Ranking NFL Quarterback Tiers

There's been a lot of conversation on Tuesday regarding a ranking system on every quarterback in the NFL via Mike Sando of ESPN (subscription required).

I haven't polled any NFL coaches, executives, or personnel. I'll be going off of numbers and the personal eye test. I'll be using a similar tier type system and ranking each quarterback within each tier with the same description for each.

Today we'll start with Tier One.

Tier One:

A Tier 1 quarterback can carry his team week in and week out. The team wins because of his like play. He expertly handles pure passing situations.

Drew Brees:

Years back we thought he may be on the very slippery slope of the down turn of his career, he is but the decline has been much slower than most of us would have thought. The team produced three straight 7-9 seasons, had one failed draft pick/free agent signing after another, and were asking Drew Brees to do so much on offense. Last year, they had an all-time great draft, signed some key free agents, and went 11-5. In addition, they found a running back tandem so dynamic that they earned their own nickname, Boom and Zoom. The addition of the new found running game, a vastly improved defense, and a stud in Michael Thomas helped take some pressure off of Brees and he was able to go out there and dominate.

Aaron Rodgers:

Rodgers missed nine games last season due to a broken collarbone and it was the first time the team has missed the playoffs in eight years and has only missed the playoffs once before in his tenure in Green Bay (his first year as a starter). He's the elite class of quarterback in the NFL with his ability to read/outsmart defenses, escapability, ability to throw from multiple platforms or on the run, and his pure arm talent. Here's a neat-o fact, he's never thrown more than 13 interceptions in a season, and the last seven years he hasn't thrown double-digits interceptions-talk about taking care of the football. He's averaged 4.1 touchdown passes per interception throughout his 10 seasons as a starting quarterback. The ratio for the other 29 quarterbacks in the league with at least 2,000 pass attempts in that same span you may be wondering is 1.8-1. Tom Brady with 3.9 is the only other quarterback that's even somewhat close. Impressive.

Tom Brady:

Speaking of Tom Brady, that average touchdown passes per interception is pretty impressive but as much as most of us dislike him and the New England Patriots, you've got to admit that the guy is the G.O.A.T (greatest of all time). He's just a pure winner, his record as a starter during the regular season is 196-55 and if you thought that was impressive, he's 27-10 in the playoffs when it matters the most. That playoff record comes with five Super Bowl rings to his name as well. If durability is your thing, Tom's got that too, he started all but two games in his first full season as a starter in 2001, missed all but one game in 2008 due to injury (of course that was the one year I drafted him in fantasy), and four games in 2016 due to a suspension. Brady's never had top of the line talent around him but he has had one of, if not the best coach in NFL history guiding him throughout his career. The dude has also thrown for nearly 500 touchdowns, just over 66,000 yards in his career, and is STILL a tier one QB at age 40 (his birthday is in 10 days, happy early b-day Tom).

Tier Two comes your way tomorrow.

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