. On any given play the quarterback has to make his players are in the right spots, how much time is on the play clock, remember the down and distance, determine what defense the other team is in, decide whether or not to audible, then on passing downs: determine protection schemes, look off the defense, make his reads, take his drop, set his feet, throw the ball with accuracy, timing, and touch THEN do it all over again with at least 4 guys trying to rip his head off. Guys like Warren Moon, Vinny Testaverde, and Johnny Unitas, played for years because they could do all of those things. The history of the NFL is littered with first round draft picks, even number 1 overall picks, who simply couldn't hack it either physically or mentally at the QB position in the NFL. Here is the list of the quarterbacks examined in order of most games played.
1. Brett Favre 247
2. Dan Marino 242
3. John Elway 234
4. Johnny Unitas 211
5. Joe Montana 192
6. Steve Young 169
7. Peyton Manning 149
***Through 6 weeks of 2007 NFL Season
I understand faulting Peyton Manning for not having played an entire career seems unfair, however he has yet to miss a start and is on pace to shatter just about every quarterback record imaginable. Keeping Peyton is necessary to show that having all the statistics does necessarily determine the greatest quarterback. One need only look to a case like baseball where Nolan Ryan holds numerous records, though many do not consider him the greatest pitcher of all time. Brett Favre has shown unique durability especially for the quarterback position, as he approaches the record for consecutive games started by a player at ANY position. Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Joe Montana among many others were forced from the game due to injury. One interesting note, Dan Marino is the only quarterback among those listed without a Super Bowl Ring. That is not a shot at Marino, but rather demonstrates that to play for any period of time, the quarterback, more than any other position, is tasked with "wins." That is the reason a quarterback accounts for wins as losses as we'll see later.
Completion Percentage
Rather than simply list the all time completion and attempts leaders, completion percentage allows us to include players like Steve Young and Peyton Manning, who simply don't have the attempts and completions necessary to be considered here. (It is worth noting that Brett Favre is the NFL's all time completion and attempts leader). Completion percentage refers to the rate at which a quarterback is able to complete his passes. This directly correlated to the efficiency with which a quarterback leads his team.
1. Steve Young 64.3%
2. Peyton Manning 64.2%
3. Joe Montana 63.2%
4. Brett Favre 61.2%
5.Dan Marino 59.4%
6.John Elway 56.9%
7. Johnny Unitas 54.6%
A number of interesting facts in this list seem to pop out. First, many do not know Steve Young actually had a higher completion percentage for his career than Joe Montana and held a number of completion percentage related records, many of which Peyton has or probably will break. One might think John Elway would be higher on the list, however Elway completed over 60% of his passes only 3 times in 16 seasons, while Brett Favre did so 11 times in 17 seasons(Favre is also on pace to do it for a 12th time this season). The man many consider to be the architect of the QB position, Johnny U, is a disappointing 7th, completing under 55% of his passes. This comes in an era without zone blitzes, cover 2, and 280 pounds rush ends who can run 4.5 40's. Unitas draws praise for being a leader and a winner, but in a time when the quarterback was to prevent his team from losing more than help his team win (that dreaded "game manager moniker) Unitas seems to come up short of modern QB's.
Yards
Understanding "yards" in and of itself may not be a worthy criterion essentially because the longer one plays the the more yards one is likely to accumulate, yards per game will be a suitable alternative. It is the quarterbacks job to make sure the offense moves up and down the field. In order to do this, he must wrack up yards in the process. (Of our QB's only Marino, Favre, and Elway have over 50,000 career yards and Favre sits a little more than 2,000 yards from breaking Marino's NFL record for career yards).
1. Peyton Manning 261.11
2.Dan Marino 253.56
3.Brett Favre 239.74
4. John Elway 219.98
5. Joe Montana 211.20
6. Steve Young 196.00
7. Johnny Unitas 190.71
Again, Unitas simply does not measure up statistically with modern quarterbacks. Other than Peyton Manning and Steve Young, he attempted and completed less passes than anyone on our list, but as you'll see later, threw more than his fair share of interceptions. It should come as no surprise Favre and Marino are in the top 3, however Manning's presence also makes sense. Perhaps more startling, is the fact tat after Brett Favre there is a precipitous drop off. John Elway threw for nearly 20 yards less per game and Montana nearly 30. The fact that this statistic is pro-rated, takes out much of the discussion about inflated yardage numbers. Favre and Marino top the all-time yardage lists, but played longer than guys like Montana and Young. While one could argue that, in and of itself, is credit to the staying power of Favre and Marino, but making it yards per games played, we can better understand what each quarterback brought to his team on a game to game basis.
