Finding a good quarterback is essential to a football team’s success. Over the last two decades, each NFL Super Bowl-winning team has featured an elite signal caller or a game manager to aid in its team winning the Lombardi Trophy.
Tom Brady, Brad Johnson, Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton and Eli Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Joe Flacco, Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes along with others have led their teams to the NFL’s promised land.
However, some signal callers never achieve their ultimate dream. Their production and worth to their franchise was meaningful. But overtime, their contributions can be forgotten or overshadowed by other exceptional quarterbacks.
Peter Schrager, a senior writer for FOX Sports and who also stars on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football show, shared his five most underrated NFL quarterbacks of all-time. His list included Steve McNair, Otto Graham, Jim Plunkett, Joe Flacco and Ken Anderson.
It’s hard to forget the late three-time Pro Bowl quarterback McNair’s completion to Kevin Dyson, who came up mere inches away from giving the Titans a Super Bowl win against the Rams.
Browns legend Graham, a five-time Pro Bowler, is often considered one of most well-respected quarterbacks from the late 1940s to mid ’50s. He led the Browns to a league championship each year between 1946 to ’55, winning seven, and posted more than 55 wins for the Browns in the playoffs during his era.
Plunkett spent 16 seasons in the NFL and won two Super Bowls in latter stages of his career with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders (now the Las Vegas Raiders). Plunkett served as the backup quarterback in both seasons before becoming the starter in both seasons that the Raiders won titles. Even more, he is the only eligible quarterback with two Super Bowl wins as a starter that has yet to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Flacco was not the most elite quarterback in the league’s history. However, when he helped the Ravens defeat the 49ers in 2013, tying Joe Montana and Kurt Warner for the most touchdowns in a single postseason, it led to him becoming the highest paid quarterback in NFL history.
Anderson nearly brought Cincinnati its first Super Bowl in 1981 against the 49ers. Despite not securing the biggest win after an impressive performance on the big stage, he retired as the Bengals greatest passer of all time, throwing for 197 touchdowns and more than 32,000 yards. However, he is often forgotten within the league.
Winning a championship or not, these quarterbacks were some of the best to do it in their respective eras.
