| |
3. Joe Montana, Draft Class of 1979, 3rd round, HOF Class of 2000
|
Joe Montana may not have had the strongest arm, but he was a winner. He led the Niners to 4 Super Bowl championships and he was named Super
Bowl MVP 3 times. He also engineered 31 come-from-behind victories. He was the 5th QB to reach 40,000 yards in his career and currently ranks 10th
on the all-time list with 40,551 yards and 9th on the all-time passing TD list with 293.
|
| |
4. Brett Favre, Draft Class of 1991, 2nd round
|
The NFL's all-time leader in passing yards and passing TDs began his NFL career by having his name mispronounced at the NFL Draft - but then
again, who hasn't mispronounced it at some point? To me, Favre exemplified exactly what I want to see every professional athlete do whether on my
favorite team or not. Have fun playing the "game". I once heard Favre say that he didn't get paid to play football on Sundays. He got paid to practice
Monday through Saturday. That says more to me about him than his prolific passing numbers say.
|
| |
5. Dan Fouts, Draft Class of 1973, 3rd round, HOF Class of 1993
|
The first player to throw for 4,000 yards for 3 consecutive seasons, Fouts ranks 8th on the all-time passing yards list with 43,040 yards. Although he
didn't win any Super Bowls, he helped turn around the Chargers organization leading them to 3 AFC West titles. Also, he was the NFL's MVP in 1982.
|
| |
6. Fran Tarkenton, Draft Class of 1961, 3rd round, HOF Class of 1986
|
Tarkenton and the Vikings may be most known for their ineptitude at winning a Super Bowl. Looking at the glass as half full, Tarkenton was the main
reason the Vikings kept getting to the Super Bowl (3 times). Great scrambler and ranks 5th on the all-time career passing yards list with 47,003
yards and 3rd in passing TDs with 342.
|
| |
7. Ken Anderson, Draft Class of 1971, 3rd round
|
Anderson finished his career with 32,838 yards and 197 TDs. He was taken in the same draft as # 9 on our list - Joe Theismann - and in the same
draft where the Top 3 overall picks were all QBs: Jim Plunkett, Archie Manning and Dan Pastorini.
|
| |
8. Brian Sipe, Draft Class of 1972, 13th round
|
Sipe is the latest-round draft choice to make our Top 11 list. He finished his career with 23,713 passing yards and 154 TDs. Sipe also led the NFL in
passing in 1980.
|
| |
9. Joe Theismann, Draft Class of 1971, 4th round
|
Theismann finished his career with 25,206 passing yards and 160 TDs. Although John Riggins was MVP of Super Bowl XVII, Theismann was the
starting QB that year completing 15 of his 23 pass attempts - 2 of them for TDs.
|
| |
10. Rich Gannon, Draft Class of 1987, 4th round
|
Gannon was selected in the 4th round from Delaware and finished his NFL career with 28,743 passing yards and 180 passing TDs while only throwing
104 interceptions. He also completed over 60% of his career passing attempts. In 2002, Gannon and the Raiders lost in the Super Bowl to Tampa
Bay, but Gannon had his best season that year passing for over 4600 yards and throwing 26 TDs to 10 INTs.
|
| |
11. Matt Hasselbeck, Draft Class of 1998, 6th round
|
Hasselbeck is one of only 2 active players on our list. One of my favorite Hasselbeck stories is the one he tells where he received letter from a fan
when he was back-up QB to Favre in Green Bay. The fan said that Favre never responded to his mail and he requested that Hasselbeck get a Favre
autograph for him. Well, since then, he's come a long way getting to the Super Bowl a couple of years ago and putting up solid career stats thus far:
60.7% completion rate, 22, 333 career passing yards and 142-84 TD-INT.
|
| |
Honorable mention: Derek Anderson, 2005, 6th round; Trent Green, 1993, 8th round; Mark Rypien, 1986, 6th round; Steve DeBerg, 1977, 10th
round; Ron Jaworski, 1973, 2nd round; Don Meredith, 1960, 3rd round
|