Touchdowns
With that, we find ourselves moving the ball down the field and wishing to score. Touchdowns have to be examined on a number of different levels. If we were to simply list the all time touchdown leaders, the list would not surprise with Favre, Marino, and Elway leading the way in that order. While Favre and Marino are the only QB's on the list with more than 301 touchdowns (Favre:423, Marino:420), again we are going to create a ratio to better level the comparison. To do this we will examine each quarterback's touchdown per attempt ratios. This way we can account for those quarterbacks with less attempts due to playing fewer downs. The key is to have the fewest attempts per touchdown.
1. Peyton Manning 17.73:1
2. Steve Young 17.88:1
3. Johnny Unitas 18.23:1
4. Joe Montana 19.74:1
5. Dan Marino 19. 90:1
6. Brett Favre 20.02:1
7. John Elway 24.16:1
While Favre and Marino have by far the highest touchdown totals, they have some of the highest attempt per touchdown ratios. While this does not necessarily constitute a failure or lack of consistency on their part, it does speak to the relative efficiency of their peers. Joe Montana boasts a better ratio than both, but again Steve Young bests him. This continues to prove my theory that Joe Montana is the most overrated quarterback in NFL history. Johnny Unitas finally makes an appearance in our top 3. Unitas threw more touchdowns in his career than both Montana and Young, yet attempted and completed less passes than both of them. John Elway stands alone with a remarkable 24.16 ratio more than 4 attempts more than Favre. The gap from Favre to Elway is actually larger than the gap from Peyton to Favre. #7 only threw 20 or more touchdowns 6 times in his career, something Favre(his closest place holder on this list) did 13 times. Favre actually threw for 30 touchdowns more times (7) than Elway did 20 (6), and actually threw 30+ touchdowns in 5 consecutive seasons. This disparity comes with only 13 games played separating the two.
Interceptions
Nothing kills a team more than turnovers, especially by the quarterback. Interceptions can ruin drives, seasons, even careers. A propensity to turn the ball over can show a lack of discipline or simply an incapability to make the proper reads and throws. Again, career interception totals prove misleading. Brett Favre heads the only list he'd rather be left off, but the fallibility of such examinations also bears itself out. Peyton Manning and Joe Montana have similar career numbers right now. Manning has 285 TD's to 141 INT's, a more than 2-1 touchdown to interception ratio, in 149 games. In his career, Joe Montana threw 272 touchdowns and 139 INT's, a 1.96 touchdown to interception ratio. Hoever, Montana threw 2 less interceptions in 43 fewer games, and has a lower attempt per interception rate by nearly 3 attempts. While there is no real way to quantitatively account for interceptions, we will compare attempt per interceptions ratios first, then a secondary measurement to put things into perspective.
1. Steve Young 38.78:1
Joe Montana 38.78:1
3. Peyton Manning 35.85:1
4. Dan Marino 33.16:1
5. John Elway 32.07:1
6. Brett Favre 30.26:1
7. Johnny Unitas 20.89:1
Steve Young actually edges Joe Montana because Young 38.78 is actually 38.779 and rounds to 38. Steve Young continues to beat out Montana in our lists and Johnny U continues to struggle. Unitas has far and away the worst percentage, when this format was supposed to account for his lack of attempts. For his career, only Favre has thrown more picks than Unitas and threw one more than Marino in 3,000 fewer attempts.
So far, it may seem as though I am disproving my own argument for Brett Favre as the greatest of all time. From an average standpoint, the categories we've discussed so far, the list would look like this:
1. Peyton Manning
2. Steve Young
3. Joe Montana
4. Dan Marino
5. Brett Favre
6. John Elway
7. Johnny Unitas
However, the statistics above do not begin to explain the last list. Many so-called experts consider Elway and Unitas ahead of everyone on that list with the possible exception of Joe Montana. That is because we have left out the most important aspect of what it is to be a quarterback.
