Most Underrated NFL Player in History? BR7

[MJG75]

I couldn't fault anyone for taking Bradshaw.

To me, the difference comes down to: what if you have to play 2020s style football, with quick and short game suddenly being a big component? How would Brad fare if defenses challenged him more to throw underneath and more accurately? We saw Ben be successful with that style, but there were times where Brad responded to defense like that by trying to force it downfield, often with bad results. If the Steelers couldn't run and teams took away the deep half, it resulted in some tough games for 12. Ben had his weak spots too but to me he showed a little more range.

I'm gonna say that top 10 would be:
Ben
Brad
Brady
Mahomes
Montana
Elway
Favre
Luck
Marino
Staubach

Good point about Brad getting impatient sometimes. Was just brought to mind that San Diego debacle in 1979, when we got creamed by them largely due to lots of INTs. Brad got impatient and kept trying to go deep. From 1977 to 1980, Brad figured what the hell, he had the best defense, he had no problem with making mistakes, because he knew we could recover from them. 1982 playoff vs San Diego is an example of a game where Brad pretty much took what was given, tossed a lot of intermediate passes. Showed he could adapt, but didn't get much of a chance after that since he had to retire after an abbreviated 1983 season for him.

Ben had the unique ability to turn chicken shit into gold, whether it was average WRs, average RB's, average OL, no matter the odds, no matter the opponent, I think Ben perhaps was able to turn things on even when all other factors were not necessarily in his favor. For that, he definitely could be the top dog here.

That's a decent list. I might look to add Snake Stabler, and maybe Unitas.

[bradshaw2ben]

I couldn't fault anyone for taking Bradshaw.

To me, the difference comes down to: what if you have to play 2020s style football, with quick and short game suddenly being a big component? How would Brad fare if defenses challenged him more to throw underneath and more accurately? We saw Ben be successful with that style, but there were times where Brad responded to defense like that by trying to force it downfield, often with bad results. If the Steelers couldn't run and teams took away the deep half, it resulted in some tough games for 12. Ben had his weak spots too but to me he showed a little more range.

I'm gonna say that top 10 would be:
Ben
Brad
Brady
Mahomes
Montana
Elway
Favre
Luck
Marino
Staubach

Good point about Brad getting impatient sometimes. Was just brought to mind that San Diego debacle in 1979, when we got creamed by them largely due to lots of INTs. Brad got impatient and kept trying to go deep. From 1977 to 1980, Brad figured what the hell, he had the best defense, he had no problem with making mistakes, because he knew we could recover from them. 1982 playoff vs San Diego is an example of a game where Brad pretty much took what was given, tossed a lot of intermediate passes. Showed he could adapt, but didn't get much of a chance after that since he had to retire after an abbreviated 1983 season for him.

Ben had the unique ability to turn chicken shit into gold, whether it was average WRs, average RB's, average OL, no matter the odds, no matter the opponent, I think Ben perhaps was able to turn things on even when all other factors were not necessarily in his favor. For that, he definitely could be the top dog here.

That's a decent list. I might look to add Snake Stabler, and maybe Unitas.

They'd have to fit in there somewhere but hard to know who to kick out! Maybe Favre & Marino, tough as that is to say.

[SteelerDayTrader]

My top 3 would be

Ben
Terry
Staubach

[jewelsongs]

My standard is always: you are selecting a pickup team to play a game where the stakes are your life-- your teams loses, you die.

You can pick from any QB that has ever lived (at his peak), but the HC, surrounding cast on offense, offensive scheme, the quality of your defense, home/road, turf, indoor/outdoor, the era of rules/style of play, and the weather conditions are all random. You could be running and gunning it with absolute QB protections and no hitting of the WRs while in a dome, you could be playing 1975 in a hurricane and QBs calling their own plays and having to make plays downfield while getting plastered in the chops with forearms (legally). Which QB are you picking first?

This normalizes the eras and takes away the surrounding cast arguments.

I have a very hard time picking anyone other than Ben for this thought exercise, because I think he pretty much proved he could play in any era. Even guys as talented as Elway struggled a little as the game started to drift to shorter and quicker throws. The guys who were terrific at the new brand of passing-favored offense since say 2010 were by and large players who might have been broken by hits in earlier eras.

Then there are some talented guys who just didn't win that much, especially in clutch or come-from-behind situations. Or who played in domes or who rarely if ever had to deal with the wind and rain that more or less typify Pittsburgh/Cleveland/Baltimore weather in the fall.

Shortlist? I think Bradshaw (would be thrilled to be able to throw all those deep in cuts to WRs who couldn't be hit), Elway (closest thing to Ben), Brady (would figure out a way maybe), Lamar Jackson (I mean, think about him running the wing T or something like that!) would be on there. Kind of hard to rule out Marino, even though the winning part hurts him, hard to doubt Mahomes. Guess I'd put Montana on there. Unitas. I'll squint as say Andrew Luck.

Aaron Rodgers doesn't come from behind, especially on the road. You want to chance that in a game where your life is at stake?

Just seems like every guy on that shortlist or those that might be considered would have some serious weakness that could be exposed by the random elements.

I'm willing to hear arguments for others or again my choice, but I'm taking Ben for that challenge.

I would pick Joe Montana and Dan Marino in either order. They were both in the bridge between the 70s and 90s football. Both could get it out quick.