Joe Montana
Johnny Unitas
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Johnny Unitas leads 2 of 2 categories. Our all-time ranking places Joe Montana at #5 and Johnny Unitas at #9.
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The case for Joe Montana
Before Brady, Montana was the standard for postseason quarterbacking. The engine of Bill Walsh West Coast offense, he won four Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers and was named MVP of three of them, and, remarkably, threw eleven touchdowns and zero interceptions across those four championship games. His nickname, Joe Cool, captured a preternatural calm in the biggest moments, never more famous than his 92-yard game-winning drive to beat Cincinnati in Super Bowl XXIII. Montana won two regular-season MVP awards and finished with 40,551 passing yards and 273 touchdowns, numbers that undersell him because he played in a ball-control system and battled injuries. For efficiency, accuracy, and clutch command of a possession offense, he remains a benchmark.
The case for Johnny Unitas
The prototype of the modern drop-back quarterback, Unitas rose from a semi-pro sandlot to become the face of the NFL as it conquered television. His masterful two-minute drive to force overtime in the 1958 Championship, the Greatest Game Ever Played, helped make pro football a national obsession. He threw a touchdown pass in 47 consecutive games, a record that stood from 1960 until 2012, and won three MVP awards. Unitas retired with 40,239 passing yards and 290 touchdowns, enormous totals for a run-heavy era, and led the Colts to three championships, including a win in Super Bowl V. His gunslinger command, audibling at the line and taking downfield shots, defined quarterback play for a generation that followed.