Top 10 All-Time QBs: All hail Johnny Unitas

Prior to the 2009 Super Bowl, a friend of mine said he was going to write a column proclaiming Peyton Manning as the greatest quarterback in NFL history. I told him he was welcome to it ... only there was something he might want to remember.

Manning wasn't the greatest quarterback in his own franchise's history.

John Unitas was, and if you're going to name Manning the best of all time, what do you do with Unitas? You spike the column, that's what.

Look, everyone has an opinion on the subject, and while Manning is marvelous he falls short in the all-important category that defines quarterbacks and head coaches.

I'm talking about championships.

[Prisco's Top 100 NFL players]

Jim Plunkett won two of them and isn't in the Hall of Fame, and two generally is the launching point for the Best of the Best. John Unitas won three. Otto Graham won six, including three in the AAFC. Joe Montana won four.

I think you get the idea. Until or unless you produce multiple championships you're not going to crack the top tier ... which means Manning must wait.

One of the best ever? Absolutely. One of the five best? Nope. So let's see who is.

No. 1: John Unitas

Former NFL coach Dan Henning once asked a group of writers to pick one quarterback -- any quarterback -- for a game-winning drive. A couple took Unitas. Two more chose Joe Montana. There was a Ken Stabler vote -- and a John Elway vote -- and one each for Dan Marino and Joe Namath. Anyway, when the polls closed, Henning nodded and started to walk away.

"Hey," I said, "you haven't told us whom you'd choose."

Henning stopped and turned around.

"Easy," he said. "There was no one better than Unitas."

I'll second that. He won three NFL championships, including "The Greatest Game Ever Played" in 1958, a nationally televised defeat of the New York Giants that took pro football from stadiums into America's living rooms, and he threw a touchdown pass in an NFL-record 47 straight games. He was Johnny U., the quiet assassin, and you better hope he didn't have a chance to beat you with two minutes left.

Because he would.

Unitas' numbers weren't staggering in comparison with today's quarterbacks, but it was a different game played under different rules. Quarterbacks didn't run horizontal passing attack; they went vertical -- or deep -- and receivers weren't covered as much as they were mugged. Yet nobody was more dangerous than Unitas, who was tough, smart and one of the strongest, most confident and most successful leaders on any playing field.

When people ask me if I've seen his numbers, I tell them I don't bother. I saw him play. Case closed.

No. 2: Otto Graham

I once remember seeing a list like this and asking my father whom he'd nominate as the greatest quarterback he saw. I thought he'd start with Johnny U., but he did not. He started with Otto Graham.

"All he did," he said, "was win."

In 10 seasons, Graham took the Cleveland Browns to 10 championship games -- and I don't care what league you're in; I'm sold.

We live in a Fantasy Football era where numbers and statistics predominate, but the numbers that matter most are championships. Sorry, but that's how coaches and quarterbacks in pro football are measured, and Graham aces that test. He was 7-3 in championship games and won an NFL-record 83.4 percent of all starts.

OK, I know what you're saying: He played a substantial portion of that career in the All-America Football Conference. Yeah, so what? He won there. Then he went to the NFL and won there. In six NFL seasons he went to six NFL championship games.

Graham was a born winner, and he proved it by playing one year of pro basketball with the Rochester Royals -- a season when they won the NBA title. In his 10 years with the Browns they were 105-17-4, and, I don't know about you, but I want a quarterback who knows how to win and win big games ... and that's Otto Graham.

No. 3: Joe Montana

Montana was 4-0 in Super Bowls, and while that was impressive this is what jumps out at you: He never threw an interception in any of those games. You heard me. Zilch. He had 11 touchdown passes, no interceptions and is the only player in league history to be named Super Bowl MVP three times.

Now you know why he was chosen to the league's 75th anniversary team, along with Graham, Unitas and Sammy Baugh.

Montana was Joe Cool, the unflappable third-round draft pick who picked up a struggling franchise and brought it four Lombardi Trophies in nine years and 31 fourth-quarter comebacks -- including a memorable victory in 1980, his first season of starting, when the 49ers met New Orleans.

In that game, the Saints led 35-7 at the half. When it was over, San Francisco somehow pulled off a 38-35 come-from-behind miracle, thanks, of course, to Montana.

But he was at his best when games were most meaningful, setting playoff records for touchdowns passes (45) and games with a passer ratings greater than 100 (12). In four Super Bowls, he achieved a rating of 127.8, setting that game's record for most passes without an interception (122), and he tied Bradshaw's postseason record for consecutive games with at least two touchdowns passes in each (7).

"I've never really considered anyone at the same level as Joe," former 49ers teammate and star receiver Dwight Clark said.