Wins
The famous quote by Vince Lombardi about winning being the only thing rings are true today as it did when he said it. He had one of the all-time great winners at the QB position in Bart Starr, and I would catch flack from my grandpa if he knew I were leaving Starr off this list. Brett Favre recently passed John Elway and Fran Tarkenton on the NFL all-time wins list. Elway we certainly think of as a winner, but Tarkenton's horrendous efforts in Super Bowls have tarnished his legacy somewhat. Again, we have to find a ratio that works to accommodate those with fewer games played. However, it must be noted that just because one plays longer does not necessarily mean he will accumulate more wins. It is a fact that a quarterback has an equal chance of accumulating wins and losses as his career moves forward since on any given weekend he could win or lose. This is a case where Brett Favre's perch as the winningest quarterback in league history is owed the kind of reverence we give all-time great winners. For the sake of consistency however, the list is as follows:
1. Joe Montana 71.34%
2. Brett Favre 65.51%
3. Peyton Manning 64.63%
4. Dan Marino 63.36%
5. John Elway 63.24%
6. Johnny Unitas 56.40%
Brett Favre is only total handful of wins ahead of John Elway on the all time list, yet is almost 2.5% points ahead of him in terms of winning percentage. How can this be explained?? How can a quarterback who throws interceptions win so much? The answer is not quite as simple as looking stats from Elias Sports. Brett Favre makes his teams better. He has experienced a losing season just ONCE in his career.
Winning defines a quarterback. For better or for worse, we give quarterbacks the credit for winning and the blame for losing. No one has taken both with more professionalism and grace than Brett Favre. No one has ever wanted to win more than Brett Favre and no one has won more than Brett Favre. Only Joe Montana has won at a higher rate than Favre, and he did so with a glut of talent, the likes of which Favre never experienced. Favre was the leader and the catalyst. Montana simply directed a who's who list of talent rich football orchestra. Favre was forced to make music with garbage cans and plastic tubes like the blue man group.
He makes his teammates better because he is willing to take risks, fight for his teammates, and put them in position to make plays. He's done this all without the kind of weapons his peers have experienced.
Weapons
Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrisson are the highest scoring QB-WR tandem in history with Steve Young and Jerry Rice holding that position for a decade. Joe Montana also had the pleasure of throwing to Rice, on some of the most talented offensive teams of all times. Roger Craig, John Tyler, Jerry Rice and other litter the cast of offensive weapons Montana had to go along with the greatest coaching staff ever assembled in the history of sport. At one point in time Dan Marino and Mark Clayton formed the highest scoring tandem in history, although Marino never had the kind of receivers his counterparts did. Johnny Unitas to Raymond Berry ranks 5th on the list all time. Elway didn't win until he started handing the ball to Terrell Davis who, if he had stayed healthy, would be a hall of famer. Elway's Super Bowl rings also came during the height of Hall of Fame careers from Shannon Sharpe and Rod Smith. Elway took advantage of a weak AFC early in his career in his Super Bowl runs, eventually getting drubbed by NFC opponents.
Brett Favre has played with no offensive Hall of Fame players and only a hand full of Pro Bowl skill position players. Reggie White is the best player ever to play on a Favre lead team, and the two only played together a handful of seasons. As Tom Brady shreds defenses, the question is being asked "What if Brady had Peyton's weapons?" When Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith were the best running backs in the game, many wondered, "What if Sanders had Smith's line?" What if Favre had been throwing to Harrison,Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, and Brandon Stokley, or handing the ball to Terrell Davis or Roger Craig? Would this discussion even be close?Favre made his teammates better because he trusted them and they trusted him. Brett may have thrown picks, but he also threw touchdowns and won games. He won games like no one else and was/is electric to watch do so. Even at 38, he's having an MVP type season on the youngest team in pro football. How can that be explained? Because Brett makes his team better. No single player in the history of the game has had more of an impact on the success of his team. Without Brett Favre, the Packers would have had top 10 draft pick after top 10 draft pick in the early 90's and may be a solid team right now, but Brett Favre lead the Packers back to glory, won a title, 3 MVP's threw broke every record imaginable, and took his team to the playoffs year in and year out. Literally hundreds of quarterbacks have started in the NFL since Brett took over the reigns in Green Bay. No one has done for his team what Brett Favre has, perhaps in the history of the game. Brett Favre has accounted for more wins for his team than any single player in history. It is fitting that the leagues only player in history to be the league three straight most valuable player awards, may be the most valuable player the league has even seen.
