A Former Super Bowl Winner Breaks Down The Quarterbacks

Choosing the best quarterback in the NFL is a risky proposition. If you choose Peyton Manning over Tom Brady, get ready to hear the three Super Bowl rings argument. If you choose Brady over Manning, get ready to hear some lofty statistical totals. If you don’t even consider Drew Brees, you might be in trouble. The fact is, every season there are analysts and fans that try to decide which quarterback is the best in the league. Luckily for us, ESPN’s Trent Dilfer has tiered many of the starting quarterbacks heading into the 2009 season. The article can be found here. Let’s take a look at Dilfer’s list and see how he did.

Initial Problems

Dilfer’s tier names are pretty ridiculous: Superstars, Stars, Just Win Baby, GPI (Gotta Prove It), etc. This makes it harder to diagnose where a quarterback belongs. Plus, I have to read the little explanations that he puts under each one because the title of the tier tells me nothing. Also, the list is very positive. Before the actual list of players, Dilfer writes “There isn’t a bad player on my list, regardless of category!” This just isn’t true. It’s one thing to try and be nice to everyone, but it’s another to critically analyze players at a position you used to play. Doesn’t ESPN pay you to do exactly that? Anyway, let’s get into it.

Elite Tier: Peyton Manning and Tom Brady

Dilfer explains that in order to be elite, you must have a Super Bowl Victory. When it comes to ranking, however, he has Manning number one over Brady. If Super Bowl rings are the reason for keeping Drew Brees and Philip Rivers out of this category, then how come it doesn’t seem to matter for quarterbacks within the category? Brees and Rivers, by the way, are in the next category: Superstars. We are going to just skip that one.

Stars: Ben Roethlisberger, Donovan McNabb, Eli Manning, Kurt Warner, Matt Hasselbeck.

Cutler and Rodgers Deserve More Respect

For Big Ben, Dilfer writes “Best improvisational quarterback in the league.” This tells me that Roethlisberger likely holds onto the ball way too long and probably takes a lot more hits than he has should. Look, Big Ben has succeeded with his style, but should we really applaud a quarterback for holding the ball too long and taking extra hits? I’m not so sure. I have two major problems with the list. Where the hell are Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers? Why the hell is Matt Hasselbeck in this category? Hasselbeck did throw 28 touchdowns in 2007, but he has major durability problems at this point in his career. He is not a better quarterback than Rodgers or Cutler at this point in his career. I guess my issues with the inclusion of Hasselbeck is based on certain players being excluded from this list.

Knocking At The Door: Tony Romo, Carson Palmer, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Jay Cutler, Joe Flacco.

This category confuses me the most. I wouldn’t think that Romo, Palmer, Rodgers, or Cutler are knocking at the door. We already know what types of quarterbacks they are, and what they can do for a team. The reason that some of these players are so low is because they “haven’t won anything of significance yet.” This is one of the worst arguments in all of sports. X Player can’t win games, so since Y Player wins more, Y Player is better. Hell, Rex Grossman is 19-12 as a starter and played in a Super Bowl, that doesn’t mean that he is better than any player on this list. Spoiler alert: Grossman is no where to be found on Dilfer’s list. The only two players that should be on this list are probably already in the process of advancing up the tier. Both Ryan and Flacco came into this season with some NFL success, but they didn’t have the impressive statistical seasons to back it up. Two games into 2009, and Flacco and Ryan may have busted this door down.

GTOs (Glad They’re Ours): Brett Favre, Jake Delhomme, Kerry Collins, Chad Pennington, David Garrard.

At Least Your Team Still Loves You

Dilfer seems to imply that, even though these quarterbacks may kill a teams chances at victory, the team is still glad they are around. This is, at least, somewhat true in certain cases. Teams always stand by their quarterbacks when the going get tough…and there is no alternative option out there (I’m looking at Delhomme here). The fact is, most of these quarterbacks come with a major flaw. Delhomme will have games where he kills you with turnovers, Chad Pennington can’t throw over 5 yards, and Brett Favre is a douche bag.

Other Random Notes: Since Dilfer’s tiers last forever, I will cover some of the names that stand out from here on out.

(GPIs) Gotta Prove It- Matt Schaub, when healthy, has proven to be a pretty good quarterback in the NFL. It’s strange that Dilfer can rank the consistently injured Matt Hasselbeck so high, but rank Schaub extremely low for the same reasons.

Just Win, Baby- This is just an awful tier and an awful tier name. Couldn’t Dilfer have gone with “Borderline Starters” or “Journeymen” or something?

Gannon Can Analyze A Quarterback

Not Enough Evidence- So, I guess not being able to beat out Shaun Hill for a job is not enough evidence that Alex Smith sucks? Also, I have seen all I need to see of JaMarcus Russell…he’s not good. If you want a good, critical analysis of quarterbacks from a former NFL quarterback, I suggest checking out Rich Gannon’s analysis of JaMarcus Russell. Did Gannon actually do some analysis of why Russell is struggling? Hell yes! Seriously, why can’t we have more of that out of the popular sports analysts? Outside of Ron Jaworski, is there anyone else that reviews the tape and tells the fans anything useful?

Rehab Projects- I honestly had no idea that Patrick Ramsey was still playing…

That’s Dilfer’s list and my critical analysis of it. Think I didn’t do a good enough job? Let me hear about it in the comments.