The Top 10 Quarterbacks of All Time | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
There are a handful of players who didn't make this list but would no doubt appear in other top 10s. These signal-callers would have been included in a list of the 15 greatest passers in NFL history and remain some of the most impressive players in football history.
Joe Namath
Broadway Joe finished his career with 27,663 yards, 173 touchdowns, 220 interceptions and a passer rating of 65.5. That high interception rate (5.8 percent) is one of the reasons he didn't crack the top 10. In fact, he's the only passer on this list to have thrown more picks than touchdowns throughout his career.
Still, there's no denying that Joe Namath had a cannon for an arm, becoming the first pro quarterback to hit 4,000 yards in a season in 1967, per Chris Greenberg of the Huffington Post. He called his shot when he guaranteed the New York Jets would win Super Bowl III—he was also named MVP of that game.
Some will argue that if Aaron Rodgers can be included on this list, so can Drew Brees. There's no question that the future Hall of Famer will go down as one of the all-time great quarterbacks. Heading into the 2017 season, he's passed for 66,111 yards and 465 touchdowns, with 220 interceptions and a passer rating of 96.3.
His mechanics, despite his height (listed at 6'0"), comprise one of his most impressive strengths. He also helped lead his team to victory in Super Bowl XLIV and was named MVP of that game. So why is Brees so underrated? Is he a product of a New Orleans system that inflates passing statistics? Is it because the Saints are so rarely contenders?
There's definitely a case for Brees to round out this list in place of Otto Graham or Roger Staubach, but it might take the perspective that only time gives for his career to take its place in the top 10.
Bart Starr
He won Super Bowls I and II and five league championships overall and has the highest postseason passer rating of any quarterback to this day (104.8). There's no question that Bart Starr was a winner. He also called one of the most famous, effective plays of all time in the infamous Ice Bowl against the Dallas Cowboys in 1967.
So why doesn't Starr crack the top 10? Though he has the wins, his stats don't approach the other passers' on this list: 24,718 yards, 152 touchdowns, 138 interceptions and a completion percentage of 57.4. He also benefited from being on one of the most talented teams in NFL history under one of its greatest coaches in Vince Lombardi.
Still, Starr's name deserves to be in the conversation.
