From Bart Starr to Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback position has evolved over the past sixty years. Mobile quarterbacks like Fran Tarkenton were once the exception to the norm, while, nowadays, pocket passers like Matthew Stafford are a vanishing breed. Once shunned, Black quarterbacks won three consecutive Super Bowls from 2022 to 2024 and took home four of the last eight NFL MVP awards. The game has changed. The position has changed. But who’s the best?
In search of that answer, we looked at quarterbacks from the Super Bowl era (no disrespect to Norm Van Brocklin and Slingin’ Sammy Baugh) and came up with a list featuring pocket passers and scramblers, gunslingers and game managers, Super Bowl MVPs and signalcallers who couldn’t win the Big Game. These are the 25 Best NFL Quarterbacks of All Time, Ranked.
25.Dan Fouts
Team: San Diego Chargers
Years active: 1973-1987
Stats: W-L record: 86-84-1 (reg. season), 3-4 (playoffs); Comp%: 58.8; 43,040 yards passing; 252 TDs, 242 INTs
Forty-plus years ago the NFL was a much different league for quarterbacks. Case in point? Of the 100 NFL individual seasons with the most passing attempts, only two occurred before 1985 (only 12 were before 2000 fwiw). One of those seasons belonged to Dan Fouts, who threw 609 (!!!) passes in 1981. Between 1979-81 Fouts threw for 4,000-plus yards each season, setting new NFL yardage records the first two years. There was an element of YOLO to the Air Coryell offense the Chargers ran during Fouts’ prime (named after coach Don Coryell)—in Fouts’ breakout ‘79 season he threw for 24 TDs and…24 interceptions—but those teams were undoubtedly the original model for today’s pass-happy NFL. Fouts and the Air Coryell offense never made a Super Bowl, reaching the AFC Championship twice.—Jack Erwin
24.Warren Moon
Teams: Edmonton Eskimos (CFL), Houston Oilers, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs
Years active: 1978-2000
Stats: W-L record: 102-101 (NFL reg. season), 3-7 (NFL playoffs); Comp%: 58.4; 49,325 yards passing, 291 TDs, 233 INTs (NFL)
Despite not starting his NFL career until he was 28, Moon finished with 49,325 yards passing and 291 passing touchdowns, good for third and fourth at the time of his retirement. Moon spent the first six years of his career playing in the Canadian Football League, having signed with Edmonton before the 1978 NFL Draft because he was told he’d be a late round pick. (Back in the day, NFL GM’s weren’t too keen on Black quarterbacks.) Moon’s combined CFL and NFL stats of 70,553 yards passing and 435 passing touchdowns would be good for fifth and sixth respectively, surpassed only by QBs who played in later eras with more wide-open passing games. Ironically, Moon was one of the first NFL quarterbacks to helm the Run and Shoot, one of the key precursors to the passing-dominant offenses of today.—JE
23.Russell Wilson
Teams: Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants
Years Active: 2012-Present
Stats: W-L record: 121-80-1 (reg. season), 9-8 (playoffs); Comp%: 64.6; 46,966 yards passing, 353 TDs, 114 INTs
Let’s cut to the chase: Russell Wilson suffered one of the most precipitous declines in recent sports history. Since leaving Seattle, he’s been a pariah, a journeyman, a backup, and a punchline. The Broncos even absorbed $85 million in dead money to get out of the Mr. Unlimited business. But that doesn’t erase his early accomplishments. At his peak, Wilson was one of the most dangerRuss playmakers to ever man the position. He was elusive, deadly outside the pocket, and threw one of the prettiest deep balls in the game. And he won—a lot. Wilson would have piloted the Seahawks to back-to-back titles if not for the worst play call in Super Bowl history.—Thomas Golianopoulos
22.Josh Allen
Team: Buffalo Bills
Years Active: 2018-Present
Stats: W-L record: 88-39 (reg. season), 8-7 (playoffs); Comp%: 64; 30,102 yards passing, 220 TDs, 94 INTs
Allen’s story isn’t written yet. The certain part of it is that he’s one of the most incredible athletes to ever play quarterback. He’s also an unprecedented developmental story, having evolved from a mediocre Mountain West passer at Wyoming into a league-altering star for the Bills. (Granted, as the No. 7 pick in 2018, it’s not like Allen was a diamond in the rough.) Where Allen lands on this list in the future depends on whether he wins a Super Bowl—or at least beats Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs sometime.—Alex Kirshner
