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QB's Who Aren't Good Enough to Win SB (1 Viewer)

mr roboto

Footballguy
I've heard many say that you can't win a SB without an elite QB. But we've seen Big Ben, Eli, Flacco all win with great teams around them. For me, there are only 4 elite QBs - Brady, Brees, Rodgers and Manning.

This got me thinking: Which QBs aren't good enough to win a SB regardless of the talent around them. The ones who we've seen enough of them and it just isn't going to happen.

My list:

Ponder

Gabbert

Freeman

Sanchez

Jury is still out:

Weeden

Locker

Bradford

Dalton

Who else? I think Schaub, Romo, Cutler, Alex Smitj, Stafford etc are good enough. Same with RG3, Luck, Wilson, Kaep.

 
Of the active QBs who currently don't have a ring, I think Stafford, Cutler, Ryan, Romo and Rivers currently have the potential. I think Cam, Dalton, Bradford, Luck and RG3 are only a year or two away. Not convinced any of the others could.

 
Having an elite QB definitely helps your chances at winning a Super Bowl (which is why Peyton, Brady, Rodgers and Brees have won 5 of the last 10 Super Bowls), but if Flacco (a good, but not great, QB) can win a Super Bowl, then needing an elite QB is certainly not a necessity.

 
Of the active QBs who currently don't have a ring, I think Stafford, Cutler, Ryan, Romo and Rivers currently have the potential. I think Cam, Dalton, Bradford, Luck and RG3 are only a year or two away. Not convinced any of the others could.
Kaepernick? Wilson?

 
Having an elite QB definitely helps your chances at winning a Super Bowl (which is why Peyton, Brady, Rodgers and Brees have won 5 of the last 10 Super Bowls), but if Flacco (a good, but not great, QB) can win a Super Bowl, then needing an elite QB is certainly not a necessity.
Except Flacco elevated his game to elite level when the playoffs arrived and not really just last season either. He's got an 18-1 TD to INT ratio over his last two postseason and if Lee Evans had not dropped that pass he might have just started his second SB.

So to me that's the other part of the equation. The stage is to big for some QB's and their lack of composure when the stage gets bigger becomes evident. Flacco arguably used to be that guy, which coming from his small college background makes sense. Now he's had a very lengthy playoff resume and he looks comfortable no matter the stage. Very similar to Eli in that no matter how big the moment they seem unfazed. That's a tremendous trait to have when it comes to being a successful big game QB.

The problem with guys like Ponder, Gabbert and Locker is not that they can't win a SB so much as they just simply are not very good QB's. Any good NFL QB, even a Schaub and Dalton as examples, can win a SB if the supporting cast is good enough.

 
Of the active QBs who currently don't have a ring, I think Stafford, Cutler, Ryan, Romo and Rivers currently have the potential. I think Cam, Dalton, Bradford, Luck and RG3 are only a year or two away. Not convinced any of the others could.
Kaepernick? Wilson?
If you would like me to keep you updated, ill let you know the minute I change my mind about either.

 
I don't think there's any other starting QB in the NFL as bad as Ponder, and he made it to the playoffs on the back of one good player. Hard to tell how much noise the Vikes would have made if they'd have had an elite defense, instead of a middle-of-the-pack one. :shrug:

I think if you're good enough to even get a job as a QB in the NFL, you're probably more than good enough to win a SB with enough talent surrounding you. The only exceptions, to my mind, would be those QB's playing for coaches/in systems that absolutely mandate a lot of passing and decision making from the QB.

You give Ryan Leaf an Adrian Peterson, a decent O-Line, and the 49ers D, and I think he's a slam dunk to win it all unless Mike Martz is the coach.

 
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Not that it matters in the least who is the creme de la suck. Point is, Ponder's on the short list, and had an all-time great RB performance and that team made the playoffs. Ponder's legitimately terrible.

FWIW, I think Gabbert sucks, too. Just not as much as Ponder, and still retains at least a little upside. Thankfully, we may be done with him, while the Vikes apparently mean to keep foisting Ponder upon us.

