Best: Minnesota Vikings – Fran Tarkenton
The “original gangster” of dual-threat quarterbacks, NFL players, media, and fans were in awe of Fran Tarkenton’s mobility and scrambling ability long before 24/7 media coverage and internet access made highlights so easy to watch. While many of them have been broken as of today, when Tarkenton retired from the NFL in 1978, he was the owner of virtually every quarterbacking stat you could think of.
In fact, Tarkenton’s 47,003 career passing yardage is still 11th-most in NFL history. In addition, he ran for 3,674 yards and 32 touchdowns over his career. Between 1973 and 1978, Tarkenton led the Minnesota Vikings to the playoffs every single year, and that span included three Super Bowl appearances.
Worst: Minnesota Vikings – Spergon Wynn
One of the quarterbacks famously selected before Tom Brady in the 2000 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns tried to do their best to ruin the career of ultra-raw project quarterback Spergon Wynn. Dumping him one season after drafting him, Wynn came to Minnesota, and started only two games for the Vikings.
Needless to say, they weren’t pretty; he threw six interceptions in those two games, both of which were losses for Minnesota.
Tim Davis (Rhino) says
Harrington was definitely a bust, but he wasn’t the worst QB the Detroit Lions ever had. That honor goes to Andre Ware! Here’s a list of the stats of all the quarterbacks who have ever played for the Lions. If you compare Harrington’s and Ware’s stats, it clearly shows Harrington came in a close second to Ware as the Lions #1 QB bust!!!
Charley says
Best qb for Arizona: Hands down Kurt Warner, only QB to take the Cardinals to the SB
Todd Pence says
I was actually enrolled in a class as a freshman at WVU with Browning Nagle. He was a no-show.
andrew schnack says
Ken Anderson not in the Hall of Fame is a joke. Look at the stats.
Lawrence Pickett says
Just knew the pick for the Saints would’ve been Aaron Brooks
Larry Wilson says
Sports writers must want a current (aka. more newsworthy) QB to be considered as G.O.A.T. over the QB that truly is the G.O.A.T. Read the QB listed for the Cleveland Browns — 10 championship games in all ten years he played and won seven. HELLO! seven championships in of ten years (Graham) vs. five championships in of eighteen years (Brady).
Day Lily Gardener says
Wow…you got the Cardinals best correct. Since moving to Phoenix…I was shocked most fans didn’t even know Jim Hart…let alone that the Cardinals were originally from Chicago. Jim Hart played for Southern Illinois University.
azucho98 says
Kelly/Van Pelt? Guess you never heard of Nathan Peterman.
Roger Brown says
Really Joey Harrington the worst for the Lions? How about Andre Ware. At least Joey played a few seasons as starter on a cast of players around him that were pathetic. At least Andre Ware Barry Sanders & Herman Moore to help him & was still pathetic.
Mitchigan says
Ladies and Gentlemen, A true, long-suffering Lions fan! That was funny! And so very accurate..
ed says
favre over starr? 5/6 championships vs 1/2. no contest
manning over johnny unitas? same problem.
warner was good, but van brocklin won more titles and still holds the all time single game yardage record (721).
nuff said
Gary says
Starr was great but Aaron Rodgers is better. Favre is the third best in Packer history (his 308 interceptions by far leads the NFL All-Time)
The Guy says
The Raiders won 3 Super Bowls. Stabler won 1 and Plunkett won 2. Madden was HC for 1 Flores was HC for 2.
K. Woodbury says
Fran Tarkenton was my favorite quarterback to watch of all time . I’ve seen many quarterbacks play in my long days , and I always thought Fran did the most with the least amount of physical assets and athletic ability. He could out-scramble and out-think most any other quarterback. He was very exciting to watch because of his ability to make a play on plays that looked like they were going nowhere. I was never a Viking or Giants fan so I’m not just saying this due to any team bias.
R Pete says
I am not sure I would call Randy Wright the worst QB ever for Green Bay. The wins an losses were more a team effort than they were a QB problem. It seems to me he had a decent arm and was pretty intelligent but the team around him when he became starter was pretty badly decimated by poor personnel decisions.
Amos Walker says
No way do I want to hear about bad QBs without some mention of that QB’s offensive line. Joey Harrington had a tough time with the Lions but that was because as soon as he got the ball he had to run for his life. Never got much accomplished but Tom Brady couldn’t win with that line.
Edward K. says
Seriously? You pick Farve over Bart Starr and Flacco over Johnny Unitas?
