Has there ever been an era of NFL football with better QB play?

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Is it just me, or is the NFL just loaded with good-great QBs.

Peyton Manning
Tom Brady
Drew Breesus
Ben Roethlisberger
Aaron Rodgers
Phil Rivers
Eli Manning
Matt Ryan
Tony Romo
Matt Schaub
Jay Cutlulz

Sam Bradford and Josh Freeman are on the come up.

Thoughts?

 

[shag773]

Off the top of my head I guess you could argue Marino, Elway, Kelly, O'Brien, Cunningham (on his way), Warren Moon, Dan Fouts, Steve Young (on his way), Chris Everett...



Edit: This thread could go 50 pages, although I'm sure this has been gone over more than once here

 

[tigstah]

hmmmm

ken stabler
roger staubach
sonny jergenson
fran tarkenton
bob griese
terry bradshaw
archie manning
johnny unitas......

70's era......

 

[Houston]

Can't ignore the class of WR's that the QB's in the OP have had to work with.

 

[Loco]

Statistically, no.

A lot to do with the evolved passing game, less focus on running, new rules that benefit primarily the offense and passing, ect.

That doesnt mean great QB's nowadays couldnt play then and vice versa. Great play and work ethic transcends era's.

 

[Senser81]

Is it just me, or is the NFL just loaded with good-great QBs.

Peyton Manning
Tom Brady
Drew Breesus
Ben Roethlisberger
Aaron Rodgers
Phil Rivers
Eli Manning
Matt Ryan
Tony Romo
Matt Schaub
Jay Cutlulz

Sam Bradford and Josh Freeman are on the come up.

Thoughts?

I think there are more good, young QBs now than there has been in many years. The mid-80's had quite a few, too. Right now, you have two surefire HOFers (Brady, Manning), and 4 guys who will probably get in when they retire (Rodgers, Roethlisberger, Brees, Rivers). Thats quite a few elite QBs playing at the same time. Of course, this era of QBs is hurt by Daunte Culpepper's departure.

 

[Senser81]

Statistically, no.

A lot to do with the evolved passing game, less focus on running, new rules that benefit primarily the offense and passing, ect.

That doesnt mean great QB's nowadays couldnt play then and vice versa. Great play and work ethic transcends era's.

Don't you mean "Statistically, yes."? Otherwise what you said makes no sense.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Can't ignore the class of WR's that the QB's in the OP have had to work with.

Disagree.

I think there are less elite WR's now than there have been in quite some time. Not too long ago you had Moss, Holt, Bruce, Carter, Owens,C. Johnson, R.Smith, J.Smith, Ward, S.Smith, and a bunch more I'm overlooking. Most teams had a go to, 1,000 stud. I think the WR position is now a deep position, but not nearly as top heavy as the previous couple of era's.

 

[Loco]

Don't you mean "Statistically, yes."? Otherwise what you said makes no sense.

actually I was replying to the thread title Has there ever been an era of NFL football with better QB play? so it made sense in my head.

I meant statistically no there has never been a better era of QB play. Most of that has to do with rule changes ect.

 

[Loco]

Disagree.

I think there are less elite WR's now than there have been in quite some time. Not too long ago you had Moss, Holt, Bruce, Carter, Owens,C. Johnson, R.Smith, J.Smith, Ward, S.Smith, and a bunch more I'm overlooking. Most teams had a go to, 1,000 stud. I think the WR position is now a deep position, but not nearly as top heavy as the previous couple of era's.

I think its mostly perception and the abundance of the passing game. Looking back, a bunch of those guys you mentioned will have trouble even getting into the Hall of Fame and so will future WR's.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I think its mostly perception and the abundance of the passing game. Looking back, a bunch of those guys you mentioned will have trouble even getting into the Hall of Fame and so will future WR's.

But passing yardage continues to rise as passing dominates the game more and more, yet the era of the dominant WR seems to be over. You would think the number of dominant WR's would increase with the number of dominant QB's, but it has been the reverse. The receiving statistics are more spread out in todays game.

 

[Hitman]

But passing yardage continues to rise as passing dominates the game more and more, yet the era of the dominant WR seems to be over. You would think the number of dominant WR's would increase with the number of dominant QB's, but it has been the reverse. The receiving statistics are more spread out in todays game.

It's all cause and effect in the NFL. The rules change to benefit the receivers so teams put more money into pass rushers and middle quality DBs aside from 4 or 5 "shutdown" guys. Offensive coaches then go to smaller, quicker receivers and a short, spread out passing game. Now the rules stop the defense from hitting a receiver over the middle. I wonder what the next evolution of defense will be? I'm bettinon more ILB like Urlacher. Converted safeties that can use underneath coverage to pick off those short crossers. Who knows though?