 
I don't think there's any other starting QB in the NFL as bad as Ponder, and he made it to the playoffs on the back of one good player. Hard to tell how much noise the Vikes would have made if they'd have had an elite defense, instead of a middle-of-the-pack one. :shrug:

I think if you're good enough to even get a job as a QB in the NFL, you're probably more than good enough to win a SB with enough talent surrounding you. The only exceptions, to my mind, would be those QB's playing for coaches/in systems that absolutely mandate a lot of passing and decision making from the QB.

You give Ryan Leaf an Adrian Peterson, a decent O-Line, and the 49ers D, and I think he's a slam dunk to win it all unless Mike Martz is the coach.
I agree with this. What does "not good enough to win SB" mean? I suppose it's that you're such a liability to your team that they can't possibly advance. Putting someone like Schaub or Bradford on that list is wacky.

Even moreso than Ponder making the playoffs, don't forget that it was only 2009 and 2010 when Mark Sanchez and the Jets were in the AFC championship. It's about your team.

 
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I don't think there's any other starting QB in the NFL as bad as Ponder, and he made it to the playoffs on the back of one good player. Hard to tell how much noise the Vikes would have made if they'd have had an elite defense, instead of a middle-of-the-pack one. :shrug:

I think if you're good enough to even get a job as a QB in the NFL, you're probably more than good enough to win a SB with enough talent surrounding you. The only exceptions, to my mind, would be those QB's playing for coaches/in systems that absolutely mandate a lot of passing and decision making from the QB.

You give Ryan Leaf an Adrian Peterson, a decent O-Line, and the 49ers D, and I think he's a slam dunk to win it all unless Mike Martz is the coach.
:goodposting:

 
Baltimore has shown twice you can win a Sb with a weak(er) QB. So its the team that matters much more so than the QB. IMHO

 
Tom Brady isn't and hasn't been for 10 years. He is done as far as Super Bowls go. Great Career but he peaked a long time ago.

 
Trent Dilfer won a superbowl.
as did Brad Johnson, but it's a different league now
Any QB who isn't a turnover/sack machine can win the SB. Even an INT prone QB can get lucky in a 3 game stretch.
which eliminates quite a few QBs. and barring a historic defence and the NFL reverting to rules that haven't been fixed to hinder said defence, it probably eliminates a Trent Dilfer these days too.

 
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Trent Dilfer won a superbowl.
as did Brad Johnson, but it's a different league now
Any QB who isn't a turnover/sack machine can win the SB. Even an INT prone QB can get lucky in a 3 game stretch.
which eliminates quite a few QBs. and barring a historic defence and the NFL reverting to rules that haven't been fixed to hinder said defence, it probably eliminates a Trent Dilfer these days too.
It would take a great defense I agree. Put Adrian Peterson on the Bears last year and they probably go at least 12-4 to end up with a bye. Even Cutler could get hot and win 3 games for the SB.

 
Tom Brady isn't and hasn't been for 10 years. He is done as far as Super Bowls go. Great Career but he peaked a long time ago.
This is nonsense. He was within a TD of two SB's in the past 5 years. Had he got past the Colts in 2007 (a 4 point loss) he probably would have beat the Bears for another.

 
Ok. Maybe the 2000 Bal D, Dickerson and AP in the backfield, Jerry Rice and Moss and Ponder. But realistically, Ponder isn't good enough.

 
Tom Brady isn't and hasn't been for 10 years. He is done as far as Super Bowls go. Great Career but he peaked a long time ago.
This is nonsense. He was within a TD of two SB's in the past 5 years. Had he got past the Colts in 2007 (a 4 point loss) he probably would have beat the Bears for another.
Meh, lot's of guys come close every year.
Stop it. How is that possibly true?

 
Trent Dilfer won a superbowl.
as did Brad Johnson, but it's a different league now
Any QB who isn't a turnover/sack machine can win the SB. Even an INT prone QB can get lucky in a 3 game stretch.
which eliminates quite a few QBs. and barring a historic defence and the NFL reverting to rules that haven't been fixed to hinder said defence, it probably eliminates a Trent Dilfer these days too.
Alex Smith went to overtime of the NFC Championship game just 2 years ago with a great defense. That day is not behind us.

