The 10 Best Quarterbacks in NFL History

Steve Young was the original dual-threat, serving as Joe Montana’s understudy before seizing San Francisco’s starting job at age 30 and winning two MVPs and a Super Bowl XXIX MVP.

Johnny Unitas played a generation earlier with brilliant recklessness — 290 touchdowns against 253 interceptions in an era when the league-wide pick rate was 4.8%.

Young proved quarterbacks could run. Unitas proved they could dominate through the air. Together, they laid the foundation for the position.

8. Brett Favre

A three-time consecutive MVP from 1995 to 1997, Brett Favre could fire darts all over the field like few before or after.

The apex of his golden age was a Super Bowl XXXI victory over the Patriots — Favre, celebrating an early touchdown with his helmet off, remains an iconic image.

He’s also the most intercepted man in NFL history with 336 picks, a number that’s as much a testament to his ironman durability as his gunslinger risk-taking.

7. Dan Marino

Dan Marino is the ultimate testament to how hard it is to win championships in professional sports. That he never won a Super Bowl says more about the NFL than it does about Marino, who dominated the 1980s with the quickest release the position has ever seen.

He posted the lowest sack rate among qualifying quarterbacks across 10 seasons, getting the ball out quickly behind his offensive line. His arm was a weapon. His supporting cast wasn’t.

6. John Elway and #5. Aaron Rodgers

John Elway’s 15-play, 98-yard march against Cleveland in the 1986 AFC Championship may stand forever as the greatest offensive possession in football history. He won two Super Bowls and engineered 40 fourth-quarter game-winning drives.

Aaron Rodgers took over for Brett Favre and became even better — a 527-to-123 touchdown-to-interception ratio and a Hail Mary to Jeff Janis that may be the best throw ever delivered. Two different kinds of greatness. Both unmatchable.

4. Peyton Manning

If Dan Fouts and John Elway were the prototypes of the modern quarterback, Peyton Manning is the finished product. A master at reading defenses, Manning won an NFL-record five regular-season MVPs and started every game for the Colts from 1998 to 2010.

After a neck injury and release by Indianapolis, he signed with Denver and delivered arguably the greatest regular season ever in 2013 — setting records with 55 touchdowns and 5,477 passing yards at age 37.

3. Patrick Mahomes

Patrick Mahomes is the natural successor to Tom Brady as the NFL’s one inevitable player. His seven-year streak of AFC Championship appearances before missing the 2025 playoffs may never be matched.

Three Super Bowl rings, a 95-31 regular season record, and a 17-4 playoff record — all before turning 31. The best endorsement of Mahomes’ brilliance is how shocking it feels when things don’t go his way. He built a dynasty-caliber résumé in half the time it takes most.

2. Joe Montana

Joe Montana spent the better part of the 1980s flinging dimes, winning Super Bowls, and looking completely unflappable doing it.

As the maestro of Bill Walsh’s West Coast Offense — the scheme that became the blueprint for modern football — Montana led the league in completion percentage four times.

Four Super Bowl titles. Three Super Bowl MVPs in 1981, 1984, and 1989. Montana was perfection under pressure, and the standard before Brady rewrote it.

1. Tom Brady

Nobody thought that when Mo Lewis knocked Drew Bledsoe out in 2001, Tom Brady would step in and appear in half of all Super Bowls over the next 20 years.

Never a superior athlete — his Draft Combine tape is good for a laugh — Brady dominated for 23 years on brain and work ethic alone.

Seven Super Bowl wins. 649 touchdowns. 89,214 passing yards. A 251-82 record. For two decades, the NFL revolved around one man, and he never blinked.

This Is for Fans Who Follow the Game for How It’s Played

From Unitas building the position to Young proving that quarterbacks could run. From Marino’s ringless brilliance to Kelly’s four heartbreaks. From Elway’s drive to Staubach’s prayer to Mahomes’ three rings and counting.

Every name on this countdown carries weight that transcends statistics. The quarterback position has been shaped by talent, prejudice, innovation, and moments so improbable they became part of the language. If you watch the game for how it’s played, these are the stories that matter.

Sources:
Complex Sports, “The 25 Best NFL Quarterbacks of All Time, Ranked,” Feb. 5, 2026
ESPN career statistics and records archive
CBS Sports Super Bowl records database
Pro Football Hall of Fame, “The Drive” archive
ABC News, Broncos Wilson release reporting
NPR / TIME, Black quarterbacks Super Bowl history
University of Tennessee Athletics, Manning MVP records