4) Joe Montana
It’s quarterback time on the NFL Top-10 list, and we need to start with the NFL’s top-tier of all-time signal callers, which for me consists of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Joe Montana. Johnny Unitas played too long ago in a league that doesn’t remotely resemble the one we see today. John Elway won two titles, but his career passer rating is just 79.9. Brett Favre may have all the numbers right now, but in twenty years he has just one ring, and Favre’s play often was the reason his teams lost in the playoffs. On the other hand, Joe Montana was a guy who flourished under pressure, relished it. He went 16-7 in the playoffs and won three Super Bowl MVPs.
Montana, much like Brady, never possessed the howitzer arm like Elway, Favre, or Manning, but possessed guile, a feel for the game that allowed him to control the pace of every contest. When the 49ers or Chiefs needed a drive, Montana found a way to make it happen. Like a great scorer in basketball, it might be unorthodox, but it goes in the hole, and that’s all that matters.
In the four times Montana made the Super Bowl, he put the ball squarely in the hole. His Niners edged the Bengals twice by a total of 9 points (including a spectacular last minute drive) and also hammered the Dolphins 38-16 and the Broncos 55-10. He beat Elway, Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, and Ken Anderson in those Championship bouts, not bad competition.
Brady is this generation’s Montana—the two share eerily similar career trajectories—and they could easily be flip-flopped on my list. But since my feeling is simply that Montana had more talent to work with and Brady may add another ring or two to his collection, Montana ends up fourth after Brady.
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| #4 Joe Montana |
3) Tom Brady
Weeding through my top tier of quarterbacks and trying to decide on a “best,” my initial gut reaction was Montana because of the four rings, the absolute clutch play, and because he was the foundation of perhaps the NFL’s greatest dynasty. I’ve also argued Manning is the best quarterback all-time because he has four MVP awards and will eventually hold all the records Favre currently does and will have gotten them in a far more efficient fashion. But when I really thought about it, I don’t think Manning could have led the Patriots to a single title, and certainly Jerry Rice, John Taylor, Roger Craig et al. were a far better cast than Brady ever had on offense. Dallas Clark, Marvin Harrison, Edgerrin James, and Reggie Wayne were perennial All-Pros that Manning had at his disposal.
Brady’s three Super Bowl rings came with targets like Troy Brown, Deion Branch, Jermaine Wiggins, and Kevin Faulk. Brady made average football players into champions time after time, and the one-time he had a super-star teammate in Randy Moss, he led the Patriots to a perfect 16-0 regular season. Brady’s career winning percentage is 77%, Montana’s 71%, and Manning 67%. Also, Brady has gone 14-5 in the playoffs.
Clearly we are splitting hairs here. Manning has five combined MVPs and rings (four and one), Montana has two MVPs and four rings, and Brady has two and three. All pretty similar, but Brady did just as much as either of these two guys with far less talent around him.
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| #3 Tom Brady |
--from @AdamHocking
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