QB History Repeats Itself

During a conversation with Galley Friend L.B. the other day I mentioned how eerie it is that today's crop of great quarterbacks resemble the last great crop. Think about it:

Manning = Marino

Brady = Montana

Vick = Cunningham

McNabb = Elway

Culpepper = Moon

L.B. had much deeper thoughts on the subject, which you may find interesting:

Your QB comparisons are pretty apt. Manning is definitely going to get stuck with the Marino tag. (Dan Fouts would also be a good comparison, too--all great AFC QBs with gaudy stats who had the misfortune of playing on teams with shitty defenses.) Btw, did you see the post-game show on CBS after Colts-Pats, when Boomer Esaison said Manning was becoming the "Marino of his generation"? Boomer must've forgotten that Marino was sitting just down the table from him--Marino shot him a glare that said "If we weren't on national TV right now, you would be a dead man, blondie." Anyway, that team just needs some more guts and toughness, mostly on the defensive side of the ball and also on the O-line. Marvin Harrison is also a big X-factor in their losses--you never saw Rice or Michael Irvin disappear in big games the way he has. (But I suppose you could pin that on Manning too--Rice and Irvin never disappeared b/c Montana and Aikman weren't weenies in big games.)

Vick/Cunningham is also a good analogy, but I think Cunningham was a better passer early in his career than Vick is at the same point now. Why the hell are they shackling Vick in the damn West Coast offense? He's clearly not comfortable with it yet. He shouldn't be throwing little 5-yard dump offs to fullbacks and slants all day to his wideouts; he needs to be in a system where he can air it out.

Brady/Montana--it's also a good comparison, even though I'm sick of it. Both guys from big-time college programs (Michigan, Notre Dame) who got drafted low because they didn't fit the 6'5"/rocket arm QB/God mold. All they do is win. Where the comparison falls apart for me, at least now, is that while Brady is matching Montana in Super Bowls, Montana was a more complete passer--threw a better deep ball, I think, and put up marginally better passing numbers. (Of course, Jerry Rice might've had a little to do with that--it'd be interesting to see what Brady could do with a top-flight receiver instead of all the small guys he's got right now).

And I like the Pats a lot, too--I guess I'm just tired of hearing how great they are. If they win the Super Bowl this year, people are going to start talking about them being a dynasty in the league of the '70s Steelers, '80s 49ers, and especially the early-'90s Cowboys (the only team to win 3 rings in 4 years)--which is bunk. The Pats win because they play great team football in a league made mediocre by parity--by which I mean, they haven't had to beat as many really great teams to win their titles. The '70s Steelers had to deal with the great Madden Raider teams, the Griese-Csonka-Shula Dolphins, etc. The '80s Niners always had to get through Parcells' Giants, Gibbs' Skins, or Ditka's mid-'80s Bears teams. And the early '90s Cowboys had those epic NFC title games (the real Super Bowl in those years) against the Young/Rice/Watters 49ers, and also had to get past the excellent Packers teams of Farve's early years (with Reggie White, Sterling Sharpe et al). Meanwhile, these Pats are two late-4th quarter field goals away from losing both of their Super Bowls (and to who--Carolina?), and if not for that ridiculous non-fumble call in Foxboro when the Raiders' Charles Woodson sacked his former U-M teammate Brady, the Pats don't even get to the 2002 Super Bowl.

I guess I'm just an obnoxious Cowboy fun stuck back in the glory days, but I think either of Jimmy Johnson's two Cowboy Super Bowl teams would dismantle the Pats--simply a matter of having more talent and depth.

McNabb-Elway is another pretty good analogy, though Elway scares me more as a passer, McNabb more as a runner.

Culpepper-Moon is interesting but Dante still has his work cut out for him. Moon is one of the great overlooked QBs of all time. Don't forget all the yards he racked up in the CFL before coming to the NFL, because no one in the NFL wanted to draft a black QB when he came out of U-Washington--even though he was a Rose Bowl MVP. Over his entire pro career, the guy threw for **70,533** yards! (far more than anyone else) And if it hadn't been for the Oilers' craptacular collapse against Buffalo in the playoffs one year (remember--35-3 before the Bills came back?), and a 2-point nailbiter loss in Mile High to the Broncos in another year, he would've been in at least one Super Bowl. For my money, Moon had the most amazing arm I've ever seen on a QB (along with Marino, I guess). I say this with all due respect to Favre, Elway etc.--the difference was that Moon threw rockets while always making it look effortless. Farve and Elway look like gunslingers--when they threw hard, you could tell they were putting every ounce into it.

Does anyone else have thoughts on the matter?