John Elway is NOT one of the Greatest Quarterbacks Ever

I, too, love football. When we look at Elway's career, his final total of 300 touchdowns and 51475 are among the best ever. But I will argue Elway is more of a compiler. For one thing, Elway absolutely fails the "black ink" test. This test basically shows how many times a player leads the league in a major category. The only time Elway lead the league in yards, touchdowns or completion percentage was yards in 1993. That's it. He also took a league high 551 attempts that season so it come out to an unremarkable 7.3 yards per attempt. Furthermore, that was the only season in which Elway surpassed 4000 yards. Fact was, Elway didn't have any great seasons. Instead, he had a bunch of average ones. My argument is in three separate parts: 1) Elway's first half 2) Elway's second half 3) Elway's championships Along the way, I will compare Elway to other various quarterbacks to determine exactly how impressive Elway really was. 1) Elway's career could be separated into two different parts. The first part was from 1983 to 1992. The second was from 1993 to 1998. In the beginning of his career, Elway was an average quarterback at best. Elway threw 158 touchdowns and 157 interceptions in 144 games. Only one more touchdown than interception? He had 30216 passing yards at 209.8 yards per game. His passer rating was only 73.8. Passer rating is a stat that combines touchdowns, interception, yards and completetion percentage. While it is true that Elway's league was harder on passing offense than today, Elway was still just an average passer. Rate+ is a stat developed by Pro football reference. com that measures a player's passer rating to the league's. 100 Rate+ is average. From 1983 to 1992, the highest Rate+ Elway got was 112 in 1987. Elway actually finished with a Rate+ of below 100 6 times as compared to above it 4 times. Let me repeat that, SIX times Elway was below an average passer. Between the five seasons of 1988 to 1992, Elway was a below average passer 4 times. That's incredible. In 1988, Elway had 17 TD, but 19 picks. In 1989, he had 18 TD and 18 picks. That doesn't sound like a Hall of Famer, that sounds like Mark Sanchez! (Okay, maybe a little too harsh) After rebounding with OK seasons in 1990 and 1991, Elway had a terrible year in 1992. Playing in 10 games, he had only 10 TD, but 17 interceptions. He passed for just 186.8 yards per game and had a pathetic 65.7 passer rating. Now THAT is WORSE than Sanchez. Fact is, Elway was an average quarterback in his first half. Year, TD, INT, Passer Rating, Rate+ 1988, 17, 19, 71.4, 96 1989, 18, 18, 73.7, 98 1990, 15, 14, 78.5, 103 1991, 13,12, 75.4, 99 1992, 10, 17, 65.7, 86 2) Now to Elway's credit, the rest of his career was quite good. His Rate+ never dropped below 110 and reached a high of 121 in 1993. But Elway wasn't a GREAT quarterback, he was a good one. For example, let's take a look at Tony Romo. Romo never had a Rate+ of below 100. His high was 123 in 2011. Season# Romo (2006-2011) vs. Elway (1993-1998) 1, 119 to 121 2, 121 to 110 3, 110 to 112 4, 117 to 117 5, 112 to 113 6, 123 to 119 The fact is, even in Elway's best seasons, Tony Romo is comparable. So we come to two conclusions: A) Romo is one hell of a quarterback B) John Elway is not a top quarterback I do think Romo is a darn good QB. But he sure isn't GREAT. And neither is Elway. Let's compare Elway to a contemporary quarterback, Boomer Esiason on a per game basis. Elway- 234 games, 1.28 touchdowns/G, 220Yards/G, 0.97INT/G, 56.9 completion %, 79.9 passer rating Esiason- 187 games, 1.32 touchdowns/G, 202.8Yards/G, 0.98Int/G, 57 completion %, 81.1 passer rating Esiason is very comparable to Elway. Boomer is not in the Hall of Fame, and he was never seriously considered. That doesn't bode well for Elway. If he can't even beat Esiason, how is he better than Tom Brady, Joe Montana and Peyton Manning? 3) Elway won the Super Bowl twice and made it to the big game 5 times. That is incredible. Most people consider championships as THE most important stat. However, I disagree. Winning is a team effort. It take a whole team to win a chamipionship. Obviously, some players contribute to the team. But how can we determine how MUCH a player contributes? Easy, with stats. I have proven that Elway was barely an average passer. How did he manage to lead the Broncos to three Super Bowls in his first half? Mopre like it was the rest of the team. And plus, when Elway won the Super Bowl in 1998, Terrell Davis led the league with 2008 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns. Denver was a run first team. Elway carried his team? More like he was there just for the ride. Sources: 1) . http://www.pro-football-reference.com... 2) . http://www.pro-football-reference.com... 3) . http://www.pro-football-reference.com... 4) . http://www.pro-football-reference.com...