 
I don't think there's any other starting QB in the NFL as bad as Ponder.
Gabbert, that was easy.
Wrong. That was easy too. :shrug:
At least Ponder has had a handful of good games. This is Blaine Gabbert's best game of his entire career:

23-39 260yds 6.7ypa 2td 0int

Yes, he threw for 6.7ypa in his best game ever. The scary part is that completely mediocre game was so far ahead of anything else in his career. It was the only time in his career where his TD/INT ratio was +2. He's never thrown for more than 2 TDs in a game either. He is just historically bad, especially given the modern NFL landscape.

 
The list is completely hypothetical as any professional QB can have a serious run.

Lets be honest here, nobody outside of Balt thought Flacco had any shot of doing what he did last year - just about everyone on Earth thought he was complete garbage (I still do, must have been an out of body experience for him or something). With that being said, any pro QB in the right situation could win one... Even look at Sanchez, who is complete and utter #### - back to back AFC Champ games... A few minor tweaks and Marc Sanchez is a two time SB champ, imagine that.

 
I always liked Flacco. He might not be a great fantasy QB but he has outshone Matty Ice at every turn. I truly think the reason Flacco gets the Rodney Dangerfield treatment is the same reason Rodney Dangerfield got it....he's homely. He just an ugly dude and the media doesn't see past that. Matt Ryan is a good looking guy and they fawn on him. But he really hasn't done #### in the NFL despite being surrounded with better talent.

 
I always liked Flacco. He might not be a great fantasy QB but he has outshone Matty Ice at every turn. I truly think the reason Flacco gets the Rodney Dangerfield treatment is the same reason Rodney Dangerfield got it....he's homely. He just an ugly dude and the media doesn't see past that. Matt Ryan is a good looking guy and they fawn on him. But he really hasn't done #### in the NFL despite being surrounded with better talent.
Yeah, thats totally it... not Ryan just being a better QB on a worse team and still outperforming Flacco at every turn.

Ryan

Year Age Tm Pos No. G GS QBrec Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD TD% Int Int% Lng Y/A AY/A Y/C Y/G Rate QBR Sk Yds NY/A ANY/A Sk% 4QC GWD AV2008 23 ATL QB 2 16 16 11-5-0 265 434 61.1 3440 16 3.7 11 2.5 70 7.9 7.5 13.0 215.0 87.7 74.09 17 104 7.40 7.01 3.8 2 4 142009 24 ATL QB 2 14 14 9-5-0 263 451 58.3 2916 22 4.9 14 3.1 90 6.5 6.0 11.1 208.3 80.9 56.57 19 92 6.01 5.60 4.0 1 3 102010* 25 ATL QB 2 16 16 13-3-0 357 571 62.5 3705 28 4.9 9 1.6 46 6.5 6.8 10.4 231.6 91.0 69.45 23 158 5.97 6.23 3.9 5 6 162011 26 ATL QB 2 16 16 10-6-0 347 566 61.3 4177 29 5.1 12 2.1 80 7.4 7.5 12.0 261.1 92.2 69.1 26 173 6.76 6.83 4.4 3 3 152012* 27 ATL QB 2 16 15 13-3-0 422 615 68.6 4719 32 5.2 14 2.3 80 7.7 7.7 11.2 294.9 99.1 74.5 28 210 7.01 7.03 4.4 5 7 182013 28 ATL QB 2 1 1 0-1-0 25 38 65.8 304 2 5.3 1 2.6 50 8.0 7.9 12.2 304.0 96.8 72.15 3 25 6.80 6.68 7.3 Career 79 78 56-23-0 1679 2675 62.8 19261 129 4.8 61 2.3 90 7.2 7.1 11.5 243.8 91.0 116 762 6.63 6.57 4.2 16 23 73
Flacco

