The 2025 NFL season is upon us, and we’ve a fairly good thought which teams possess a clear quarterback advantage. Solely a choose few, in any case, have the posh of deploying a transcendent expertise underneath middle, leaving the remainder of the league to financial institution on extra unstable signal-callers. However have the present standard-setters on the place at all times reigned supreme on this regard?
The reply is sure and no. Some, just like the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers, are having fun with the legislation in a protracted and proud line of star quarterbacks. In the meantime others, just like the Kansas City Chiefs, are experiencing their first really spectacular gunslinging in many years. Nonetheless others, just like the Indianapolis Colts, try desperately to increase a big however fast-fading legacy.
In anticipation of the brand new season, Cody Benjamin and Bryan DeArdo teamed as much as evaluation the all-time quarterback historical past of all 32 NFL teams, rating them from least to most spectacular utilizing the next standards:
- Particular person impression of high quarterbacks (MVPs, Professional Bowls, All-Pros, and so on.)
- Longevity of high quarterbacks’ careers
- Group success and championships received
- Total depth of staff’s historical past of quarterbacks
Right here is their full breakdown, with all 32 groups separated into 5 tiers:
*Tier 5: Determined Dreamers
Ranked and compiled by Bryan DeArdo.
Prime QBs: Matt Schaub, C.J. Stroud, Deshaun Watson
Houston’s last-place end is partially a results of the Texans being the NFL’s youngest staff. At this level, the perfect quarterback in Texans historical past could be the one presently underneath middle.
Prime QBs: Kurt Warner, Carson Palmer, Jim Hart
Whereas they loved profitable tenures within the desert, Warner and Palmer solely performed 5 years apiece in Arizona. Previous to them, the Cardinals’ final profitable quarterback was Jake Plummer, who in 1998 led the Cardinals to their first playoff win in 51 years.
Prime QBs: Mark Brunell, David Garrard, Trevor Lawrence
Brunell helped the Jaguars get to inside a sport of the Super Bowl in 1996, the franchise’s second 12 months of existence. Garrard and Lawrence have additionally received playoff video games for Jacksonville. The difficulty is that the staff hasn’t had any good quarterbacks exterior of those three.
Prime QBs: Cam Newton, Jake Delhomme, Kerry Collins
Much like the Jaguars (who had been additionally based in 1995), Carolina has loved some good quarterback play over the previous 30 years, however that success has been few and much between. The peaks: one MVP (Newton) and three completely different quarterbacks who helped lead the franchise to the NFC title sport.
*Tier 4: Blended Luggage
Ranked and compiled by Bryan DeArdo.
Prime QBs: Sid Luckman, Jim McMahon, Jay Cutler
Cutler is the Bears’ profession passing chief with simply 23,443 yards. No different Chicago quarterback has thrown for greater than 15,000 yards. That is dangerous.
Prime QBs: Joe Namath, Ken O’Brien, Chad Pennington
Namath is a Corridor of Famer who helped engineer the most important upset in professional soccer historical past. However since his departure from New York 50 years in the past, the staff has had solely a handful of succesful quarterbacks.
Prime QBs: Otto Graham, Bernie Kosar, Brian Sipe
Just like the Jets, the Browns have a Corridor of Famer who led his staff to the promised land pre-merger. And whereas the Browns have had some stable quarterbacks within the many years since Graham, they’ve most of the time had underwhelming play at that place. No shock: They’re beginning over (once more) in 2025.
Prime QBs: Bobby Layne, Matthew Stafford, Jared Goff, Scott Mitchell
Detroit’s latest run of success is the explanation they’re ranked this excessive; Stafford was steadily prolific and Goff helped them to an NFC championship look. Meaning the Lions have had constant high quality play on the place since 2009.
Prime QBs: Fran Tarkenton, Daunte Culpepper, Tommy Kramer
It’s kind of stunning to have the Vikings this low contemplating how good they are usually. Tarkenton is a Corridor of Famer who led the staff to a few Tremendous Bowls in 4 years in the course of the ’70s. Since his scrambling days, nonetheless, no different signal-caller has helped Minnesota attain the large sport.
Prime QBs: Russell Wilson, Dave Krieg, Matt Hasselbeck, Jim Zorn
Seattle has loved regular quarterback play for almost everything of its 50-year existence. Whereas his profession has fizzled since leaving Seattle, Wilson nonetheless has a very good probability of being the primary Seahawks quarterback to be inducted into the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame due to his decade-long run as a title-winning twin menace.
Prime QBs: Matt Ryan, Michael Vick, Steve Bartkowski
Like Wilson in Seattle, Atlanta has one other quarterback in Ryan who will probably earn a Corridor of Fame induction sometime. Vick additionally possessed Corridor of Fame expertise that led to one of the crucial profitable and entertaining runs in franchise historical past. Satirically, Chris Chandler, the primary Falcons quarterback to guide the staff to a Tremendous Bowl, is basically neglected when discussing Atlanta’s greatest quarterbacks.
