Brett Favre: the greatest quarterback of all-time.

Now that Brett Favre has retired, the argument arises to where he stands on the list of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game.

Notice that the title of this post does not have a question mark in it, only a period. Favre is the greatest of all time, and I have proof to back it up.

Some argue that Brett Favre is the greatest because of his NFL records in wins, passing touchdowns, passing yards and consecutive starts. These records are the basis of Favre’s case as the greatest, but let’s dig a little deeper to find out truly why he is better than all his competitors.

The Interception Record

This is the argument that kills Favre. The big kahuna. The reason why Favre isn’t the greatest, right? Wrong. When looking at this interception record, you must look at how many more interceptions he had than his competitors and you must remember to consider that he also has the most touchdowns of all time, the most completions of all time and the most passing attempts of all time.

Favre ended his career with 442 passing touchdowns and 288 interceptions, a difference of 154. In fact, his difference between touchdowns and interceptions is the second best differential in the history of the NFL. The only quarterback to have a better differential is Dan Marino with 168, only 14 better than Favre. Other quarterbacks that are worse than Favre in this category include John Elway (74), Joe Montana (134), Steve Young (125), Johnny Unitas (37), Terry Bradshaw (2), Troy Aikman (24), Sammy Baugh (-16) and every other quarterback in NFL history. The interception record is not a good thing, but it is not as much of a liability as people think.

Favre’s main competition when it comes to being the greatest is Dan Marino, John Elway, Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman and Sammy Baugh.

Let’s start with Marino.

The Marino argument

Both Favre and Marino played 17 years in the NFL. Favre did not play his first year, but Marino only started nine games his rookie year and did not start every game over the later 16 like Favre did, so the playing time comes out pretty even.

Of course, Favre has a little more touchdowns (22), a few more yards (294) and 13 more wins, but Marino had 36 less interceptions. Sounds pretty even so far.

Here is what catapults Favre ahead of Marino: consistency. Marino threw more than 30 touchdowns only two times in his career. Favre did that seven times, including five in a row from 1994-1998.

This does however make Marino consistent, consistently average. Well, average may be too harsh. Marino was consistently good with a few great years, while Favre was consistently great throughout almost all his years.

This difference in consistency is also shown through Favre’s three MVP awards to Marino’s one. Oh, and I almost forgot, Marino has the goose egg in the Super Bowl wins column. Critics do make too big of deal about Super Bowl winning quarterbacks, but to not have any is a blemish on a legacy.

When it does come up that Favre won a Super Bowl and Marino didn’t, Dolphins fans always complain with, “Well, Favre had better teams around him.”

This is not true.

To prove these two had even supporting casts, or perhaps that Marino’s was actually slightly better, we will compare the 1996 season in which Favre was able to win the big game and the 1984 season when Marino came up short.

In 1984, Marino had two thousand yard receivers, Mark Clayton (1,389) and Mark Duper (1,306). Clayton also had 18 receiving touchdowns, Duper with a solid eight.

Brett Favre had, count ‘em, zero thousand yard receivers in 1996. The Pack’s leading receiver that year, Antonio Freeman, finished the season with 933 yards and nine touchdowns. Freeman was also the only receiver with over 700 yards. Green Bay’s second leading receiver, Don Bebee, had 39 catches for 699 yards and only four touchdowns on the year. This proves that Favre was able to spread his 3,899 yards around to many less talented receivers.

Many people also believe the Packers running game was better. Wrong again, it is just hard to notice this because the carries in Miami were divided between three runners, while Green Bay split the carries between two.

Edgar Bennett, the Packers leading rusher in 1996, beats out Dolphins leader Woody Bennett in yards 899 to 606. But when you look deeper, you see that Miami had a slightly better running game.

The Dolphins split carries between Bennett, Tony Nathan and Joe Carter. Along with Bennett’s 606 yards, Nathan had 558 and Carter had 495 for a total of 1,659. Together they averaged 4.63 yards per rush.

The Packers split between Bennett and Dorsey Levens. Bennett’s 889 combined with Levens’ 556 totals 1,445 yards, 214 less than Miami. Bennett and Levens averaged 4.35 yards per carry, 0.28 per carry less than the Dolphins trio. And don’t bother checking the rushing touchdowns Dolphins fans, your fins have the edge nine to seven.