Code:
Year     Age  Tm Pos No.  G GS   QBrec  Cmp  Att Cmp%   Yds  TD TD% Int Int% Lng Y/A AY/A  Y/C   Y/G Rate   QBR  Sk  Yds NY/A ANY/A Sk% 4QC GWD AV2008      23 BAL  QB   5 16 16  11-5-0  257  428 60.0  2971  14 3.3  12  2.8  70 6.9  6.3 11.6 185.7 80.3 43.23  32  276 5.86  5.29 7.0   1   2 112009      24 BAL  QB   5 16 16   9-7-0  315  499 63.1  3613  21 4.2  12  2.4  72 7.2  7.0 11.5 225.8 88.9 55.03  36  218 6.35  6.12 6.7   1   2 132010      25 BAL  QB   5 16 16  12-4-0  306  489 62.6  3622  25 5.1  10  2.0  67 7.4  7.5 11.8 226.4 93.6 60.38  40  294 6.29  6.39 7.6   2   4 122011      26 BAL  QB   5 16 16  12-4-0  312  542 57.6  3610  20 3.7  12  2.2  74 6.7  6.4 11.6 225.6 80.9 59.69  31  203 5.95  5.70 5.4   2   3 122012      27 BAL  QB   5 16 16  10-6-0  317  531 59.7  3817  22 4.1  10  1.9  61 7.2  7.2 12.0 238.6 87.7 46.82  35  227 6.34  6.33 6.2   4   4 132013      28 BAL  QB   5  1  1   0-1-0   34   62 54.8   362   2 3.2   2  3.2  34 5.8  5.0 10.6 362.0 69.4 34.39   4   27 5.08  4.32 6.1           Career                   81 81 54-27-0 1541 2551 60.4 17995 104 4.1  58  2.3  74 7.1  6.8 11.7 222.2 85.9       178 1245 6.14  5.94 6.5  10  15 61
 
Stats alone don't prove much. The falcons have focused on getting ice guys to throw to (most NFL QBs would love having Julio, white and Gonzo; very few trios are better) while ozzie focused elsewhere. Not to say Joe has nobody, but receivers haven't been as much of an emphasis and this year Joe plays without his security blankets.

Of course this goes both ways as the ravens D was a huge part of their success.

 
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I've heard many say that you can't win a SB without an elite QB. But we've seen Big Ben, Eli, Flacco all win with great teams around them. For me, there are only 4 elite QBs - Brady, Brees, Rodgers and Manning.

This got me thinking: Which QBs aren't good enough to win a SB regardless of the talent around them. The ones who we've seen enough of them and it just isn't going to happen.

My list:

Ponder

Gabbert

Freeman

Sanchez

Jury is still out:

Weeden

Locker

Bradford

Dalton

Who else? I think Schaub, Romo, Cutler, Alex Smitj, Stafford etc are good enough. Same with RG3, Luck, Wilson, Kaep.
I'd say Ponder, Freeman, Bradford, Dalton could all win a SB.

I don't agree with the comments that an average game manager QB like Dilfer or Brad Johnson with a good run game and defense can't win it anymore. Kaepernick wasn't far from that last year; I realize he has great potential and just had an awesome throwing game but last year his role was basically as a better version of Alex Smith. If San Fran wins it it will be with running and defense, not on the Boldin/Davis connection.

And the innovators like Chip Kelly realize they can amp up clock usage by running the ball, that might be where the future is. Funny because that's not what the league management wants.

 
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I've heard many say that you can't win a SB without an elite QB. But we've seen Big Ben, Eli, Flacco all win with great teams around them. For me, there are only 4 elite QBs - Brady, Brees, Rodgers and Manning.

This got me thinking: Which QBs aren't good enough to win a SB regardless of the talent around them. The ones who we've seen enough of them and it just isn't going to happen.

My list:

Ponder

Gabbert

Freeman

Sanchez

Jury is still out:

Weeden

Locker

Bradford

Dalton

Who else? I think Schaub, Romo, Cutler, Alex Smitj, Stafford etc are good enough. Same with RG3, Luck, Wilson, Kaep.
I'd say Ponder, Freeman, Bradford, Dalton could all win a SB.

I don't agree with the comments that an average game manager QB like Dilfer or Brad Johnson with a good run game and defense can't win it anymore. Kaepernick wasn't far from that last year; I realize he has great potential and just had an awesome throwing game but last year his role was basically as a better version of Alex Smith. If San Fran wins it it will be with running and defense, not on the Boldin/Davis connection.

