The NFL offseason always brings about some interesting conversations. Without any upcoming games to discuss, the focus is turned to how teams will look to upgrade their rosters before the upcoming season.
But all-time lists are always fun, mostly because of the debate that they create.
Recently, the staff over at Bleacher Report undertook the idea of ranking the best 99 quarterbacks in NFL history. That is quite the task, and to their credit, they came up with a fabulous list.
The Denver Broncos had two quarterbacks fall inside the top 10. Blessed with having both John Elway and Peyton Manning play for them, the Broncos have seen some of the best quarterback play in league history.
Manning checks in at No. 3 on this particular list, behind only Joe Montana and Tom Brady. But Manning spent most of his career with the Indianapolis Colts, though his time in Denver was great, getting the team to the Super Bowl twice in four years.
However, long-time Broncos fans may have a bit of an issue with where Elway was placed at No. 6. Though it is quite respectable to be the sixth-best quarterback to ever play the game, it's some of the names listed ahead of him that cause a bit of an uproar.
John Elway ranked the sixth-best QB in NFL history by Bleacher Report
Here was Bleacher Report's analysis:
"Top Accolades: Hall of Famer, 1x MVP, 1x SB MVP, 2x SB Champion, 9x Pro Bowler
Key Stats: Record: 148-82-1 (64.1%); Pass: 51,475 Yds, 300 TD, 226 INT, 56.9 Comp%, 79.9 Rating; Rush: 3,407 Yds, 33 TD; 31 4Q Comebacks; 40 GW Drives
Total Seasons: 16 (Denver Broncos)
John Elway's career began and ended in wildly dramatic fashion—with a whole lot of greatness in between.
It started with Elway's now-famous snubbing of the Colts, which led to him landing in Denver. It ended with him riding off into the sunset after a second straight championship in Super Bowl XXXIII as the MVP of the game.
Those championships erased all doubt about Elway's status as an all-time great after he lost the game three times in four years in the '80s. But the reality is that rings or no, Elway is one of the best the NFL has ever seen at his position.
He was a nightmare for opposing defenses. He was big. Mobile. Incredibly difficult to bring down. He extended plays and ran the scramble drill as well as anyone ever has.
Nine Pro Bowls. An MVP nod in 1987. The Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004. Over 51,000 passing yards—over three times more than any other Broncos quarterback ever.
Other than that, he was just OK."
The last line there is clearly sarcasm.
Elway's career got off to a rough start, as he went 4-6 as a rookie. But he took off in year two and never looked back. Once settled in, he was as good as you could find in the NFL.
Down seven. Ball at the two-yard line. Then Elway. (1986 AFC Championship) #FBF pic.twitter.com/zD2eotgwCk
— NFL Legacy (@NFLLegacy) May 17, 2019
When he retired, his 148 wins were the most for any quarterback in NFL history. He had one of the strongest arms, if not the strongest, that the league has ever seen and he took the Broncos to the Super Bowl five times. Keep in mind, he did this in an era where Montana, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly — all Hall of Famers — were in the league as well.
He was one of the best pure athletes to ever play the quarterback position, as he could have been drafted to play Major League Baseball just as easily as pro football and he has a pretty good golf game to go with it. That athleticism led him to make plays that, at the time, were otherworldly.
So should guys like Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes be ahead of him on this list, like they are?
Rodgers has played in just one Super Bowl and though he won it, he has fallen short of the Super Bowl with much better teams than Elway went to the Super Bowl with. In the case of Mahomes, he has the Super Bowl success, but his entire body of work does not match Elway's just yet and his play-making ability, as great as it is, was seen 30 years before with No. 7 playing in Denver.
The list is questionable in other areas, such as having Johnny Unitas at No. 11. Though Unitas' playing career ended when Mahomes' father was just three years old, it doesn't take away from what he brought to the game.
Known as the "Golden Arm", Unitas was, up to that point, the greatest quarterback the league had ever seen. He was a prototypical passer at a time when throwing the ball down the field was not what the game was about. It's hard to rank Unitas when his playing career ended more than 50 years ago, but he's not outside the top 10 on any good list.
Back to Elway. In addition to his passing skills, Elway was one of the more underrated runners at the position that we have ever seen. To this day, his 3,407 career rushing yards still rank 13th in league history.
Elway's career ended following the 1998 season, so he has been gone for quite some time. The fact that he can still come in at No. 6 on a list like this when guys like Brett Favre and Drew Brees have broken records since is quite the feat.
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But at worst, Elway should be No. 4 on this list as he was a better overall player than Rodgers and it's just too early to put Mahomes up that high.
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