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Who are the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time?
There is no agreed-upon set of criteria used to define which quarterbacks in NFL history can truly be called an all-time great.
Every argument has a counterargument. Super Bowl wins? It’s a team sport. Postseason performance? Surely the truly elite should excel all season long. Passing yardage or touchdowns? The NFL is more pass-happy than ever, inflating the stats of today’s quarterbacks.
The deciding factors often go beyond the stat sheet. Did they raise the play of everyone around them? Did they leave a mark on the game that reshaped how the quarterback position is viewed?
Taking all of these points into account, and several more, DAZN News reveals our top five quarterbacks ever to grace an NFL field.
Tom Brady (2000-2023)
Even the most ardent anti-Patriots NFL fan would have to concede that Tom Brady belongs atop this list.
Widely regarded as the best to play the game, Brady won seven Super Bowls before calling time on his career at the end of the 2022 season.
Those seven Vince Lombardi wins are not just more than any other quarterback, but more than any other franchise, and three more than the next nearest at the position.
Brady leads the NFL in most passing yards (89,214) and most touchdowns thrown (649). He is also the NFL all-time leader in wins, Pro Bowl selections, and Super Bowl MVP awards.
His story is also one of rags to riches, having achieved so much despite being selected 199th overall in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft.
In Brady's 20 years with the Patriots, New England won 17 AFC East titles, reached nine Super Bowls, and won six Vince Lombardi trophies.
Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
In his three years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Brady won his seventh Super Bowl ring before temporarily retiring.
He returned for one last season in 2022, in which the Buccaneers disappointingly went 8-9, the worst regular-season record of his career, despite which a 45-year-old Brady still set a single-season NFL record for pass attempts (733) and completions (490).
Joe Montana (1979-1994)
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Another name that is hard to argue with, Joe Montana was well deserving of his nicknames 'Joe Cool' and 'The Comeback Kid'.
Montana was under center for the San Francisco 49ers from 1979 to 1993 before a short two-year stint with the Kansas City Chiefs.
What separates Montana from many other greats is his record in Super Bowls. Four games, four wins. A record he shares with former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw.
'Joe Cool' had an average passer rating across his four Super Bowl appearances of 127.8, the highest ever by a player with multiple appearances, and his three Super Bowl MVPs can only be topped by Brady.
Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2000, Montana's time at Kansas City was also a success as he took them to their first AFC Championship Game since the AFL-NFL Merger.
Montana's 'Comeback Kid' nickname was no more apparent than in Super Bowl XXIII when he led San Francisco 97 yards down the field in the fourth quarter to beat the Cincinnati Bengals 20-16.
And if all that was not enough, Montana's game-winning touchdown throw to Dwight Clark in the 1982 NFC Championship game against Dallas remains one of the most famous in the sport's history - nicknamed 'The Catch'.
Peyton Manning (1998-2015)
Peyton Manning's postseason success does not stack up against Montana or Brady, but Manning changed the way the quarterback position was played due to his vision and preparation.
The first overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft began his career with the Indianapolis Colts, where he won his first Super Bowl ring, before adding a second later in his career with the Denver Broncos.
When Manning entered the NFL, the art of quarterbacks calling plays was long lost, but he mastered the role of calling audibles at the line of scrimmage in the early 2000s.
Manning's immense research, work ethic, and football IQ allowed him to switch up the play at the last moment when identifying the weaknesses in the opponent's defensive formation.
His game-changing approach saw him named NFL MVP a record five times, while his 201 regular and postseason wins put him second on the all-time list behind Brady.
Even in February 2016, when clearly past his prime, Manning still led the Broncos to glory in Super Bowl 50 against the Carolina Panthers .
He may not have as many Super Bowl rings, but Manning still thoroughly deserves his mention among the greatest ever quarterbacks.
Johnny Unitas (1956-1973)
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Another Colt, and another game changer. Johnny Unitas' impact on the quarterback position is arguably even bigger than Manning's for the same franchise, and it came some 40 years earlier.
Originally drafted in the ninth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Unitas was cut before the season started, as his life in the NFL did not start the way he had hoped.
That was until he was signed by the then-Baltimore Colts, where he would go on to win three NFL Championships and Super Bowl V.
What makes Unitas stand out is the way he changed football . In a sport where, at the time, the running game was the key to success, Unitas instead elected to pass.
His time management tactics are still employed by teams in the NFL, and his 2,899 passing yards for 32 touchdowns in 1959 stack up with numbers seen in the more pass-happy NFL today.
Unitas remains the only player to lead the league in passing touchdowns for four consecutive seasons, a feat he achieved between 1957 and 1960, and he picked up the first of his three NFL MVPs in that stretch.
During that remarkable run, Unitas also went 47 consecutive games with at least one passing touchdown, a record that was finally surpassed by Brady, Manning, and the next quarterback on this list.
Drew Brees (2001-2020)
Joining Brady and Manning on the list of quarterbacks to break Unitas' long-standing consecutive games with a touchdown record was former San Diego Charger and New Orleans Saint Drew Brees.
Brees, who retired at the end of the 2020 season, was the epitome of production. Not the flashiest player, nor the biggest, but remarkably consistent.
There have been 15 instances of quarterbacks throwing for over 5,000 yards in a single regular season, and five of those belong to Brees.
Only Patrick Mahomes and Brady have also managed the feat more than once, and each did so for a second time after the regular season had been extended from 16 games to 17.
On two separate occasions, Brees went three consecutive seasons with the highest pass completion rate in the NFL (2009-2011 and 2017-2019).
Brees' one Super Bowl ring may be modest in this list of greats, but silverware is not always concrete evidence of a player's talent, as Brees' numbers prove.
Patrick Mahomes
While Mahomes is the only active quarterback on the list, he's already established himself among the all-time greats. It's a feat made all the more impressive given that he's only 28 and his story is still far from complete.
A first-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs, Mahomes became the youngest player ever to win both a league MVP and a Super Bowl title.
He has since won three Super Bowls, tied for fourth among all quarterbacks in NFL history, and has received six Pro Bowl nominations.
Mahomes has broken numerous NFL and Chiefs' records in his eight-year career. His 105.8 passer rating in the postseason is the highest passer rating by any NFL quarterback in playoff history . He also holds the Chiefs' all-time lead in passer rating (102.1), passing attempts (4,171), completions (2,778), completion percentage (66.6%), passing yards (32,352), and passing touchdowns (245).
Widely considered to be the only active quarterback who could come close to matching Brady's list of accolades, it is frightening to wonder what Mahomes is capable of if he continues to play another ten-plus years.
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