21.Bart Starr
Team: Green Bay Packers
Years Active: 1956-1971
Stats: W-L record: 94-57-6 (reg. season), 9-1 (playoffs); Comp%: 57.4; 24,718 yards passing, 152 TDs, 138 INTs
Bart Starr is the original Super Bowl OG. Reigning from *NFL Films announcer voice* THE FROZEN TUNDRA OF LAMBEAU FIELD, Starr took home the first two Super Bowl MVPs, throwing the ball efficiently en route to a pair of easy wins. Marked by a stellar passer rating and a nearly impeccable postseason resume, Starr will forever be the first to do it on the biggest stage. Starr won three championships before the Super Bowl even existed, marking his greatness before, during, and after the NFL’s most important transition.—Jake Appleman
20.Troy Aikmen
Team: Dallas Cowboys
Years active: 1989-2000
Stats: W-L record: 94-71 (reg. season), 11-5 (playoffs); Comp%: 61.5; 32,942 yards passing, 165 TDs, 141 INTs
Fans younger than 30 might be surprised to learn that Troy Aikman isn’t just a commentator (they might also be surprised to learn that the Cowboys used to regularly play past Wild Card Weekend). Along with Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin, Aikman led the Cowboys’ return to glory, winning three Super Bowls in four years, with Aikman picking up the MVP in SB XXVII. Never the flashiest QB, Aikman was the perfect maestro for Dallas’ multi-pronged attack in his heyday. His 90 wins in the ‘90s were the most by a QB in one decade until a couple guys named Manning and Brady surpassed that total in the ‘00s and ‘10s respectively.—JE
19.Lamar Jackson
Team: Baltimore Ravens
Years active: 2018-Present
Stats: W-L record: 76-31 (reg. season), 3-5 (playoffs); Comp%: 64.8; 22,608 yards passing, 187 TDs, 56 INTs
How. Do. You. Like. Me. Now? A South Florida native, Jackson was just a 3-star recruit out of college, and famously not recruited as a quarterback by his hometown Miami Hurricanes. He ended up at Louisville where he set all kinds of passing records, only to be passed over in the NFL Draft for the likes of Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, and Josh Rosen (to be fair, Mayfield and Darnold have resurrected their careers to some extent, but they ain’t on this list). All Jackson’s done as a pro is win MVP twice (in 2019 and 2023 and he probably should’ve won in 2024) and become the NFL’s all-time leading rushing quarterback before turning 30, all while challenging Michael Vick for the unofficial title of Most Entertaining Football Player Ever. He’s a better runner than anyone imagined and exactly the top tier passer he (and very few others) thought he’d be.—JE
18.Ben Roethlisberger
Team: Pittsburgh Steelers
Years Active: 2004-2021
Stats: W-L record: 165-81-1 (reg. season), 13-10 (playoffs); Comp%: 64.4; 64,088 yards passing, 418 TDs, 211 INTs
Roethlisberger played at a listed 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds. The difficulty much larger men had putting him on the ground (and some basic common sense) would suggest he often played at heavier weights than that. Roethlisberger was never the best QB in the league and retired without an MVP on his shelf. But he did exit with two Super Bowls, and he got the second by making perhaps the most memorable throw in the game’s history. “Roethlisberger to Holmes” goes down as an easy shorthand in Pittsburgh.—AK
17.Jim Kelly
Team(s): Houston Gamblers (USFL), Buffalo Bills
Years active: 1984-1996
Stats: W-L record: 101-59 (NFL reg. season), 9-8 (NFL playoffs); Comp%: 60.1; 35,467 yards passing, 237 TDs, 175 INTs
There’s an alternate universe not all that different from the one we live in now where Jim Kelly is considered one of sport’s all-time greats, feted as an iconic winner like Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Kelly is the only quarterback to start four consecutive Super Bowls—of course he’s also the only quarterback to lose four consecutive Super Bowls as well, hence the need for the alternate universe. Still, you have to be pretty good to quarterback a team to just one SB, and Kelly under center in the Bills’ K-Gun no-huddle offense was great entertainment. At the time of Kelly’s retirement in 1996, he and Hall of Fame wide receiver Andre Reed ranked second in all-time QB-WR touchdowns. They’re now eighth, which says a lot about the pass-happy offenses that mimicked the K-Gun.—JE