Look at his accomplishments, and you can understand why.

No. 4: John Elway

When then-Colts' general manager Ernie Accorsi withstood pressure to trade the first of the 1983 draft and chose Elway, he did it for all the right reasons: He had a conviction in Elway and believed he could resurrect the franchise.

"I don't want my grave to read: 'Here lies the man who traded away the next Johnny Unitas,' " Accorsi said then.

No need to worry there. Accorsi didn't trade away Elway. Then-owner Robert Irsay did. Plus, Elway wasn't the next Unitas -- though he was damn good.

He started in an NFL-record five Super Bowls, winning his last two, and he did it by carrying the Broncos on his back. You think I'm kidding? Tell me how many Hall-of-Fame wide receivers came from Elway's teams. Answer: As many as his Hall-of-Fame running backs.

None.

Elway is tied with Unitas with 34 come-from-behind victories in the fourth quarter or overtime and is the only player in league history to throw for 3,000 yards and rush for 200 in each of seven straight years. But this is what I like most about the guy: He knew how to win, with a career record of 148-82-1.

No. 5: Tom Brady

There is no better quarterback in today's game. He has the highest winning percentage among active passers. He has as many Super Bowl appearances as Elway. He holds the league record for touchdowns in one year. He once went 358 straight passes in regular-season play without an interception. He threw six touchdowns in one game, including five in one quarter. He threw for 517 yards in another. He won 31 straight regular-season games at home. He's the league's only unanimous MVP. And he's 16-6 in the playoffs, including 3-2 in Super Bowls, and, yeah, that's what separates him from the field.

Brady won three Super Bowls by the age of 28 and had a streak of 10 straight postseason victories stopped in the 2005 playoffs. Football is a team game, but I don't know how many individuals determine the success of their franchises as significantly as Brady does. When he stepped into the lineup in 2001, the Patriots were 1-2. And they were 5-11 the year before. Since that time, they're 124-35 with Brady and won the AFC East all but once in the last nine years -- or the one season Brady bowed out after the season opener.

Connect the dots, people.

Brady could be -- should be -- an MVP finalist every year because he carries the New England Patriots, a club that hasn't ever surrounded him with all-star casts. I mean, tell me how many future Hall of Famers you see there now? Uh-huh, which is pretty much standard operating procedure. The team that last year had the 31st-ranked defense and 31st-ranked pass defense still made it to another Super Bowl, and we all know the reason. You're looking at him.

No. 6: Sammy Baugh

It's difficult to know what to do with Baugh, who was the greatest quarterback of his generation, but it's not difficult to understand why he belongs here -- because he was way, way ahead of his time.

Baugh was the first quarterback to turn the forward pass into a weapon and was so effective that, as a rookie, he not only led the Washington Redskins to a league championship game vs. Chicago; he won it by throwing for 355 yards, including second-half TDs of 55, 68 and 33 yards.

The man could do everything. He was a star quarterback. He led the league in punting. And he led the league in interceptions. In fact, in one memorable 1943 contest he threw four touchdown passes and had four interceptions.

"There's nobody any better than Sammy Baugh was in pro football," former receiver Don Maynard said in a 2002 interview.

Baugh led the Redskins to five championship games, two of which they won. He led the NFL six times in passing and was named to seven All-Pro teams. But this is what I find intriguing: In 1945 he set a league record by completing 70.33 percent of his passes, a mark that stood until Cincinnati's Ken Anderson broke it in 1982 (70.55).

So what? So the ball that Baugh threw more closely resembled a watermelon, fat in the middle and rounder at the ends than today's model, which made it difficult to spiral. Only Baugh had no trouble, setting two records that still stand. One is those six passing titles, a mark equaled by Steve Young, and the other is for most seasons (five) leading the league with the lowest interception percentage.

No. 7: Roger Staubach

I'm not sure who's the most underrated quarterback in NFL history -- Staubach or Bart Starr. All these guys did was win games, and they won a lot of them. Staubach's career lasted only 11 years because he first had to complete his service in the U.S. Navy, including a tour in Vietnam. But when he finally made it to the NFL there were few better.

He won four passing titles, produced one of the game's best-ever winning records (85-29) and led the Cowboys to four Super Bowls -- two of which he won. When he retired he had the highest passer rating in NFL history, and he went out with a flourish: In his last pro season, he set career highs in completions, yards and passing touchdowns.

He was never better than when it mattered, leading the Cowboys to 23 fourth-quarter winning drives -- including 17 in the last two minutes. Staubach could run. He could pass. And he could win. In fact, in his last four years he was a combined 45-14, winning passing titles his last two seasons. No wonder coach Tom Landry once described him as "possibly the best combination of a passer, an athlete and a leader to ever play in the NFL."

