NFL Spin Zone
Fansided

The 30 best quarterbacks in NFL history

By Randy Gurzi

Joe Montana #16, Quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers prepares to throw a pass during the National Football Conference Championship game against the Los Angeles Rams on 14 January 1990 at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, California, United States. The 49ers won the game 30 - 3. (Photo by Otto Gruele Jr/Allsport/Getty Images)
Joe Montana #16, Quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers prepares to throw a pass during the National Football Conference Championship game against the Los Angeles Rams on 14 January 1990 at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, California, United States. The 49ers won the game 30 - 3. (Photo by Otto Gruele Jr/Allsport/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
14 of 30
Next
Washington Football Team
Washington Football Team, Sonny Jurgensen (Photo by Ross Lewis/Getty Images) /

17. Best NFL quarterbacks of all time: Sonny Jurgensen

At a time when the ground game was king, Sonny Jurgensen showed that you could still have fun throwing the ball. A former mid-round pick, Jurgensen started his career as a backup on the Philadelphia Eagles and won his only career title while on the bench with them.

Once he was finally on the field, he started to show off his gun-slinging ways. As a first-year starter, Jurgensen broke the record for most passing yards as he had 3,723 in 1961. He also set the record with 32 touchdown passes. Nowadays, those numbers are passed often but at the time it was unheard of.

Jurgensen made his first of two All-Pro appearances and the first of five Pro Bowls after that campaign. He was traded to the Washington Football Team in 1964 after an injury-plagued season. He continued to sling it for the Washington Football Team as he had three of his five career yardage-leading seasons with them.

Oddly enough, Jurgensen never found any postseason success. He was on the bench when Washington made it to the playoffs in 1971 and 1973 thanks to a quarterback controversy with Billy Kilmer. In fact, Jurgensen didn’t even make his first postseason appearance until 1974 at the age of 40.

He was a gun-slinger before there was such a thing and even had the pleasure of working under the great Vince Lombardi during his last season as a head coach. Had he found some postseason success as a starter, he would go even higher than this.

Home/NFL