Legendary NFL quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning Shake Hands after AFC championship game
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In the words of the legendary Herm Edwards, “you play to win the game.” But how much of winning an NFL game simply comes down to the play of the quarterback?
It’s an age old question and one that doesn’t seem to have an agreed upon answered. Tom Brady will tell you that he had his hands in just about everything the New England Patriots did during their dynasty. While the biggest argument of the NFL offseason involved how much credit Jalen Hurts really deserves to the Philadelphia Eagles winning the Super Bowl.
But there is, perhaps, no better label that an NFL quarterback can earn than “winner.” These 10 quarterbacks are, statistically, the great (regular season) winners of all-time.
10 NFL Quarterbacks With The Greatest Win Percentage In League History
It’s hard to win an NFL game without great quarterback play. But on the other hand, great quarterback play does not ensure a team a win if the rest of the roster doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain.
It does, however, give you a much better shot of winning. Which is why this list of the 10 quarterbacks with the greatest regular season winning percentage in NFL history (per StatMuse) is full of both future and current Hall of Famers.
For the purpose of the exercise, we’ve limited the list to quarterbacks with at least 60 stars (sorry, Jayden Daniels) and players who primarily started at the quarterback position, which removed Taysom Hill and former quarterback/punter Bob Lee.
Without further adieu, let’s get into the list.
10) Steve Young – .686 Win Percentage
49ers QB Steve Young
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Steve Young, not Joe Montana, holds the greatest win percentages at quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. Young posted a 116-53 record across 169 regular season games in his Hall of Fame career.
And it’s hard to argue that he wasn’t the driving force behind the San Francisco 49ers dynasty of 1990s. Sure, having Jerry Rice to throw to didn’t hurt, but Young was named first-team All-Pro three straight years from 1992-94 and won the NFL MVP award in both ’92 and ’94, delivering plenty of clutch moments along the way.
9) Jimmy Garoppolo – .695 Win Percentage
2022 San Francisco 49ers
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If Young is an argument in favor of the value of quarterback win percentage, our next entry on the list is a strong argument against it.
Garoppolo, who is 57-25 in 82 games played for .695 win percentage, was the product of extremely strong systems and teams around him in both New England and San Francisco. When those teams didn’t deliver, Garoppolo’s teams usually didn’t win.
His numbers are also padded a bit by relief appearances of injured quarterbacks. Over his first 26 starts of his career, Garoppolo when an astonishing 21-5. But when he was asked to lead his team to victory, things often got dicey, creating the argument that quarterback wins truly aren’t a valuable measure of ability.
However, Garoppolo and the next entry on our list are the only quarterbacks in the top 10 who did not have Hall of Fame caliber careers.
8) Jim McMahon – .697 Win Percentage
Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon Super Bowl
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Before there was Trent Dilfer, Jim McMahon was the shining example of a quarterback who led a team to a Super Bowl while being asked to do the absolute minimum.
McMahon, who has an 83-36 record for a .697 win percentage, made the Pro Bowl in the 1985 season when the Chicago Bears last won the Super Bowl. But he wasn’t asked to do much.
In fact, McMahon’s numbers are fairly ugly. He completed just 57 percent of his passes for 2,392 yards, 15 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Was he a good leader? Sure. His teammates seemed to love him. But McMahon was also the shining example of a quarterback’s success being inflated by an incredible team around him.
7) Peyton Manning – .703 Win Percentage
Peyton Manning owner of the longest regular season win streak in NFL history
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Okay, now we’re back on track.
Peyton Manning is unanimously regarded as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL, and the results show it. Manning went 187-79 in 266 regular season appearances, and he was the driving force behind a large majority of those victories.
Sure, Manning was carried a bit in his late-career run with the Denver Broncos, where he went 46-12 (.793). But in his prime with the Indianapolsi Colts, Manning orchestrated some of the top offenses in the league year after year.
In fact, the stark turnaround in Indianapolis from the pre-Manning Era to the Manning Era shows just how important a star quarterback can be.