No. 8: Bart Starr

Starr often gets lost in talk about the game's greatest quarterbacks because people figure that virtually anybody could've quarterbacked the Packers' teams of the 1960s to championships ... only they're wrong. Green Bay didn't become Titletown until then-coach Vince Lombardi replaced LaMar McHan with Starr, who then led the Packers to their first of six NFL championship games in eight years, with Green Bay winning five in a span of seven years.

Like Unitas, Starr called his own plays -- including the game-winning quarterback sneak in "The Ice Bowl" that beat Dallas in the 1967 NFL title game -- and he was accurate, with an NFL-best 57.4 completion percentage when he retired in 1972.

Like Unitas, he was extraordinarily successful when it counted, too. His 104.8 career passer rating in postseason play is second only in league history to Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers, and his 9-1 playoff record speaks for itself. His only loss was his first NFL title game in 1960 vs. Philadelphia. He never dropped a playoff game afterward.

No. 9: Peyton Manning

I like virtually everything about Manning: His knowledge and appreciation of the game's history, his ability to call his own plays, his decorum on and off the field, his uncanny accuracy with a football, his 11 seasons with 4,000 yards passing, his four perfect passer ratings, his seven straight seasons with 12 or more wins as a starter ... OK, I think you get it. The guy is and has been extraordinary.

But this is one thing I don't like: 9-10. That's his playoff record, and it includes a 1-1 performance in Super Bowls. Sorry, but you're not a Top-Five quarterback unless you step it up in big games, and Manning has a checkered record in that department.

His brother, Eli, is 8-3 in playoff starts, with one more Super Bowl victory than Peyton, but he's not in this conversation -- not yet -- and here's why: Big Brother won an NFL record four MVP awards and walked off with three passing titles. Plus, he's 141-67 in regular-season play and was everything to Indianapolis -- a team that reached the playoffs nine straight times under his direction but that cratered the moment he sat down.

You can look it up. The 2009 AFC South champions one year later sank to their worst record since 1991 (2-14), sans Peyton.

Manning's record for durability is remarkable, with the guy playing 208 consecutive games before he was forced to sit down, and he's been exceptionally consistent throughout his career. But he's exceptionally inconsistent in the playoffs, not winning a postseason game until his sixth season as a starter, and that's what holds him back.

No. 10: Terry Bradshaw

This is another example where people are going to wave numbers at you, saying the guy threw only two more touchdown passes in his career than interceptions, but let me repeat: The number that matters is championships, and Bradshaw won four of them in six seasons -- two of them with running offenses and two with passing offenses.

In fact, he never lost a Super Bowl, and while he produced only 300 yards passing only seven times in his career, three of those games were in the playoffs, including two Super Bowls. Granted, he was surrounded by a raft of Hall of Famers and the best defense of the Super Bowl-era, but look how long it took the Steelers to win a Super Bowl after he left.

Try 22 years.

Playing quarterback is more than throwing for a gazillion yards or a high completion percentage. It's about leadership, and it's about making big plays when it matters most, and Bradshaw scored high in both departments.
Most of all, of course, it's about winning, and Bradshaw's record speaks for itself.

So why not put him ahead of Manning? I mean, if this is about championships it's Bradshaw in a breeze. Trust me, I thought about it. But he wasn't a four-time MVP, and the Steelers didn't collapse as Indianapolis did after he left. In fact, in the year immediately following Bradshaw's retirement they were in the AFC championship game.

That's not to diminish his accomplishments. It's simply to explain a tough decision.

Honorable mention: Brett Favre

He didn't just produce the NFL's biggest numbers -- including most career yards, completions, touchdowns and victories, but he also won three league MVP awards. OK, so he was 1-1 in Super Bowls, but at least he got there. Hall of Famers Dan Fouts and Warren Moon did not. Plus, there never was a more resilient quarterback. He made an NFL-record 287 consecutive starts (321 including the playoffs) and didn't sit down until the 2010 season when he was 41.

He played with a freedom, a passion and an enthusiasm that was missing in most NFL cities, and, OK, so he played with an unpredictability, too. But that's what was so attractive. Minnesota was willing to take him on when he was 40 because they knew what it was like to try to beat him, and he responded with one of his greatest seasons ever -- leading the Vikings to the NFC championship game where they were downed by New Orleans in overtime.

An 11-time Pro Bowl choice and six-time All-Pro, Favre is one of only four quarterbacks in league history to lead the NFL in touchdown passes four times. He also produced 39 come-from-behind wins in the fourth quarter. He was tough. He was charismatic. He was a natural leader. And he won ... a lot.