I will admit the Packers have the edge on the defensive side of the ball, but while both quarterbacks won the NFL MVP with their respective supporting casts that year, Favre also won MVPs on both sides of the Super Bowl year (‘95 and ’97) with similar offensive supporting casts. This is another example of Favre being more consistent.

Hopefully that’s enough convincing on Marino; Elway is next.

The Elway argument

Once again, Favre’s three MVPs beat Elway’s one, but look at some alarming stats pertaining to Elway’s lone MVP award.

During his 1987 MVP season, Elway only threw 19 touchdown passes… Are you kidding me? His complete stats were 3,198 yards, 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He did add 304 yards and four touchdowns on the ground, but that still only totals 3,502 yards and 23 touchdowns. Favre had more than 27 total touchdowns 10 times in his career. He also had more than 3,502 total yards 14 of the 16 years that he played for the Packers. I don’t care if you are a die-hard Broncos fan, you cannot ignore those astonishing stats. The 1987 season was shortened to 15 games because of a player strike, but that is only one game less than the regular 16-game schedule.

To be fair, Elway only played 12 games in 1987, but you have to also look at other players that deserved the MVP over him. Jerry Rice set an NFL record for receiving touchdowns in a single season with 22 while playing in the same amount of games as Elway, who threw 19. A receiver scores more touchdowns than a quarterback throws and the quarterback gets the MVP; that is completely asinine. Joe Montana also had 31 passing touchdowns that season, way more than Elway. Montana and Rice both, without question, deserved the 1987 NFL MVP more than Elway. If that did happen, which it should have, Elway would be left with zero MVP awards.

Another less-than-spectacular stat during Elway’s MVP year was his 54.6 completion percentage. In fact, Favre had a higher completion percentage than that in all 16 years that he started for the Packers. Every single year. Favre’s career low percentage is 56.0. Favre’s career percentage of 61.4 is also 4.5 percent higher than Elway’s 56.9.

Not so accurate Elway led the Broncos to more Super Bowls than Favre did with the Packers, but he could not win one until he had a Terrell Davis and a Shannon Sharpe, luxuries that Favre never had.

Elway also never had more than 30 total touchdowns in a single season. Like I mentioned earlier, Favre did that seven times. If you do not include Favre’s first season in which he did not play, these two quarterbacks both played 16 seasons, and Favre had a whopping 142 more touchdown passes than Elway in their respective 16 year spans. Favre also had over 10,000 more yards than Elway.

Although Elway is the only quarterback in NFL history that has more comeback victories than Favre by a count of 47 to 38, I believe the above evidence can override this one advantage that Elway has.

With Marino and Elway taken care of, let’s break down the last of the big three, Joe Montana.

The Montana argument

This may be the hardest comparison because Montana was a full-time starter only 13 years. Brett Favre played in 62 more games then Montana, but there are things that hold Montana back from being the greatest of all time.

Because it is unfair to compare Favre’s career totals to a quarterback that played three less years, let’s look at averages per season started (years with fewer than 200 attempts I will not use, which is Montana’s rookie campaign in ’79 and an injury year in ’92). Over Favre’s 16 years with the Packers, he averaged almost 20 more yards per game than Montana’s 13 years as a starter. Favre averaged almost seven more touchdown passes per year during the quarterback’s respective spans. Favre also has the edge in touchdowns per game with 1.73 per to Montana’s 1.54. Montana does have the slight edge in completion percentage, ahead of Favre by a mere 1.8 percent.

Montana, of course, did win more Super Bowls, but no one can disagree with the fact that he did have a better supporting cast over his career. And you would think the “greatest quarterback of all time” could average more than one and a half touchdowns a game with a supporting cast that includes the greatest receiver of all time in Jerry Rice. If you gave Brett Favre Jerry Rice in his prime, I cannot even imagine how far ahead stats wise Favre would be over every other quarterback.

Joe Montana did a great job of managing games. He did what he needed to do, and I respect that. But the greatest of all time needs to take over games, which Favre did much more often than Montana. The big argument for Montana being the greatest of all time is because of his game winning drives in big situations, but in fact, Favre has more comeback victories in his career than Montana.

