Okay, I cut four last time (Boomer Esiason, Drew Brees, Steve McNair, and Donovan McNabb).  Now it’s time to eliminate a few more.  First, let’s look at who’s left:

Troy Aikman, Tom Brady, John Elway, Brett Favre, Jim Kelly, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino,  Joe Montana, Warren Moon, Phil Simms, Kurt Warner, and Steve Young.

The final dozen have a combined 20 Super Bowl rings, 10 Super Bowl MVP awards, and a over a dozen regular season MVP awards.  Seven of them are already in the Hall of Fame, and the four who are still active all have at least an outside shot at making it in.  So how can I possibly eliminate any of them?  Let’s find out.

Phil Simms has 33,000 yards passing, two Super Bowl rings, and a Super Bowl MVP award.  He also finished seven of his twelve full seasons as a starter with a passer rating of less than 80, and seven out of twelve seasons with a completion percentage of 55 or less.  This from someone who was supposedly a game manager extraordinaire.  Simms was good, damn good, but it’s hard to promote someone with such lackluster numbers.  He’s out.

Kurt Warner is about to surpass the 30,000 yard mark, has two regular season MVP awards, a ring, and three Super Bowl appearances.  But he only has seven full seasons under his belt, and did most of his extraordinary work over a three year period in St. Louis.  He’s had two good years with Cardinals, one so-so year with them, and a so-so year with the Giants.

Guess what?  That’s all the cuts for this round.  Next up I will purge those who have career numbers but also have a big gaping hole in their records.  There will be more than two cuts next time.  Until then….