When it comes to greatness at the quarterback position, the ranking that matters the most is Super Bowl wins. That's why Tom Brady is considered the GOAT as he has put seven skins on the wall, three more than Joe Montana or Terry Bradshaw, and five more than Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes.
Analytics have changed the way football players are rated and ranked. This has largely been a good thing, as the basic numbers that were used for decades to look at the best players in the NFL have been supplemented by numbers that include speed, pass-catching range, strength, quickness, and ability to come through in clutch situations. This provides more depth and perspective. But at quarterbacks, it's still all about the big game.
Brady won six of his titles with the New England Patriots and picked up No. 7 while wearing the uniform of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That last championship allowed Brady to say that he won one of his titles without Bill Belichick, something that Belichick cannot say about his six championships on the head coaching front.
While Montana and Bradshaw lag behind Brady in Super Bowl titles, both of those quarterbacks went undefeated in their appearances in the big game. We are not about to make a case for Bradshaw — even though he threw a spectacular deep ball and was a tough-minded leader with the Steel Curtain teams. He was great, but those Steelers were arguably the toughest defensive teams to play the game
The case for Joe Montana as the NFL's best
A case can be made for Montana as being the best of all time. He was perfect in his four opportunities, while Brady went 7-3. The Niners were able to win two of their Super Bowls with Montana by big margins over the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos, and their two victories over the Cincinnati Bengals were close but clear-cut triumphs.
Five of Brady's Super Bowl victories with the Patriots were by one score, with the sixth and final coming by a 13-3 margin over the Los Angeles Rams. His one with the Bucs was a 31-9 blowout over Mahomes and the Chiefs in Super Bowl LV.
Brady suffered a pair of Super Bowl losses to the New York Giants and one to the Philadelphia Eagles. The 17-14 loss to New York in Super Bowl XLII will haunt Brady throughout the rest of his life since the Patriots were minutes away from a perfect 19-0-0 season that would have allowed them to join the 1972 Dolphins as the only teams with perfect records and Super Bowl championships.
He had his most prolific performance in the 41-33 loss to the Eagles in Super Bowl in Super Bowl LII. Brady completed 28 of 48 passes for 505 yards with 3 TDs and no interceptions, but Eagles backup quarterback Nick Foles threw for 373 yards with 3 TDs and also caught a TD pass to help his team overcome Brady and the Pats.
Patrick Mahomes has his opportunity to climb to the top of NFL mountain
Patrick Mahomes is going for his third Super Bowl title at the age of 28 as he completes his seventh NFL season. A win over the 49ers would allow Mahomes to tie Troy Aikman with a third Super Bowl trophy, and perhaps put him on track to mount his won assault on Brady for the GOAT title.
He certainly does not have to take a back seat to any of the game's great quarterbacks in the categories of creativity and inventiveness. No quarterbacks who have been to the top of the football world in the Super Bowl era have been close to Patrick Mahomes when it comes to improvising and coming up with a play when his team needs it most.
He is also near the top in the more traditional categories of arm strength, accuracy, and athleticism. Brady certainly had the accuracy to lead his team to seven Super Bowl wins, but he had the bare minimum amount of athleticism and a good but not great arm.
There are 13 quarterbacks who have won two or more Super Bowl titles. Here is how we rank them:
Player, team(s), (Super Bowl championships)
1. Joe Montana, SF (4)
2 . Tom Brady, NE-TB (7)
3. Patrick Mahomes, KC (2)
4. Peyton Manning, Ind.-Denver (2)
5. Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh (4)
6. Troy Aikman, Dallas (3)
7. Roger Staubach, Dallas (2)
8. John Elway, Denver (2)
9. Bart Starr, Green Bay (2)
10. Eli Manning, N.Y. Giants (2)
11. Jim Plunkett, Oakland-L.A. Raiders (2)
12. Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh (2)
13. Bob Griese, Miami (2)
Bears must know their plan at this point
After Patrick Mahomes finishes his Super Bowl run, the biggest offseason story in the NFL surrounds the Chicago Bears, who have the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NFL draft.
This is the same position they were in this year, but they traded that pick to the Carolina Panthers, who used it to select Bryce Young with the No. 1 pick.
The Bears could have held onto that pick and selected Young or C.J. Stroud with that choice. The former would have been a terrible move, but the latter would have turned the arc of the NFL's oldest franchise around.
The Bears now have Carolina's pick this season, and they are in the middle of a similar quarterback quandary this season.
Do they select USC quarterback Caleb Williams with the No. 1 pick, or do they hold on to incumbent quarterback Justin Fields and try to build a championship team around him?
Chicago general manager Ryan Poles is playing his cards quietly at this point because there's no use telling the rest of the NFL what he's going to do. However, he gave a pretty good hint at the end of January when the Bears hired Shane Waldron to be their new offensive coordinator in place of Luke Getsy.
If they were going to keep Fields based on the moderate improvement he demonstrated in 2023, it seems likely that they would have kept Getsy. But a new offensive coordinator means that the much greater likelihood is they will draft Williams.
“I don't have a pipeline to Poles, but Williams has too many of the measurable that we look for when drafting a quarterback,” said one AFC executive. “He has the kind of skill at the position that you want to see when you have a franchise quarterback. He can make all the throws, is more than athletic enough and he sees the field very well.
“Fields is a great athlete, but the Bears knew that when he was a rookie. They have to ask themselves if he will ever lead them deep into the playoffs or to a Super Bowl. If the answer is no, they have to find a new quarterback, and Williams looks like the real deal.”
Williams is not perfect and nothing is guaranteed. At 6-1 and 215 pounds, he is not a big quarterback. His accuracy could be an issue and he will have to demonstrate NFL-level leadership.
The selection of Waldron as the new offensive coordinator means the Bears have a new vision for the shape of their offense, and the team will almost certainly give him a new quarterback to demonstrate the way he thinks an offense should attack in today's version of the NFL.
This and that …
Gambling has always had a huge impact on the NFL.
But the growth of legalized betting has put an awful lot on Roger Goodell's plate. In addition to guiding the NFL to decisions about the growth of international relations and maximizing television revenue, Goodell has to keep the NFL shield clean.
The integrity of professional football clearly takes precedence to him, far more than the health and welfare of former players.
Any kind of gambling scandal could taint his leadership legacy, and that's why he has suspended or disciplined 13 players and fired more than two dozen individuals associated with teams or the league for gambling violations.
“We want to make sure that when people are watching NFL games, they know the action on the field is genuine and without any outside influence, ” Goodell said.
The belief here is that the NFL is quite diligent about its stance on players, team officials, and league employees gambling. But for all of its diligence and ability to monitor individual activities, it is possible for players to figure out how to place bets.
The cost for them could be prohibitive, but that doesn't mean players won't get involved in the future. Goodell is doing all he can to stop a major gambling scandal, but where there's a will, there's a way.
Follow Us
Subscribe