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Ranking the greatest quarterbacks is a winning proposition
Sporting News, The, Oct 11, 2004 by Troy Aikman
So, the SPORTING NEWS has ranked the top 50 quarterbacks of all time in its new yearbook, Pro Football's Greatest Quarterbacks. As I said in this space two weeks ago, judging quarterbacks is a tricky proposition. Statistics are weighted too heavily, mainly because of the different offensive systems and eras in which guys played. Comparing stats of contemporary players is difficult enough; it's impossible when players' careers are separated by decades.
Still, it's an interesting list (see the top 10 on page 16). The guys who did the voting must have taken into account the importance of factors other than stats because some players who didn't have huge numbers are ranked pretty high. That's good to see. Winning is the most important factor in grading a quarterback, but there are other key elements: his ability to lead and inspire, to make the players around him better, to put his team in the best position to succeed.
It's hard to argue with Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana and Otto Graham as 1-2-3 on the list. You could make a case that Graham should be at the top because no one was a bigger winner than him. During his 10 seasons with the Cleveland Browns, he played in 10 league championship games and won seven of them. Amazing! But I never saw him play. And I never saw Unitas play. That's why, if it were up to me, I'd make Montana No. 1. I watched his whole career. When you take into account what I think is important--and maybe even a stat or two--he's the gold standard.
And yet this whole thing is so debatable. Archie Manning barely made the list, at No. 49, and who's to say he wasn't the greatest quarterback ever? He never played on a winning team, but maybe he had greater skills than anybody else and was held back by a thin roster. We'll never know.
Most of the guys on the list were surrounded by great talent. I'll be the first to say my career benefited from the presence of guys like Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin and Jay Novacek. Just like Montana benefited from Jerry Rice, John Taylor and Roger Craig. These teams won championships, but as we see with Manning, there are so many factors affecting a quarterback's "greatness" that even winning isn't a totally objective criterion.
But it's the best one we have.
The Troy Aikman Show airs at 5 p.m. ET every Thursday through the Super Bowl on Sporting News Radio. Listen online at radio.sportingnews.com.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Sporting News Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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