 

[Houston]

Disagree.

I think there are less elite WR's now than there have been in quite some time. Not too long ago you had Moss, Holt, Bruce, Carter, Owens,C. Johnson, R.Smith, J.Smith, Ward, S.Smith, and a bunch more I'm overlooking. Most teams had a go to, 1,000 stud. I think the WR position is now a deep position, but not nearly as top heavy as the previous couple of era's.

I was actually counting guys like Moss, Owens, C.Johnson, Ward, and S.Smith. Especially since some of the QB's on that list have thrown to these guys. It seems we're on different time frames. The OP looked like it was only about players who are currently the best, but the thread title said Era so I was counting the entire decade.


Going by your way though, yes most seasons of the past 10 years or so have had a better WR class then this one. This seems to be a transition time for the WR position. The guys you mentioned are old and past prime, the next really good class might take a few years since they're all still new to the league. Currently there's only like 2 or 3 guys in the middle who could be called great. Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, and maybe someone else I can't think of.

 

[s@ppisgod]

I think I'd take the 90's group by a little. You had Marino, Elway, Favre, Young, Kelly, Aikman, Moon, Bledsoe, Brunell, etc. Just hard to take these QBs' numbers on their own merit when the league's top passers put up video game #s routinely now.

The 90's guys all have these near-legendary, hard fought playoff victories. Now, you see guys like Brees, Rodgers, Brady, Roethlisberger, Warner, etc carve up playoff defenses like it's week 3. And Manning had a rep as a choker in the playoffs before these new rules, Romo hasn't won a playoff game, Shaub hasn't been in there yet, Eli and Brees both have one big post-season. Compare that to Kelly's post-season career or Aikman's or Favre's or Elway's in the 90's.
SAMSUNG-SGH-A887/A887UCIJ1 SHP/VPP/R5 NetFront/3.5 SMM-MMS/1.2.0 profile/MIDP-2.1 configuration/CLDC-1.1

 

[Shayn•Da•Pain]

I blame the '04 Colts vs Patriots AFC Championship game for all of this.

 

[Senser81]

Disagree.

I think there are less elite WR's now than there have been in quite some time. Not too long ago you had Moss, Holt, Bruce, Carter, Owens,C. Johnson, R.Smith, J.Smith, Ward, S.Smith, and a bunch more I'm overlooking. Most teams had a go to, 1,000 stud. I think the WR position is now a deep position, but not nearly as top heavy as the previous couple of era's.

Agree that you had better WRs back then. I think guys were just more consistent back then, too. Holt, Bruce, Carter, and even guys like Rod Smith and Jimmy Smith were locks for 1000-yard seasons.

I think now you have the three best WRs in Calvin Johson, Andre Johnson, and Larry Fitzgerald, and they are all stuck on bad teams. Then you have guys like Lee Evans who can put up big numbers if he's paired with another decent WR, but he gets stuck alongside Josh Reed.

 

[Shayn•Da•Pain]

Agree that you had better WRs back then. I think guys were just more consistent back then, too. Holt, Bruce, Carter, and even guys like Rod Smith and Jimmy Smith were locks for 1000-yard seasons.

I think now you have the three best WRs in Calvin Johson, Andre Johnson, and Larry Fitzgerald, and they are all stuck on bad teams. Then you have guys like Lee Evans who can put up big numbers if he's paired with another decent WR, but he gets stuck alongside Josh Reed.

Not disagreeing with you, in fact I absolutely agree with you. I think the WRs were better back in the day. Besides that I'm not here to argue Post HOF WR Careers vs modern Pro Bowlers.

One thing that might tip the scales a little, is the TE play of this era. You had Gonzalez and Sharpe back then, and then a handful of guys who'd go for 600 yards, 700 tops. Today we've got Dallas Clark, Gates, Witten, Davis, and then a half a dozen guys who could reach 800-1,000 yards any given season. This is the era of the TE I think.

 

[young2rice]

Hmm yeah TE crop is definately better now outside of ShannonSharpe / Ben Coates / Early Tony Gonzalez you had guys like Brent Jones/Jay Novacek who were great TE's for other reasons but statistically were 60 catch, 650 yard, 4 touchdown kind of guys that were praised to no end for those stats, when now adays that's a decent TE at best, but back then was cusp of greatness.

 

[St. Francisco]

I'm more than a little shocked (and frankly, digusted) that Flacco and Vick were left off your list.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

I'm more than a little shocked (and frankly, digusted) that Flacco and Vick were left off your list.

Meh @ Vick...Flacco, just missed the cut.