Prime QBs: Joe Flacco, Lamar Jackson, Steve McNair
You may argue if he was elite, however you possibly can’t argue that Flacco was a Tremendous Bowl-winning quarterback for Baltimore who performed a key function in mentioned title. Jackson hasn’t received a Tremendous Bowl but, however he’s a wildly dynamic two-time league MVP.
Prime QBs: Tom Brady, Baker Mayfield, Brad Johnson
Brady solely spent three years in Tampa, however two of these years had been among the many greatest seasons of his peerless profession. Brady was preceded in Tampa by Johnson, who made greater than sufficient performs to assist the 2002 Bucs seize the franchise’s first Tremendous Bowl. Mayfield has continued to supply Tampa with high quality quarterback play since Brady’s retirement, including an surprising spark as a journeyman.
Prime QBs: Archie Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Brooks
New Orleans has endured lengthy, painful stretches with out good quarterback play. However the franchise has additionally loved one of the crucial prolific passing careers in NFL historical past due to Brees, who in 2009 led the Saints to their first title. Whereas Brees is a slam-dunk future Corridor of Famer, Manning’s profession might have additionally resulted in a gold jacket if hadn’t been saddled to dangerous supporting casts.
*Tier 3: Works in Progress
Ranked and compiled by Cody Benjamin.
Prime QBs: Donovan McNabb, Ron Jaworski, Randall Cunningham, Jalen Hurts
McNabb did the whole lot however recover from the hump, following in Cunningham’s footsteps as a twin menace forward of his time. “Jaws” took the Birds to the large sport. And Hurts, nonetheless simply 26, has already produced two championship-caliber Tremendous Bowl performances, claiming one ring, because the steely face of an all-star group.
Prime QBs: Ken Anderson, Boomer Esiason, Joe Burrow, Carson Palmer
Anderson received NFL MVP, and Esiason received Tremendous Bowl MVP. Which honor is subsequent for Burrow, who’s among the many sport’s high pure pocket passers? If he sticks round even longer than Palmer, a frontrunner of the 2000s, odds are he’ll get one or the opposite.
Prime QBs: Jim Kelly, Josh Allen, Jack Kemp
If Kelly had captured simply one in every of his 4 Tremendous Bowl appearances, this crop would in all probability be a lot greater on the pecking order. Allen definitely has the instruments to make up for the near-misses, typically serving because the NFL’s greatest pure playmaker this aspect of Patrick Mahomes, and eyeing his seventh straight playoff bid in 2025.
Prime QBs: Dan Fouts, Philip Rivers, John Hadl, Justin Herbert
Consistency is the secret right here. No Bolts quarterback has hoisted the Lombardi, however each Fouts and Rivers had been elite for almost all of their prolonged careers; the previous helped revolutionize passing along with his “Air Coryell” deep pictures.
*Tier 2: Historic Bunches
Ranked and compiled by Cody Benjamin.
Previously the Houston Oilers.
Prime QBs: George Blanda, Steve McNair, Warren Moon
The Oilers boasted two Corridor of Fame quarterbacks in Blanda and Moon. McNair, in the meantime, helped the franchise take pleasure in near-instant success after the membership relocated and rebranded itself in Nashville in 1997. Cameron Ward is up subsequent.
Prime QBs: Eli Manning, Phil Simms, Charlie Conerly, Y.A. Tittle
The clutch moments do quite a lot of the heavy lifting in New York. Manning might have by no means been a persistently “elite” authority underneath middle, however he was uber-cool when it mattered most in not one however two Tremendous Bowl upsets. Simms additionally received his personal title, and Tittle received MVP throwing 36 touchdowns again in 1963.
Previously the Washington Redskins.
Prime QBs: Sammy Baugh, Joe Theismann, Doug Williams, Sonny Jurgensen, Mark Rypien
Regardless of a protracted slog of middling choices within the 2000s, there’s a wealthy and underrated historical past right here: Three completely different quarterbacks (Rypien, Theismann, Williams) led Tremendous Bowl wins, and “Slingin’ Sammy” Baugh captured two NFL titles pre-merger as an aerial artist effectively forward of his time. Higher but, Jayden Daniels seems primed to launch this crew even additional as the brand new face of the franchise.
11. Kansas Metropolis Chiefs
Prime QBs: Patrick Mahomes, Len Dawson, Trent Inexperienced
Mahomes is already a Corridor of Fame lock after simply seven years as a starter, cruising to a few Tremendous Bowl wins and two MVP nods as an otherworldly level guard. The query is, what number of extra can he gather earlier than he hangs it up? Dawson was legendary, too, starring as “Lenny the Cool” for the Chiefs’ first Tremendous Bowl run.
