Best QB's of last 50 years? Last 25? (A trip down memory lane)

[eastbaycat99]

Annual off season threads often cover the best of categories (game, team, running back etc.) With respect to QB, I never saw the one generally regarded as the greatest NU QB of all time, Otto Graham, but have seen all of the starters the last 50 years, and so I used it as a time frame for this thread. Realizing the game changes over time, it is hard to compare someone from the late 60's to the current era, and so I would break the "best" selection into best 3 from 1968 to 1992 and best 3 from 1992 to 2017 with an optional best 3 overall for those who care to generalize. Having been inspired by the recent Dark Ages thread, I put together a table of who has played to position to jog memories and (I hope) bring forth anecdotes. The table is by year with QB's who passed for more than 500 yards in a year. I have included whether they were all conference and if they subsequently played pro. Since I used a mishmash of sources, if I have incorrect or incomplete information, please let me know so I can correct. Over the years, I found 6 QB's that made all conference (4 first team) and four that took snaps in the NFL. I did not include taxi or practice squad players unless they were on the active roster in the same year.

My picks from 1968 to 1992 would be Maurie Daigneau, Len Williams, Mike Greenfield
and from 1993 to 2017 Dan Persa, Steve Schnur and Brett Basanez.
Overall it is really hard, but I like (a healthy) Dan Persa, then Len Williams and Steve Schnur, all of whom were terrific college QB's while none made the NFL. Len Williams bridged the first and second 25.


Year Player Yards All-Conf Pro (League and years)
1968 Dave Shelbourne 1358
1969 Maurie Daigneau 1276
1970 Maurie Daigneau 1288
1971 Maurie Daigneau 1733 1st, 1st WFL 1
1972 Mitch Anderson 1335
1973 Mitch Anderson 1224 2nd,2nd
1974 Mitch Anderson 1282
1975 Randy Dean 1315
1976 Randy Dean 1384 NFL 2
1977 Scott Stranski 541
1978 Kevin Strasser 1526
1979 Mike Kerrigan 961
1980 Mike Kerrigan 1816
1981 Mike Kerrigan 1317 NFL 2, CFL 11
1982 Sandy Schwab 2735
1983 Sandy Schwab 1838
1984 Sandy Schwab 845
1984 Mike Greenfield 733
1985 Mike Greenfield 2152
1986 Mike Greenfield 1653
1987 Mike Greenfield 1265 CFL 1
1988 Greg Bradshaw 1550
1989 Tim O'Brien 2218
1990 Len Williams 1700
1991 Len Williams 1630
1992 Len Williams 2110
1993 Len Williams 2047 CFL 2
1994 Steve Schnur 899
1994 Tim Hughes 794
1995 Steve Schnur 1792
1996 Steve Schnur 2962 1st,1st
1997 Tim Hughes 1862
1998 Gavin Hoffman 2199
1999 Nick Kreinbrink 774
1999 Zak Kustok 741
2000 Zak Kustok 2389
2001 Zak Kustok 2692
2002 Brett Basanez 2204
2003 Brett Basanez 1916
2004 Brett Basanez 2838
2005 Brett Basanez 3622 1st, 1st NFL 1
2006 C.J. Bacher 1172
2007 C.J. Bacher 3656
2008 C.J. Bacher 2432
2009 Mike Kafka 3430 2nd, 2nd NFL 1
2010 Dan Persa 2581 1st, 2nd
2011 Dan Persa 2376
2011 Kain Colter 654
2012 Trevor Siemian 1312
2012 Kain Colter 872
2013 Trevor Siemian 2149
2013 Kain Colter 583
2014 Trevor Siemian 2214 NFL 3
2015 Clayton Thorson 1522
2016 Clayton Thorson 3182
2017 Clayton Thorson 2844

 

[stpaulcat]

You started a couple years too late: Tom Myers.
The only passing stat I could find was for 1962--1537yds