So where should Brett Rank?

Longevity: Favre had 15 prime years. That puts him way ahead of Young, and on par with Marino and Elway. No one else had more than 11 prime years. One thing we do need to keep in mind, though, is that Moon's time in Canada, Kelly's USFL tenure, and Young's years stuck behind Montana cut into what would undoubtedly have been prime years of their NFL careers. Aikman's career was cut short by injury, but at the same time you can look at his final season numbers and see that decline was in full efect already. Still, Favre is tied for tops here.

The Teammate Factor: I'd put him in the middle of the pack here, no pun intended. Montana had All-Pros and Hall of Famers all around him on offense throughout his prime, as did Aikman, Young, Kelly, and Peyton. Marino had no running game to speak of throughout his whole career, and had good but not great receivers. Before this season, Brady had some guys around who were considered good but not great, and others who were straight up journeymen. Moon got in a few seasons with Cris Carter in Minnesota, but other than that he was throwing to a bunch of pass droppers in Houston and some pretty nondescript guys in Seattle. With the exception of Carter, there was never any question about who was better between Moon and the people he had around him. Elway had the least to work with, by far, until the last few years of his career and managed to lead that sorry crew to three Super Bowls. And Favre? He had Sterling Sharpe and Keith Jackson early on, Robert Brooks and Anotonio Freeman for a few years, and then Donald Driver towards the end, so he definitely had some top notch guys to throw to. The running game was pretty solid for him as well, with Dorsey Levens, then Ahman Green. Now, none of those guys is going to Canton but they have a stack of legitimate Pro Bowl invites that stack up with anyone. I'd rank his teammates sixth out this this group.

Big Game Reliability: Here he ranks in the bottom half. There was the 6-interception playoff game against the Rams, and other games where he killed his team with untimely interceptions. He's not at the bottom, though. Kelly routinely stank it up when it mattered most, and had a nasty habit of getting injured just as the game started getting ugly. He played in four Super Bowls and wasn't good in any of them. You can say that playing well in four AFC championships cancels that out, but I won't. Sorry. Moon and Marino weren't awful, but weren't great either. Peyton has had some good moments, and wasn't bad in the Super Bowl, but he still has looked very average in big games. But none of those three has had big games where you thought 'he is singlehandedly killing his own team right now!' Favre and Kelly have done that repeatedly. I'd put him eigth here, ahead of Kelly and Marino but behind everyone else.

So after all of this, where do I put him? Well, Montana is definitely better. So are Young and Elway. I'd also put Brady and Peyton ahead of him. What about the rest? I think Marino is a better quaretback, but Favre's accomplishments give him the nod. Kelly is clearly behind him, too. Moon is the trickiest one to decide on. If you count his CFL time, which I did earlier, then you have to put him ahead of Favre. In the name of consistency I'll count his CFL years and put him ahead. So that makes Favre seventh out of the 10 best QB's that I watched play. What about his predecessors? Everyting I've seen suggests that Johnny Unitas, Otto Graham, Sammy Baugh, and Roger Staubach were better, and maybe Bart Starr as well. So at the end of the day, he's in the Top 20, maybe the Top 15 if really looked into it. But please don't let anyone tell you the lie that he's in the Top 5 ever, or even the Top 10. That's just crazy talk.