The Great Debate - Favre Greatest QB Ever?

After 17 years, one Super Bowl title, and numerous records, Green Bay's legendary quarterback Brett Favre has decided to hang up his cleats and retire. Favre's hard-working ethics and gun-slinging mentality made him one of the best quarterbacks to ever grace the field. However, is he THE best ever?

Let's take a look at some of those that have had their names mentioned in the debate of best ever in the past, and let's compare Favre's stats to each of those. For the sake of argument, I have chosen the careers of three of Favre's peers; Joe Montana, John Elway, and Dan Marino. In some regards, I could have stepped back and also chosen some classic QB's like Terry Bradshaw, Dan Fouts, Johnny Unitas, etc., but in fairness, their career stats pail in comparison to these four.

That being said, let's get into the breakdown.

Games Played

This may be a useless category for some, and may also be an auspicious one to begin a debate with, but isn't the most important role of the QB actually suiting up and taking the field?

Favre - 257
Montana - 192
Elway - 234
Marino - 242

Obviously, Favre is considered one of the most durable quarterbacks, if not players, to every step on a football field. For his part, Montana battled numerous injuries at the tail-end of his career that likely cut it short and reduced the stats he would accumulate. Still, a lot can be said about a man that leads his team out of the tunnel without missing a game the way that Favre did.

Advantage - Favre

Passing Yards - Regular Season

This is one of the categories where a quarterback is typically judged on. Each of these men had the benefit of having plus receivers to throw the ball to and were known to do so better than most any other QB sling it.

Favre - 61,655
Montana - 40,551
Elway - 51,475
Marino - 61,361

It needs to be pointed out here that both Elway and Montana played in more well-balanced offenses, where their need to throw was lessened by solid running back play. However, both Favre and Marino stand head's above either Montana or Elway in this regard. In this regard, I have to give Marino the advantage here because he accumulated just 294 few yards while playing in 15 fewer games.

Advantage - Marino

Completion Percentage

As we've already established that both the situations involving running games and games played play a part in statistical accumulation, I have decided not to use Pass Completions as a measurable stat. Instead, I will focus on completion percentage, to put all candidates on an even field.

Favre - 61.4%
Montana - 63.2%
Elway - 56.9%
Marino - 59.4%

Montana may not have been blessed with the arm that Favre had, but he had a way of hitting receivers in stride and on target. Favre for his benefit deserves some praise for having achieved such a high completion percentage despite his penchant for throwing into situations that were ill-advised. Still, the advantage goes to Joe Cool here.

Advantage - Montana

Interception Percentage

Along the same lines as Completion Percentage, we also have Interception Percentage. Other than his knack for finding his receivers, a strong quarterback will also be adept at keeping the ball out of the hands of his opponents.

Favre - 3.3%
Montana - 2.6%
Elway - 4.1%
Marino - 3.0%

Also like Completion Percentage, Montana again shows his accuracy by having the lowest interception percentage. Here, Favre sits in third, as he had a penchant for throwing the ball into the opponent's hands, including the highest individual season total of interceptions of this group, when he threw 29 in 2005.

Advantage - Montana

Touchdown Passes

Try as we want to be fair, we also cannot punish those that had longer careers either. That being said, you have to assess how often the quarterback lead his troops into the end zone as one of the gages of measurement.

Favre - 442
Montana - 273
Elway - 300
Marino - 420

Again, here is a case where Favre and Marino outdistance the other guys by a comfortable margin. However, in this case, Favre used his extra season of play over Marino to put up a full extra year's worth of touchdowns. I'm giving Favre the advantage this time around, as Marino's TD totals during his last few seasons don't lead me to believe that an extra season would have made the difference.

Advantage - Favre

Super Bowl Rings

Ahh, the true measure of leadership. Nothing says field general better than leading your team to the promised land. Sure, this is also impacted by the teams that were built around them, but it is still a testament to their fortitude.

Favre - 1
Montana - 4
Elway - 2
Marino - 0

It was always a great shame that Marino only got to play in one Super Bowl and that he lost the game. Favre got to play in two, winning the first and falling in the second to the first of two consecutive championship Broncos teams with Elway at the helm. Still, Montana is far and away the winner here, having been a key cog in the 49er's Super Bowl machine.

Advantage - Montana

Again, this is just a sampling of the numerous stats that we could pull to determine the best quarterback ever. Favre obviously deserves his spot amongst the best ever. However, I'll leave it up to you to decide if he takes the prize.

Sources

Brett Favre Career Stats, Pro-Football-Reference.com

Joe Montana Career Stats, Pro-Football-Reference.com

John Elway Career Stats, Pro-Football-Reference.com

Dan Marino Career Stats, Pro-Football-Reference.com