16.Fran Tarkenton
Teams: Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants
Years Active: 1961-1978
Stats: W-L record: 124-109-6 (reg. season), 6-5 (playoffs); Comp%: 57; 47,003 yards passing, 342 TDs, 266 INTs
“I just didn’t accept the sack,” the man nicknamed The Scrambler once said. Indeed, Fran Tarkenton used his mobility to flush out of the pocket and make things happen on the move, revolutionizing the quarterback position in the process; old footage of Tarkenton eluding would-be tacklers feels a little bit like watching old Bugs Bunny cartoons. Though he never won a Super Bowl, losing three times in a four-year span in the mid-70s, Tarkenton finished his 17-year career on top of many statistical categories, including—you guessed it—rushing yards for a quarterback.—JA
15.Terry Bradshaw
Team: Pittsburgh Steelers
Years active: 1970-1983
Stats: W-L record: 107-51 (reg. season), 14-5 (playoffs); Comp%: 51.9; 27,589 yards passing, 212 TDs, 210 INTs
Bradshaw’s numbers look a little iffy by modern standards—the completion percentage and TD-Int ratio would probably get him benched these days. But check out the playoff and Super Bowl winning percentages. From 1974-1979 Bradshaw led the Steelers to four Super Bowl titles, with Bradshaw claiming MVP honors in SB XIII and XIV. The only other players to claim back-to-back SB MVPs are Bart Starr and Patrick Mahomes. Say what you will about the pedestrian stats and the aw shucks shtick he’s done on NFL studio shows for 30 years, all Bradshaw did was win.—JE
14.Matthew Stafford
Teams: Detroit Lions, Los Angeles Rams
Years Active: 2009-Present
Stats: W-L record: 120-118-1 (reg. season), 7-6 (playoffs); Comp%: 63.5; 64,516 yards passing, 423 TDs, 196 INTs
A magician whose job title is “quarterback,” Stafford will stand apart in history for three things: Slugging out 12 hard years with the incompetent Lions, winning a Super Bowl after the Rams rescued him, and successfully making throws that many QBs would never try. Stafford’s basketball-esque no-look passes, including in the biggest spots in the sport, still defy understanding for most of us.—AK
13.Kurt Warner
Teams: St. Louis Rams, New York Giants, Arizona Cardinals
Years Active: 1998-2009
Stats: W-L record: 67-49 (reg. season), 9-4 (playoffs); Comp%: 65.5; 32,344 yards passing, 208 TDs, 128 INTs
Warner’s winding journey to the NFL included going undrafted and playing in the Arena Football League before catching on with the Rams in 1998 and then engineering the Greatest Show on Turf in 1999. That year, Warner was a revelation. With Marshall Faulk sharing the backfield with him and Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce catching passes, Warner won both league MVP and Super Bowl MVP, something nobody else would do in the same year until Patrick Mahomes in 2022. There’s a movie about all of this.—AK
12.Drew Brees
Team: San Diego Chargers, New Orleans Saints
Years Active: 2001-2020
Stats: W-L record: 172-114 (reg. season), 9-9 (playoffs); Comp%: 67.7; 80,358 yards passing, 571 TDs, 243 INTs
Brees excelled at airing it out for the Chargers and especially the Saints in a 20-year career, highlighted by a comeback Super Bowl triumph against Peyton Manning and the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. Not only was Brees prolific—he led the NFL in passing yards seven times while holding the record with five 5,000-plus yard seasons—he was accurate, too. His 74.8% completion percentage in 2018 is the highest ever. His seven touchdown passes against the Giants in 2015 tied an NFL record, his performance a masterclass that showcased the different ways to throw a touchdown (fade, slant, flea flicker, crossing route, etc.).—JA
11.Roger Staubach
Team(s): Dallas Cowboys
Years active: 1969-1979
Stats: W-L record: 85-29(reg. season), 11-6 (playoffs); Comp%: 57; 22,700 yards passing, 153 TDs, 109 INTs