James says
The Baltimore Ravens are not the old Baltimore Colts franchise. They were the Cleveland Brown franchise that moved to Baltimore.
Joel says
Unitas played for the Colts, not the Ravens. The author picked Manning over Unitas.
Jordy Holly says
Quincy Carter was by far the worst QB in Dallas history. Dude was smoking rope during training camp. Parcels said…bye girl.
boltz Newman says
BS on Eli Manning Best QB for the Giant he belongs as Close to the worst!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sam says
He was the best. He is currently the worst. He rightly deserves both slots.
ed says
maybe Charlie Conerly, but eli did win 2 super bowls when it counts.
Tom says
Dan Marino was fine, but never won a ring ..
Bob Griese has two!
Me says
Those 2 championships were won with defensive and the power run game. For some reason when Marino came a long the same coach, Don Shula, forgot about those 2 things. Marino is the better QB of the 2.
John West says
You forgot the point-a-minute QB that was a MVP candidate in the 1950’s (Bob Waterfield) in favor of a qb that was 3 YARDS from going 0-4 in Sper Bowls. Warner DID NOT even come close to franchise record for passing yards for the Rams, even though he was self proclaimed as a “great show on TURF”
ed says
I’m a waterfield fan too, but he didn’t play too many games (see pro football reference.com). I prefer van brocklin.
Dan says
Jim Kelly only went to four Super Bowls not five. The worst Quarterback for the Bills needs to be updated, 99.9% of all Bills fans would agree Nate Peterman is the worst Quarterback in Bills history.
Peter Pan says
Yeah, it’s too hard to pick just ONE worst quarterback for BuffaBLOW. They have had so many bad ones you would need a calculator to keep track of them all. Well, figure they only had 2 good ones over 6 decades or 60 years so that should give you an idea of how many bad ones they have had! Buffalo leads the NFL in bad quarterbacks. In fact, BuffaBLOW leads the NFL in BAD everything. Living in Buffalo is like living in a sewer except the sewer doesn’t smell quite as bad.
Chris Hora says
Cade McNown was a Bears first round draft choice that immediately insulted the Chicago fans and failed miserably. Quickly. He was far worse than either Cutler or Avellini.
Packer Shareholder says
Best Packer QB……Brett was good with one NFL Championship. Bart (Starr was better with FIVE NFL CHAMPIONSHIPS.
Me says
Didn’t Starr and the Packers stink before the arrival of Vince Lombardi? I would give the title to Aaron Rodgers, that man has basically had to carry the team.
Bump says
The whole GB team stunk before St. Vince. Saw the tail end of the Lombardi teams and all of Favre’s career. Love Favre too, & I would take Starr. He commanded the offense like few others. Ever.
and 5 championships in 7 years. May never be matched/surpassed.
J says
This has a “old man yells at cloud” feel to it.
Who really thinks these guys from the 60’s and 70’s are better than their contemporaries?
David says
Um, learn the English language. “Their contemporaries” means the guys that played at the same time they did. That being said, to interpret what it seems you are trying to say, I do. Jim Hart, for example, as the best Cardinals QB? Definitely. They got some good seasons out of Jake Plummer, Kurt Warner, Neil Lomax (who came right after Hart, and was with them when they moved to Phoenix), Paul Christman (old Chicago Cardinals days). But Jim Hart was consistently very good over more than a decade. His only problem was that he had to go up against Roger Staubach and the powerhouse Cowboys of the 70s. Hart was the heart of the Cardiac Cards.
Come to think of it, J, your command of the language and your short-sightedness tells me you must not be more than maybe 25 years old.
Peter Farr says
“That being said, to interpret what it seems you are trying to say, I do. ”
What the heck kind of sentence is that???!!!! Those who live in glass houses…..
ed says
title of article: best in team history. not best in last 2 years. based on success. get with it.
fookoof says
While Brandon Weeden is awful, he is nowhere near the worst QB the Browns ever had. Brady Quinn was definitely worse.
Robert says
Both Weeden and Quinn were 1000X better than Johnny Manziel…he’s clearly the worst QB the Browns have ever had.
Sam Millsaps says
Actually Tim Couch probably was
Chuck says
Art Schlichter was worse than Trudeau. but those teams were terrible.
Bill Evans says
“Though Luckman’s passing yardage and touchdown pass totals were eventually surpassed by Jay Cutler, the latter is not — and will never be — a five-time All-Pro selection and Hall of Fame inductee like Luckman.”
Doesn’t this mean Cutler is worse than Luckman?
Chris Aldridge says
You got your Bears QBs backwards!