6) Lamar Jackson – .718 Win Percentage
Baltimore-Ravens-quarterback-Lamar-Jackson
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Lamar Jackson isn’t in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But if he retired today, there’s a good chance he’d be enshrined in Canton within the next decade, if not sooner.
Jackson is 74-29 in his 103 appearances with the Baltimore Ravens, which ranks sixth all-time. He’s a two-time NFL MVP, who could’ve easily added a third to his resume a year ago.
The scary thing for opponents is, Jackson appears to be getting better. In 2024, he posted career highs in passing yards (4,172), touchdowns (41), and a career-low four interceptions.
Jackson has proven to be the ultimate winner in the regular season. If he even figures it out in the playoffs, he’ll go down as not just a Hall of Fame quarterback, but one of the elite of the elites.
5) Roger Staubach – .718 Win Percentage
legendary Dallas Cowboys QB Roger Staubach
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Roger Staubach, the signal caller at the center of the 1970s Dallas Cowboys dynasty, slots in at No. 5 in our list by virtue of having more wins (94-37) and games (131) played than Jackson despite having the same winning percentage.
The Hall of Fame quarterback took over the Cowboys’ starting job full-time in 1971 and never looked back, going 10-0 in the regular season as a starter and leading Dallas to a Super Bowl victory over the Miami Dolphins.
Staubach made six Pro Bowl appearances and finished in the top five of the NFL MVP voting three times, including the final year of his career when he went 11-5 and finished fourth in the MVP race at 37 years old.
4) Tom Brady – .749 Win Percentage
Tom Brady wins Super Bowl in Houston
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Outside of maybe Michael Jordan, is there a team sport athlete more associated with winning and a winner’s mentality than Tom Brady?
Brady posted a 250-85 record in the 335 regular-season games he played in with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and that doesn’t even take into account his incredible playoff success.
Brady found a way to win in seemingly every fashion, whether it was taking a more backseat role on a team with a great defense and run game early in his career, or if it was throwing for a then-NFL record 50 passing touchdowns in 2007.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion is probably the shining example of a quarterback being an integral and necessary piece to a winning formula.
3) Darryle Lamonica – .770 Win Percentage
Oakland Raiders quarterback Daryle LaMonica
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Somehow, some way, Darryle Lamonica is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But his accolades are impossible to ignore.
Lamonica had a bizarre start to his career, serving primarily as a backup in Buffalo but being brought in to several games due to injury or start ineffectiveness, earning him the nickname “The Fireman.”
He’d later move to the Oakland Raiders, where he developed into “The Mad Bomber,” a two-time AFL MVP and passing touchdown leader. After the Raiders entered the NFL via the AFL-NFL merger, he made two Pro Bowl appearances and led the team to Super Bowl II, where they lost to the Green Bay Packers.
2) Patrick Mahomes – .795 Win Percentage
Patrick Mahomes wins Super Bowl with Kansas City Chiefs
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If you have Patrick Mahomes on your football team, there’s a good chance you’re going to win a lot of football games. In 112 games played, Mahomes is 89-23.
We’ve seen Mahomes win in a variety of ways, whether it’s lighting up the scoreboard with incredible performances or gutting out wins late. The guy is just an undeniable winner.
In seven seasons as the Kansas City Chiefs’ starting quarterback, Mahomes has never won fewer than 10 games and is averaging 12.6 wins per season. Mahomes has a long way to go until he reaches Brady status, but the fact that it’s even a discussion is extremely impressive.
1) Otto Graham – .813 Win Percentage
Cleveland Browns quarterback Otto Graham
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When one of your nicknames is “Mr. Quarterback,” you must have been one heck of a QB. Graham played 10 seasons with the Cleveland Browns from 1946-1955 and went 58-13-1 in 72 games played over six NFL seasons (the Browns previously played in the All-America Football Conference).
Graham won three NFL championships with the Browns and three NFL MVP awards, making his name as one of the first true superstars in league history.
But to exemplify just how much of a winner Graham was, he also played for the Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League (which would later become the NBA) and won a championship as the team’s fifth-leading scorer in 1946.