And the innovators like Chip Kelly realize they can amp up clock usage by running the ball, that might be where the future is. Funny because that's not what the league management wants.
Can't is such a hard word, and can't be proven. But two things most teams will need from their qb are the ability to spread the field and occasional moments of brilliance. Call me nuts, but i think freeman actually could fill both.
 
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I've heard many say that you can't win a SB without an elite QB. But we've seen Big Ben, Eli, Flacco all win with great teams around them. For me, there are only 4 elite QBs - Brady, Brees, Rodgers and Manning.

This got me thinking: Which QBs aren't good enough to win a SB regardless of the talent around them. The ones who we've seen enough of them and it just isn't going to happen.

My list:

Ponder

Gabbert

Freeman

Sanchez

Jury is still out:

Weeden

Locker

Bradford

Dalton

Who else? I think Schaub, Romo, Cutler, Alex Smitj, Stafford etc are good enough. Same with RG3, Luck, Wilson, Kaep.
I'd say Ponder, Freeman, Bradford, Dalton could all win a SB.

I don't agree with the comments that an average game manager QB like Dilfer or Brad Johnson with a good run game and defense can't win it anymore. Kaepernick wasn't far from that last year; I realize he has great potential and just had an awesome throwing game but last year his role was basically as a better version of Alex Smith. If San Fran wins it it will be with running and defense, not on the Boldin/Davis connection.

And the innovators like Chip Kelly realize they can amp up clock usage by running the ball, that might be where the future is. Funny because that's not what the league management wants.
Can't is such a hard word, and can't be proven. But two things most teams will need from their qb are the ability to spread the field and occasional moments of brilliance. Call me nuts, but i think freeman actually could fill both.
With the right team, right HC, I don't think it will or could ever happen in TB with Schiano.

 
I've heard many say that you can't win a SB without an elite QB. But we've seen Big Ben, Eli, Flacco all win with great teams around them. For me, there are only 4 elite QBs - Brady, Brees, Rodgers and Manning.

This got me thinking: Which QBs aren't good enough to win a SB regardless of the talent around them. The ones who we've seen enough of them and it just isn't going to happen.

My list:

Ponder

Gabbert

Freeman

Sanchez

Jury is still out:

Weeden

Locker

Bradford

Dalton

Who else? I think Schaub, Romo, Cutler, Alex Smitj, Stafford etc are good enough. Same with RG3, Luck, Wilson, Kaep.
I'd say Ponder, Freeman, Bradford, Dalton could all win a SB.

I don't agree with the comments that an average game manager QB like Dilfer or Brad Johnson with a good run game and defense can't win it anymore. Kaepernick wasn't far from that last year; I realize he has great potential and just had an awesome throwing game but last year his role was basically as a better version of Alex Smith. If San Fran wins it it will be with running and defense, not on the Boldin/Davis connection.

And the innovators like Chip Kelly realize they can amp up clock usage by running the ball, that might be where the future is. Funny because that's not what the league management wants.
Can't is such a hard word, and can't be proven. But two things most teams will need from their qb are the ability to spread the field and occasional moments of brilliance. Call me nuts, but i think freeman actually could fill both.
With the right team, right HC, I don't think it will or could ever happen in TB with Schiano.
You're probably right.

 
Freeman already had a season where his TD:INT ratio was 25:6. I'm not suggesting he'll get back to that, but it shows that anyone can hit a hot streak. Mistake-free football can help you make up a lot of ground; put it together for a few games and voila, Super Bowl.

 
Trent Dilfer won a superbowl.
as did Brad Johnson, but it's a different league now
Any QB who isn't a turnover/sack machine can win the SB. Even an INT prone QB can get lucky in a 3 game stretch.
which eliminates quite a few QBs. and barring a historic defence and the NFL reverting to rules that haven't been fixed to hinder said defence, it probably eliminates a Trent Dilfer these days too.
Alex Smith went to overtime of the NFC Championship game just 2 years ago with a great defense.
that's not the same as winnning a Super Bowl though

 

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