I’d say Brady was solid enough in 2020. I remember the defense of that team (D-line and pass rush) impressing me more at the time than Brady and the offense though.7DnBrnc53 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2026 7:10 amAgain, there is this over-emphasis by fans on winning to judge a QB.saturdaysarebetter wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2026 11:35 am Brady had the greatest career of any QB. That part is hard to argue with. Him having success away from Belichick helped cement his legacy and I didn't like him but after age 40, I can't help but admire how well he played and at such a high level at 40 and beyond.
Montana to me was so fantastic in the clutch. Four Super Bowls 16 quarters and zero interceptions. The best in my mind for one game.
I'm glad to see Unitas and Graham still ranked high. Recentivism is so rampant nowadays.
I'm also glad to see Marino listed where he is and to me, he's still too high. Playing well in big games to me matters. A quarterback can't win a game on his own, but he certainly can lose them on his own. Making poor decisions, throwing into double coverage, making ill-advised throws, throwing pick sixes. Marino retired as the leader in career pick sixes with 29 if I recall correctly. It's hard to beat good teams when your quarterback is a turnover machine.
You check his big game performances and he often threw two interceptions or more at every level, from high school, college and in the NFL. He threw a pretty pass but did he ever audible to a draw play? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Quarterbacks have won quite a few Super Bowls with far less running games than what Marino had. He played for two HOF Super Bowl winning coaches that both won two Super Bowls without Dan Marino. They knew how to win a big game, Marino did not.
He was good enough to beat the '85 Bears in the regular season, but he couldn't beat the '85 Patriots in the post-season, at home, outplayed by the "great" Tony Eason.
Once you get past the top 15, then to me it becomes more difficult to rank. Glad to see Bradshaw above Roethlisberger. Big game QB and great in the post-season vs. regular season QB. Big games matter.
The top 35 all HOFers or will be? Cam Newton would be my first certain no. I'm not sure I'd vote in Rivers.
Yes, the Dolphins didn't get it done at home in 1985. However, Marino wasn't playing Eason head to head. And, there is something else: That Dolphin team didn't get back to the playoffs for five years. They really didn't have the talent in the first place to win.
As for Montana, Terry Bradshaw also won four SB's. And he had more memorable big play throws in big games. Montana dinked and dunked a lot of the time against inferior SB competition, like the 81 Bengals, 84 Dolphins, and 89 Broncos.
Also, with Brady, CCC Productions did a video about him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_fv85_MV4s
Go to 1:52:09. He talks about seasons that deserve an asterisk, like 1982 and 87. He also said that 2020 needed a big asterisk because of COVID. Also, a lot of QB's could have won with the 2020 Bucs. They had a stacked roster. Kyle Orton would have won a SB with them. Mark Malone would have won a SB with them. Heck, Nathan Peterman may have won a SB with them. Brady just had to come in and not lose the game.
I thought Brady was better in 2021 than 2020 though. He may not have won a particularly impressive ring without Bill Belichick but I think he did have a really good season without him that year.
Also, going back to Marino, you mentioned people saying “he lost to Eason”. That kind of reminds me of the time I saw the NFL Top 10 Peyton Manning games where someone said “he beat Rex Grossman in the Super Bowl”.
Not saying either of those quarterbacks are anything of note, but I’m partly surprised people say that, and not “Marino lost to the 85 Patriots defense and Manning beat the 06 Bears defense”.
Obviously the NFL markets the quarterbacks and the matchups of those quarterbacks, but the other team’s defense is who they matched up against when they played.
As for Bradshaw and Montana, their passing styles were clearly different, but they both succeeded through their respective styles. If you are more impressed by the quarterback who is asked to throw deeper, I could see that, but both succeeded regardless.
Both also were part of teams that made and lost a conference championship game in addition to their Super Bowl titles (I believe three more in Montana’s case); in Bradshaw’s case in particular he may have won five Super Bowls had his backfield not been battered in the 1976 Divisional Round against the Colts perhaps.