Is this really the best era of QBs the NFL has ever seen?

I agree that it's been the best that i have seen in quite some time. I haven't seen it this good since the 80's when Marino, Elway Favre Simms Theisman .

Do you expect people from this section who censors & reports anything Anti Cowboy or Anti Romo to actually understand your question? That's asking alot considering the brainpower many but only a few have here.

The thing is... so many rules have been implemented to help the QB and passing game in general that, these inflated stats of today ae not so much indicative of better play than a reflection of how much more lengths the NFL has gone to ensure more competitive offenses.

Back in the day it was legal to maul receivers and you could practically kill the QB. Now defensive players breathe on a QB and it's a penalty and if a DB sneezes on a WR during a route, it's a penalty.

I'm not saying there aren't some great QB's in the league today, but if Unitas, Staubach, Namath and Stabler had aired it out 35 to 45 times a game, their numbers would be great too. Plus, there are more games per season and many more teams in the league from back then. In the 60's and 70's, you only had 12, then 14 game seasons. Now. it's 16. So, there are more games in a season to generate passing yards and inflate stats. Look at it this way, Most of your all time great RB's were from back in the day. (Payton, Sanders, Brown, Sayers, Campbell, Dickerson, Dorsett, Harris and so on) Why? Because then it was run first pass sometimes. Now, it's more balanced. It's a different game today.

Excellent question

I agree with Bam Bam about the rules.

Its hard to say but I actually thing now may be the best.

There are also different styles of offense now that allow for more passing yardage. There are many more spread offenses and pass heavy offense where you see QBs throw 30-40 and sometimes even push 50 passes at times. Alot of QB's didn't pass that much back in the earlier days of football. Because the quality of the QB position has increased there are more offenses that are pass ability and willing to just sling the ball around field for the majority of a game. On 3rd and 1 teams used to just bound the ball up the middle more but it seems now that teams just air it on 3rd and even 4th and short situations more than they used to.

Because of the new rules to protect the QB, and illegal contact rules against WR's not it has hard to say which era was the best though

Great question though.

I totally get what you're saying, though the 70s and even the 80s (Jim Kelly, Joe Montana, John Elway, Troy Aikman, Dan Fouts, Warren Moon, and Dan Marino along with Boomer Esiason and Phil Simms) had great quarterbacks, the talent surrounding the QB position right now is GOLDEN. It's just that right now what we are seeing is an explosion of quarterbacks with the talent to lead their teams like never before. Right now, right here the depth is deep.

I'm just going to go with the team I know best right now, the Packers. Aaron Rodgers has come in and taken the position at quarterback and has more than fulfilled expectations. And if he is all the way down at the 3rd tier for QB's, that alone tells you that this is a golden age. (though personally I'm going to put him at 2nd tier, cuz he's my man) The man has already out-thrown Favre in just 4 games to Favre's 5. Though our O-Line is atrocious, our QB is good, really good and at 25 will continue to get better.

Those truly are a top notch list of names. However, not to out think the question. I came up with an impressive list of names from the late 80's mid 90's which I feel would qualify as Quality Era as well, no particular order, just as they came to mind:

Jim Kelly

Dan Marino

Joe Montana

Steve Young

Boomer Esiason

Phil Simms

Warren Moon

John Elway

Troy Aikman

all exceptional and many already HOFers

then some of the others:

Bernie Kosar

Frank Reich

Jeff Hostetler

again, all from memory.

Think so, eh? Too bad so many current fans can't look into the past and see what and who the QB's of the past were before them and realize that the age of 'real' quarterbacks is as old as the game:

What about these guys?

Troy Aikman,

Ken Anderson,

Steve Bartkowski,

Sammy Baugh,

George Blanda,

Terry Bradshaw,

Charlie Conerly,

Randell Cunningham,

Len Dawson,

John Elway,

Boomer Esiason,

Jim Everett,

Brett Favre,

Joe Ferguson,

Dan Fouts,

Benny Friedman,

Roman Gabriel,

Otto Graham,

Bob Griese,

Steve Grogan,

John Hadl,

Joe Namath

Jim Hart,

Arnie Herber,

Ron Jaworski,

Bert Jones,

Sonny Jurgensen,

Jim Kelly,

Jack Kemp,

Dave Krieg,

Daryle Lamonica,

Bobby Layne,

Sid Luckman,

Dan Marino

Joe Montana,

Warren Moon,

Joe Namath,

Babe Parilli,

Tobin Rote,

Phil Simms,

Norm Snead,

Ken Stabler,

Bart Starr,

Roger Staubach,

Fran Tarkenton,

Joe Theismann,

Y.A. Tittle,

Johnny Unitas,

Norm Van Brocklin,,

Bob Waterfield,

Danny White,

Doug Williams,

Steve Young

John Elway

Joe Montana

Sonny Jurgenson

Fran Tarkington

Farve being the only carry-over from the past who still has it, You need to bone up on NFL history and understand the game makers of the past before you make a statement like that. Yes, there are good...even great quarterbacks in this current batch, but no way are they the best batch ever

My advantage on this subject is "I've been there, done that. I've had the privilege of seeing a large portion of these great QB's in action!!!"

The offense in the NFL (before the merger with the AFL) was known as "three yards and a cloud of dust". That is, they ground it out on the ground and didn't put a lot of emphasis on the pass. And, great defenses won games and championships. With the AFL, the emphasis was put on a passing offense. But, there were also a lot of interceptions as pass-happy teams put the ball up for grabs on a regular basis. The scoring was more exciting. But, so were the spectacular defensive plays.

After the AFL/NFL merger (where the AFL teams were assigned to the AFC and the NFL teams were assigned to the NFC), the pass-first offenses eventually caught on with the NFC teams (see the Bill Walsh West Coast offense). With more emphasis put on passing than rushing, great passing quarterbacks were not only more in demand, but more commonplace. Emphasis on a strong passing game was also put onto college teams, which is where your professional quarterbacks develop.

So, these days, you get a lot of very good quarterbacks with rocket arms coming out of college and into the pros. And, today's so-so to pretty good quarterbacks could easily have been stars in the decades past.

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

Give Namath, Unitas, Bradshaw etc. the pass defense rules they have now, & they'd have had massive stats like you see today.

Remember, those guys played in an era where a D-back could pound on a receiver until the ball was in the air.

Now a D-back can't touch a receiver beyonds 5 yards from the line of scrimmage.

No its not...............70's 80's had better QB's!The rule changes have made it easier to play QB now!The Defense can't hit the QB ,Can't even touch the WR after 5 yards.....etc!This is the reason college QB's can step right in and play now.