First let me say that this group is like being the shortest Plumlee brother. Or the Plumlee brother that’s worst at basketball. The list of Super Bowl winning quarterbacks is indeed rarified air. These guys are just nowhere near the elite group of Joe Montana, Steve Young, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, John Elway etc. but this group of five passers does have four total Pro Bowls to their credit.
So here it is, the best signal callers to “game manage” the biggest game while letting their running attack and defenses do all the heavy lifting.
1.) Trent Dilfer 200o-1 Baltimore Ravens, career passer rating 70.2
The conversation about this post’s topic usually starts with Dilfer, and it’s easy to understand why- IT’S TRUE! That Ravens defense might have been the best the game has ever seen. The only peer would be the….
2.) Jim McMahon 1985-6 Chicago Bears, 78.2
…the Bears of the 46 Zone. That D and Walter Payton, the greatest running back in NFL history won games for Chicago, not the Punky QB. McMahon was injury prone and put up these very unimpressive numbers: 15 TD 12 INT, 56% comp pct. during the Super Bowl season.
3.) Doug Williams 1987-8 Washington Redskins, 69.4
Has the lowest career passer rating of any Super Bowl winning QB, but his victory means much more on another second substantive level. His win further proved wrong every redneck racist moron who feels all African-American QBs should be moved to WR, DB, or the ATH category.
4.) Mark Rypien 1991-2 Washington Redskins, 78.9
He has 2 Pro Bowl appearances to his credit, the Washington State product just saw his career end briefly. In other words, he’s not as terrible as you remember him. It’s just he’s no Troy Aikman here.
5.) Brad Johnson, 2002-3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 82.5
Had the best season of his career in ’02 putting up a 22-6 TD-INT on his way to the Pro Bowl. Another name who’s always on the tip of the tongue in the “game manager” sports bar discussion, Johnson was actually pretty solid. I think the reason he wasn’t taken as seriously as he should have been is the fact he only threw 26 passes in college and was a 9th round pick out of Florida State.
Not mentioned. Jeff Hostetler 1990-91 New York Giants, is often brought up in this conversation but I can’t in good conscious put a guy with a 101.8 passer rating and 2 Pro Bowls in this group. Sorry hasslers of the Hos, he’s too good.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar in media studies, he’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on ESPN, NBC, CBS and Fox Sports Radio. A former writer for NBCChicago.com and WashingtonTimes.com, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)