I despise him, but Rodgers by a lot if you're strictly going on stuff like performance, numbers, talent, etc. I want to put Steve Young second based on that criteria. Montana if you're someone who only counts rings.
Argument could be made for anybody named Montana or Rodgers with Brees, Favre, Young and Starr not far behind. If you are going pure winners it’s Montana and Starr. If you are talking pure talent it’s Rodgers and Favre. Brees is a bit of a combination of the two groups (not total talent, but accuracy is insane) I picked Montana even as a Packers fan. Rodgers finishing off another Super Bowl probably changes tide for me, but 4 super bowls is 4 super bowls.
Bart Starr, in his best seasons, was wild. In '66, he led the league with a 105 passer rating. #2 was 88. 4 points clear of Sunny Jurgensen and 6 clear of Unitas in completion percentage. Starr's peak wasn't as long as Rodgers' though.
I was just thinking about how funny it is that Rodgers being the huge asshole that’s full of himself that he is at best is 3rd best in his generation alone
Look at Aikman's numbers, both for his career and year-by-year. I get that football is different now, but he never threw 20 TD passes in a season. His career QB rating is 81.6 and he had two seasons with a QB rating over 90. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/A/AikmTr00.htm I like him as an announcer and he won three Super Bowls, but he's the most overrated QB of all time.
I generally agree with the ranking, but Montana was a more than “just rings.” It certainly helped having Rice to throw to, but so did Young,
To be clear, I'm not suggesting it's "just rings" that puts him in the elite category. He obviously was an incredible QB. He won 2 MVPs. He was awesome. But if you're putting Montana ahead of Rodgers, the only real argument is the rings because Rodgers has him in pretty much every other way. And in some of those ways (like "talent"), it's by a lot.
The biggest crime in my sports fandom is the amount of times Rodgers did pull off the impossible only to have McCarthy/inept defense/special teams fuck it up Rodgers didn't get to touch the ball again after the Cardinals scored a TD in 3 fucking plays in overtime In the NFC Championship game against the Seahawks McCarthy kicked field goals from 18 and 19 yards. Oh, another playoff OT game where the Rodgers didn't get to touch the ball
Dan Marino Patrick Mahomes Tom Brady Peyton Manning take your pick. Fucking ridiculous none of them are included in the poll of the greatest NFC QBs
I want to throw Bradshaw into this fight. He threw more picks than TD’s in 7 of his first 8 seasons as a starter. But, he somehow threw more TD’s (212) than Aikman did (165) in his 165 career starts. So yeah, Aikman wins!