Staubach won the Heisman Trophy at Navy in 1963 and served a tour of duty in Vietnam before joining the Cowboys in 1969. One of the first quarterbacks known for his scrambling ability, Staubach overcame early career wobbles (he threw 2 TDs and 8 interceptions in shared duty his sophomore season) to establish himself as “Captain America” by leading Dallas to four Super Bowl appearances in the ‘70s. He won SB MVP in 1971 and authored the pass that introduced the term Hail Mary to the football lexicon with a 50-yard heave to Drew Pearson in a 1975 Divisional Playoff game.—JE
10.Steve Young
Teams: LA Express (USFL), Tampa Bay Buccaneers, San Francisco 49ers
Years active: 1984-1999
Stats: W-L record: 94-49 (NFL reg. season), 8-6 (NFL playoffs); Comp%: 64.3 (NFL); 33,124 yards passing (NFL), 232 TDs, 107 INTs (NFL)
Before Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, and generations of dual-threat quarterbacks, there was Steve Young (well, him and Randall Cunningham). After playing in the USFL and struggling for a couple of seasons with the Bucs, Young served as Joe Montana’s backup for four years before finally getting the starting gig in San Francisco in 1991 in his age-30 season. He immediately became one of the most dynamic players in the NFL, winning two regular season MVPs (‘92 and ‘94) as well as MVP of Super Bowl XXIX. Young was an efficient passer, leading the league in passer rating six times, and a relentless run threat, retiring as the second leading rushing QB in league history.—JE
9.Johnny Unitas
Teams: Baltimore Colts, San Diego Chargers
Years Active: 1956-1973
Stats: W-L record: 118-63-4 (reg. season), 6-3 (playoffs); Comp%: 54.6; 40,239 yards passing, 290 TDs, 253 INTs
Unitas was the ultimate gunslinger, playing brilliantly and recklessly in a time when quarterback play was much less refined than it is today. A 290-to-253 touchdowns-to-picks ratio sounds mediocre, but that was just the thing: In 1964, when Unitas won MVP, the leaguewide interception rate was 4.8% and the touchdown rate was 5.1%. While the pick rate has declined to sub-2 percent in recent decades, today’s quarterbacks don’t find paydirt as frequently as Unitas did.—AK
8.Brett Favre
Team: Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers, New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings
Years Active: 1991-2010
Stats: W-L record: 186-112 (reg. season), 13-11 (playoffs); Comp%: 62; 71,838 yards passing, 508 TDs, 336 INTs
A three-time MVP (1995-97) and durable iron man at the helm for the Packers, Brett Favre could fire darts all over the field like few before or after. The apex of Favre’s golden age was a Super Bowl XXXI victory over the Patriots, a picture of Favre celebrating an early touchdown with his helmet off a memorable piece of gridiron lore. Favre is also the most intercepted man in NFL history, which is just as much a testament to his longevity as it is his risk-taking. There’s some other not-so-great late-and-post-career stuff in there, too.—JA
7.Dan Marino
Team: Miami Dolphins
Years Active: 1983-1999
Stats: W-L record: 147-93 (reg. season), 8-10 (playoffs); Comp%: 59.4; 61,361 yards passing, 420 TDs, 252 INTs
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 league in the 1980s and achieved longevity by avoiding sacks and keeping himself healthy for the most part. Marino had the lowest sack rate among qualifying QBs in 10 different seasons, getting the ball out quickly behind an offensive line. His quick release is the gold standard.—AK
6.John Elway
Team: Denver Broncos
Years Active: 1983-1998
Stats: W-L record: 148-82-1 (reg. season), 14-8 (playoffs); Comp%: 56.9; 51,475 yards passing, 300 TDs, 226 INTs
More than any other QB on this list, Elway’s name will forever be connected not to one specific play, but to a drive. The 15-play, 98-yard scoring march that Elway led the Broncos on to tie the Cleveland Browns in the 1986 AFC Championship Game will probably stand forever as the greatest offensive possession in football history. Elway—a freakish athlete with a cannon for an arm and incredible pocket presence—was the next season’s MVP, and he won two Super Bowls. During his career, he had 40 regular season game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or later. One stood above them all.—AK
5.Aaron Rodgers
Teams: Green Bay Packers, New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers
Years Active: 2005-Present
Stats: W-L record: 163-93-1 (reg. season), 12-11 (playoffs); Comp%: 65.1; 66,274 yards passing, 527 TDs, 123 INTs