Prime QBs: Dan Marino, Bob Griese, Earl Morrall
The one knock on Marino is he by no means received a hoop, however his numbers (61,000+ profession yards) and 1984 MVP run confirmed him as one of the crucial gifted gunslingers to ever lace them up. Griese did not simply safe two trophies for Miami however helped the Dolphins go 17-0 in 1972 for the NFL’s solely good season thus far.
Prime QBs: Tom Brady, Drew Bledsoe, Steve Grogan
The depth might not be as spectacular right here, however how can the staff that deployed essentially the most completed quarterback of all time be left exterior the highest 10? Brady was Mr. Inevitable, securing six rings and one other three Tremendous Bowl appearances with New England, terrorizing the remainder of the league with unmatched poise and imaginative and prescient.
Prime QBs: Ken Stabler, Daryle Lamonica, Wealthy Gannon, Jim Plunkett
This is not recency bias, because the silver and black have currently been hurting for a real difference-maker. They dominated the previous and grittier days, although, with Lamonica’s “Mad Bomber” deep pictures and Stabler’s left-handed resolve making the Raiders virtually synonymous with ’60s and ’70s soccer. Plunkett carried the torch into the ’80s.
*Tier 1: Corridor of Fame Factories
Ranked and compiled by Cody Benjamin.
Prime QBs: Kurt Warner, Norm Van Brocklin, Roman Gabriel, Matthew Stafford
It is a who’s who of greats from principally each period. Van Brocklin put the Rams on the map with their first championship in 1951. Gabriel received MVP in 1969. Warner served because the inconceivable hero of the “Best Present on Turf” in 1999. And Stafford reached the promised land in his very first season with the staff in 2021, translating years of Lions stardom right into a long-awaited playoff surge for L.A.
Prime QBs: Terry Bradshaw, Ben Roethlisberger, Neil O’Donnell, Bobby Layne
The Steelers are a real litmus take a look at for what you worth when defining “all-time quarterback success.” Is it steadily dynamic manufacturing? Or simply rings? As a result of Bradshaw received 4 of these dangerous boys within the ’70s and ’80s, even when he was by no means the prettiest passer. “Massive Ben” was extra splashy, however even he was extra rugged than loads of friends. It is simply the Steeler Method.
Prime QBs: John Elway, Peyton Manning, Craig Morton
It is a top-heavy bunch, and even Manning solely spent 4 years in Denver, however the peaks are so illustrious. Between simply Elway and Manning, in any case, the Broncos superior to seven completely different Tremendous Bowls, profitable three. Morton additionally reached the large sport, although it is Elway’s Corridor of Fame tear over 16 years because the true propeller. Like Brady with the Patriots, he single-handedly elevated your entire program.
Prime QBs: Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman, Don Meredith, Dak Prescott, Tony Romo, Danny White
If we had been rating solely by depth and length of high quality play, “America’s Group” may take the cake, as a result of it is onerous to discover a decade the place the Cowboys have been with out serviceable, if not particular, arm expertise. By some means none of their greats have received NFL MVP, however Staubach’s zeal and Aikman’s precision mixed for 5 Tremendous Bowl wins; each at the moment are enshrined within the Corridor of Fame.
3. Indianapolis Colts
Prime QBs: Peyton Manning, Johnny Unitas, Andrew Luck, Bert Jones
If Colts followers need solace after witnessing Indy’s present state of affairs underneath middle, they want look no additional than their very own document books. Unitas received three MVPs and 4 titles as a prototype of the fashionable quarterback. Manning was a calculated genius out of the pocket for 14 years. Jones additionally received MVP, and Luck was a well-liked decide for the award earlier than his abrupt retirement.
2. San Francisco 49ers
Prime QBs: Joe Montana, Steve Younger, Y.A. Tittle, John Brodie
Which quarterback dialog begins or ends with out point out of Montana’s title? Regardless that Brady bested him in complete trophies, the “Comeback Child” nonetheless registers as the best, calmest thrower to let it rip, turning into the primary quarterback to win three Tremendous Bowl MVPs. Younger’s mobility and effectivity as Montana’s successor helped San Francisco go back-to-back with Tremendous Bowl-winning all-timers.
1. Inexperienced Bay Packers
Prime QBs: Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, Bart Starr
Are they the deepest bunch? Not essentially. However who wants depth when you possibly can actually go the baton from Favre to Rodgers and luxuriate in 31 consecutive years of MVP-level moxie and manufacturing? And that claims nothing of Starr’s 5 NFL titles, together with the primary two Tremendous Bowls! No different staff has produced extra league MVPs (8) on the place, and who’s to say Jordan Love will not ultimately observe swimsuit as Rodgers’ snappy-armed successor?