Raider Nation
Devil's Advocate
I heard Don Shula interviewed a few times this week, and he claims that Dan Marino was "unquestionably" the best pure thrower ever to play the game. I want to see if you fine folks agree with that assessment.
Best Pure Thrower
I'll define it this way. Picture a QB with a cannon, who makes all of his throws look effortless. Picture a crisp delivery culminating in a beautiful, textbook spiral. Picture a QB who can roll out of bed at 4:00 in the morning, and still stick a 20-yard out pattern between the receivers' numbers.
I don't care how mobile a QB was (Young/Vick), how many games he won (Montana/Brady). This is ONLY about pure throwing ability, and all the factors above in red were considered before carefully forumlating my list. I could only list 14 players, so don't shoot me if I forgot someone obvious. That's what "OTHER" is for. I am going on my personal experience viewing these players, with the exception of course of Sammy Baugh. I am simply deferring to the old timers on that one. A lot of them swear he threw the prettiest ball ever. So be it.
For the record, I left off Dan Fouts because his arm wasn't the strongest.
And I left off Jim Kelly because he threw more ducks than spirals, or so it seemed.
Some players I considered, but who didn't make the cut include Joe Namath, Jay Schroeder, Vinny Testaverde, Jim Everett, Phil Simms, Doug Williams and Daunte Culpepper. Even Jeff Blake threw a beautiful deep ball, but I can't see putting him in over those other players. Jay Cutler is a guy who will absolutely knock someone off this list in a couple of years. Perfect mechanics.
ETA that I voted for Jeff George. The guy was a complete moron, but IMO you could not draw up a more perfect throwing motion, release or spiral. Just a beautiful passer to watch.
Best Pure Thrower
I'll define it this way. Picture a QB with a cannon, who makes all of his throws look effortless. Picture a crisp delivery culminating in a beautiful, textbook spiral. Picture a QB who can roll out of bed at 4:00 in the morning, and still stick a 20-yard out pattern between the receivers' numbers.
I don't care how mobile a QB was (Young/Vick), how many games he won (Montana/Brady). This is ONLY about pure throwing ability, and all the factors above in red were considered before carefully forumlating my list. I could only list 14 players, so don't shoot me if I forgot someone obvious. That's what "OTHER" is for. I am going on my personal experience viewing these players, with the exception of course of Sammy Baugh. I am simply deferring to the old timers on that one. A lot of them swear he threw the prettiest ball ever. So be it.
For the record, I left off Dan Fouts because his arm wasn't the strongest.
And I left off Jim Kelly because he threw more ducks than spirals, or so it seemed.
Some players I considered, but who didn't make the cut include Joe Namath, Jay Schroeder, Vinny Testaverde, Jim Everett, Phil Simms, Doug Williams and Daunte Culpepper. Even Jeff Blake threw a beautiful deep ball, but I can't see putting him in over those other players. Jay Cutler is a guy who will absolutely knock someone off this list in a couple of years. Perfect mechanics.
ETA that I voted for Jeff George. The guy was a complete moron, but IMO you could not draw up a more perfect throwing motion, release or spiral. Just a beautiful passer to watch.
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I don't picture a noodle-arm when talking about the best pure throwers.
Pretty much it looks like you wanted to define a criteria where Marino might win something based solely on public perception, he never won a ring, and next year Favre will take away more of his records. Kind of sad for Dan, he'll be left with nothing. Oh, wait, he'll have this poll though! :X
Pretty much it looks like you wanted to define a criteria where Marino might win something based solely on public perception, he never won a ring, and next year Favre will take away more of his records. Kind of sad for Dan, he'll be left with nothing. Oh, wait, he'll have this poll though! 
sad when you know Marino was better than favre. Favre will break Marino's td record because he has played in more games. He came back this year to chase the record and break the int record(not held by Marino) . Kind of sad a quarterback chasing records, because we all know he will probably throw 29ints again and the packers will go 6-10. He should have left when he had a decent season instead of coming back. Peyton will break all the records anyway, just a matter of time, but when people talk about the best qbs all time they will say Montana, Marino, Elway, Brady and Manning. At least Favre will be remembered for being the best passer ever, oh wait thats Marino, most comebacks nope thats elway and Marino. Oh I know he will be remembered for being a quarterback with a great arm who made stupid decisions throughout his career. Its just brett being brett! 
TTring:
As great as Namath was, people who never saw him play in person look at his stats and dismiss him from discussions like this. They overlook the differences in rules for his era and demands on a QB that are no longer in place today. He was a magnificent performer who could not benefit from modern medicine, but he did play a major part in advancing sports medicine and the advent of knee surgery and repair. However, his arm was always golden.Not sure if anyone mentioned the "Elway Cross" either. That moniker alone tells you how hard he could throw it.
Pretty much it looks like you wanted to define a criteria where Marino might win something based solely on public perception, he never won a ring, and next year Favre will take away more of his records. Kind of sad for Dan, he'll be left with nothing. Oh, wait, he'll have this poll though! 
Marino failed to eclipse 18 TD passes in three of his final four seasons and somebody ripped Favre for only throwing 18 last year. 
I second this. Beautiful ball, excellent mechanics, and A CANNON.
