Fantasy Football Yesterday: Four greats grace our Fantasy Quarterback Mount Rushmore

There might have been plenty of debate at other positions, but coming up with the all-time best Fantasy QBs was no problem for our experts.

By Jamey Eisenberg

May 12, 2020 at 10:07 am ET • 3 min read

As part of our Fantasy Football Yesterday week, we're putting together the Mount Rushmore for each position. The era we're using is 1997-2019, and that was a great time for quarterbacks. There were four who stood out from the pack, and if you won a Fantasy championship over the last few decades, there's a pretty good chance one of these guys helped you get there. As a result, deciding on the Mount Rushmore for Fantasy quarterbacks was relatively easy with the top vote getters being, in order, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady.

In a few years, if we decide to do this exercise again, two quarterbacks who might force their way onto this list are Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. Mahomes seems destined to be an all-time great after what he's done the past two seasons, winning a NFL MVP award in 2018 and a Super Bowl MVP award in 2019. And Jackson might not be far behind after his record-breaking season in 2019 as the first quarterback with 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards — while also winning the NFL MVP.

But for now, Mahomes and Jackson still have work to do if they want to knock Manning, Brees, Rodgers or Brady off the Mount Rushmore of Fantasy quarterbacks.

To determine this group, our panel each ranked six quarterbacks. Here are our rankers:

Jamey Eisenberg
Dave Richard
Heath Cummings
Adam Aizer
Chris Towers
Ben Schragger
Ben Gretch

While all seven voters had the same top four quarterbacks on their list, the order was different. Three people had Manning at No. 1, two had Brees and two had Rodgers in the top spot. Manning finished no worse than third for anyone, but Brady had the most fourth-place votes of this quartet.

Manning's resume consists of the best Fantasy season in this era with his performance in 2013 with Denver. He scored 528.7 Fantasy points and averaged 33.04 Fantasy points per game with 5,477 passing yards, 55 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, along with a rushing score. He also had another top-10 finish in this era in 2004. From 2001 until he retired in 2015, Manning finished as a top-three quarterback eight times, including three times as the No. 1 quarterback. And, unlike any of his peers on Mount Rushmore, he was dominant with two different teams with the Colts (1998-2010) and Broncos (2012-15). He missed 2011 with a neck injury but was still awesome in the second act of his career.

The best season for Brees was 2011, but he had three of the best 15 seasons in this era, including 2013 and 2012. He finished as a top-three quarterback nine times since 2011, including three years as the No. 1 quarterback. Heading into 2020, he's the last quarterback to repeat as the No. 1 Fantasy quarterback in back-to-back years, when he accomplished that feat in 2011-12. He also has five seasons in this era with at least 5,000 passing yards (2011, 2016, 2012, 2013 and 2008). There have only been 12 times in NFL history where a quarterback has passed for at least 5,000 yards.

Rodgers has two of the top-10 seasons in this era (2011 and 2016), as well as four finishes in the top 20 (2014 and 2012). Since 2001, he's finished as a top-two quarterback seven times, including No. 1 twice. His performance in 2011 is No. 5 all-time at quarterback when he scored 485.9 Fantasy points and averaged 32.4 Fantasy points per game with 4,643 passing yards, 45 touchdowns and six interceptions, as well as 257 rushing yards and three rushing scores. Only Manning in 2013 and Jackson last year averaged more Fantasy points per game in this era at quarterback in a single season than Rodgers.

Brady has two of the best years in this era with 2007 and 2011, and both seasons rank in the top 11 all-time for quarterbacks. His production in 2007 was the third-best season all-time at quarterback when he scored 496.2 Fantasy points and averaged 31.01 Fantasy points per game with 4,806 passing yards, 50 touchdowns and eight interceptions, as well as 98 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He also passed for 5,235 yards in 2011. Since 2001, Brady has finished as a top-three Fantasy quarterback six times. We'll see how he does with Tampa Bay in 2020, and maybe Brady adds to his legacy as one of the four best Fantasy quarterbacks ever.