Written by Jason La Confora at CBSSports.com
There is a timeless and endless debate in the NFL over who the best quarterbacks in the league are. It has raged forever at water coolers and at bars and over the internet and it will continue for as long as men are throwing footballs on television for a living.
NFL quarterback is the most important position in all of professional sports and true star quarterbacks are essentially akin to A-list celebrities. Everything they do on or off the field is scrutinized in the sports media as well as the gossip pages (just ask Tom Brady, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson, for starters).
And, since it’s the dog days of the NFL offseason, I figured it’s the perfect time to weigh in on the state of quarterbacking. I want to do rankings in a somewhat organized fashion and not just fire off a list of names. (Hey, I can’t let Prisco and Brinson have all the low-hanging fruit in May and June, can I?)
So I thought about a way to divide the quarterbacks into tiers and then more or less kinda-sorta rank them within those tiers. I was looking for what appeared — at least to me — to be natural cutoff points to delineate one strata of quarterbacks from the next. I wanted to acknowledge the fact that over time many of these men will fluctuate from one tier to the next based on age, development, the supporting cast, coaching stability (or lack there of) and, of course, injury. This exercise is meant to be a snapshot, by and large, though I am projecting and predicting somewhat as well.
And while it’s quite possible that some of these QBs will end up in a different tier should I continue this undertaking a year from now, I am also doing it in a way in which I highly doubt that someone who is in Tier 4 or 5 right now is going to be a guy who would end up as a consensus top-tier quarterback in 12 to 24 months. I am projecting this off of the 32 guys I expect to be opening day starters. It’s not meant as a 1-32 ranking but more of a conversation starter as to how to quantify clusters of quarterbacks in a fairly cogent man.
Tier 1: Bona fide franchise quarterbacks
These are the men among men. They are the QBs who have an opportunity to be viewed as iconic figures when their careers are complete. They are individuals who lift a franchise by their very presence, who are tremendously accomplished on the field and have won huge games — in many cases willing their team to do so. They tend to transcend their sport. I went back and forth between having five men in this category or seven in this category and ultimately settled on six.
‘Nuff said. Greatest player of his generation.
At this moment in time, I would venture a good bit of his peers, if forced to take a truth serum, would call Rodgers the most complete quarterback in the game. Even his “down” seasons are pretty damn great.
Still in his prime, impervious to pretty much everything and entering what could be his most prolific season yet. His years with Todd Haley will surpass even what he did with Bruce Arians, and he still has a window to add to those two Lombardi Trophies.
He still has his haters, but he has accomplished historic things in just a few years and is becoming an elite pocket passer to go along with everything else he does. He’s still just scratching the surface and has a competitive edge that will carry him.
The most physically gifted and physically imposing quarterback in the NFL who was a super-worthy MVP last year. He has more trophies and more title game appearances in his future. He lifts a very limited offensive cast each and every week and finds new ways to keep winning football games. He’s also maturing each year as well, though he’s still prone to a misstep or two.
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