Montana was the only person to win three Super Bowl MVP awards, which is hard to argue against, but he didn’t win those games by himself. You could argue that those 49er teams are the greatest of all time. His first Super Bowl MVP saw Montana throw only one touchdown (in the first quarter by the way) while San Francisco kicker Ray Werschering connected on four field goals in the close five point victory. While Montana was very impressive in Super Bowl XXIV, Jerry Rice helped tremendously, going off for three touchdowns.

Too much weight has been put on winning Super Bowls when regarding who the greatest quarterback of all time is. It should be taken into account, but there are 53 men on an NFL roster and 22 that start every game. I am not dismissing that Super Bowl victories are huge aspects of a quarterback’s legacy, but individual statistics are more important when regarding who was the greater individual player.

You gotta love Montana, but I still have to say that Favre was better.

The three quarterbacks that have been discussed thus far, in my opinion, are the only three quarterbacks that you can even try to make a case for being greater than Favre. But, I have still heard arguments for many more, so to cover all arguments, let’s discuss a few more.

The Unitas, Bradshaw, Aikman, and Baugh argument

I always hear the argument for Johnny Unitas being better than Favre, and I just don’t see it.

Favre had over 20,000 more yards and 152 more passing touchdowns than Unitas. Although Unitas played less games than Favre, he only averaged 1.37 touchdowns per game over his career, much less than Favre’s 1.73.

Some argue that you cannot look at stats like that when comparing different eras because they did not pass as much back in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Well, Unitas only had 37 more touchdowns than interceptions in his career, a stat that does not take into account how often you threw the ball. Favre threw a lot of interceptions, but he still threw the ball in the endzone 154 more times than he threw the ball to the other team. I believe this stat proves that Favre should be considered greater than Unitas.

Similarly, Terry Bradshaw only had two more interceptions than touchdowns in his career. Although he won four Super Bowls, his starting receivers, starting running back and most of his starting defense is in the Hall of Fame right now. Just look at the statistics, Bradshaw cannot be considered over Favre.

Now to the most overrated quarterback in NFL history, Troy Aikman. Aikman is regarded as one of the greats of all time, yet he only threw 161 touchdowns in his entire career. Aikman only threw over 20 touchdown passes one time in his career, when he threw 23 in 1992. Aikman only averaged 199 yards and one touchdown per game during his career. If he was one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, he would be able to do much more with Hall of Famer Michael Irving as his main target and all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith opening up the passing game. Aikman was a decent quarterback on a great team, but not one of the greatest of all time. Aikman is a prime example of why too much weight is put on Super Bowl victories in this argument.

Not many people make the case for Sammy Baugh, but I heard Woody Paige say that he is better than Favre on Around the Horn, so I have to say something about it. Sammy Baugh had 16 more interceptions than touchdowns in his career. That should be enough to say that Favre is better. Again, you cannot use the excuse about how teams did not pass as much back in the day, because he still threw more interceptions than touchdowns. How can you say that is better than Favre?

Well, you can’t say that is better than Favre. You cannot say that anyone is better than Favre. When people just argue from their own memory to who the greatest of all-time is, it is an opinion. When you dig deep into the stats however, it becomes a fact. What I have just uncovered is fact: Brett Favre is the greatest quarterback of all-time. I don’t see any other argument.

If the readers of this post have another argument or think I should argue for Favre against another quarterback, e-mail me or post a comment and I will tell you why Favre is better. Don’t come to me with Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. I will not compare Favre to quarterbacks that are in the middle of their career right now; I just don’t think they have played long enough yet.

I am not trying to downgrade these other quarterbacks. I love people like Joe Montana, Dan Marino, and Johnny Unitas. The game would not be the same without them. I am merely explaining why they are not quite as good as Brett Favre.

Although I am a Packers fan, I am not trying to be biased. If I was not a Packers fan, I would still believe that Favre is the greatest quarterback of all-time. I admit I would not be as outspoken about it, but I would still know the truth.

In case you are curious, here is the complete list of my top 5:

1. Brett Favre
2. Dan Marino
3. Joe Montana
4. John Elway
5. Johnny Unitas