Rodgers will be known for many things. He’ll be known for taking over Brett Favre and somehow being even better than the Packers legend he replaced. He’ll be known for winning that one Super Bowl, in 2010, beating a Steelers franchise he would join 15 years later. He’ll be known for telling us way, way, way too much about himself. But most of all, he’ll be known for his prodigious right arm, which enabled him to make throws that no other QB in football history has made. His Hail Mary to Jeff Janis in a playoff game in 2016 may be the single best throw ever delivered.—AK
4.Peyton Manning
Team: Indianapolis Colts, Denver Broncos
Years active: 1998-2015
Stats: W-L record: 186-79 (reg. season), 14-13 (playoffs); Comp%: 65.3; 71,940 yards passing, 539 TDs, 251 INTs
If players like Dan Fouts and John Elway were the prototypes of the modern quarterback, Peyton Manning is what the finished product looks like. Not a mobile quarterback by any means, Manning was a master at reading defenses and showed accuracy on throws both deep and underneath. He won an NFL-record five regular season MVPs (with two runner-up finishes) and a Super Bowl MVP in SB XLI. From 1998 to 2010, Manning started every game for the Colts and his 115 wins with the team in the ‘00s were a record for QB Ws in a decade (surpassed by Tom Brady in the ‘10s). After sitting out the 2011 season with a neck injury, Manning was released by the Colts prior to their selecting Andrew Luck in the 2012 draft. Manning signed with the Broncos, and had arguably the greatest regular season for a quarterback in 2013 at age 37, setting records for passing yardage and touchdown passes.—JE
3.Patrick Mahomes
Teams: Kansas City Chiefs
Years Active: 2017-Present
Stats: W-L record: 95-31 (reg. season), 17-4 (playoffs); Comp%: 66.2; 35,939 yards passing, 267 TDs, 85 INTs
Mahomes is the natural successor to Tom Brady as the NFL’s one inevitable player. He finally missed the playoffs in 2025, but Mahomes’ seven-year streak of conference championship appearances before that may never be matched. The best endorsement of Mahomes’ brilliance is how shocking it feels when things don’t go his way—a blowout Super Bowl loss here and there, or the one exceedingly rare season in which the Chiefs don’t put it together. And he built that whole reputation before turning 31.—AK
2.Joe Montana
Teams: San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs
Years active: 1979-1994
Stats: W-L record: 117-47 (reg. season), 16-7 (playoffs); Comp%: 63.2; 40,551 yards passing, 273 TDs, 149 INTs
Joe Cool spent the better part of the ‘80s flinging dimes and winning Super Bowls, and looking imperturbable doing it. Montana was the maestro of 49ers coach Bill Walsh’s West Coast Offense, an offensive scheme emphasizing quick-hitting, high-percentage passing that became the blueprint for many modern offenses. Montana led the league in completion percentage four times in the ‘80s, picked up MVP trophies in 1989 and 1990, and made the Niners Super Bowl fixtures, winning four titles and three SB MVPs (1981, 1984, 1989).—JE
1.Tom Brady
Team: New England Patriots, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Years Active: 2000-2022
Stats: W-L record: 251-82 (reg. season), 35-13 (playoffs); Comp%: 64.3; 89,214 yards passing, 649 TDs, 212 INTs
Nobody thought that when Mo Lewis knocked Drew Bledsoe out early in the 2001 regular season that Tom Brady would step in and become the greatest quarterback of all time, appearing in half of the Super Bowls over the next 20 years. (Maybe that’s the most important contribution by a New York Jet this century: paving the way for Tom Brady’s emergence.)
How did he do it? Never a superior athlete like John Elway or Lamar Jackson (Brady’s Draft Combine tape is good for a laugh), Brady had a big arm but his real superpowers were his brain and his work ethic. TB12 was a film junkie known to spend hours on end in the film room. By the time he was done, he knew every scheme, formation, and coverage he was up against.
For two decades, the NFL revolved around Brady. He led the Pats to a remarkable upset in his first Super Bowl and never looked back, winning six more, his transformation from upstart hero to mainstay GOAT villain one of the most startling developments in the history of sports.—JA