Tom Brady vs Dan Marino: Settling Joe Montana’s viral claim on NFL’s greatest QB of all time

Joe Montana argued that neither he nor Tom Brady is the greatest. Instead Dan Marino is the best quarterback of all time. That is a startling comment from a man who has won four Super Bowls himself where the former Miami Dolphins legend has won none. The former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers player, of course, leads the field with seven Super Bowl victories to his name.

Joe Montana made the comments in Dublin, Ireland, where his alma mater, Notre Dame, were playing against the Navy. He said,

"(Dan Marino) had a quick release. I had to step into a lot of things to get enough [force] on the ball. He had the perfect torque of his upper body and strength to deliver the ball quickly at a fast release with accuracy."

Perhaps taking a shot at Tom Brady, and all other quarterbacks who are more protected today than ever before, he added,

“Put Marino into today’s game where he gets free release...and his receivers, holy cow, weren't very big... Now these guys are 6'4," 6'5." I think he is probably one of the most unsung heroes of the game. People don't talk enough about him or realize the numbers that he put up during the times that he put them up."

Joe Montana's rating of Dan Marino, therefore, comes down to technique and style more than achievements. Therefore, the former Dolphins quarterback is placed both above him and Tom Brady.

But if that is indeed the hallmark, where championships do not count, statistics must count for something. Here, we look at the who is indeed the best quarterback the NFL has seen.

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NFL's greatest QB: Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Tom Brady or Player X?

There are two thought processes when judging the greatest quarterback of all time. The first is the simplest: comparing championship wins. In terms of Super Bowls, Tom Brady leads the pack with seven. That is more than every other franchise in the NFL today, never mind a player.

However, Otto Graham has seven championships as well: four in the AAFC and three in the NFL. He did it in a span of 10 years. By that metric, the Cleveland Browns quarterback could be considered above Brady. Ohers will argue, though, that the number of games and a single consolidated league today make the former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback a greater player.

The other school of thought is that individual statistics count for more than team championships, because football is a team game. There have been many great players in other sports too, who might not have won a championship but it was because of the team around them. Consider, for example, soccer legend Francesco Totti, whose loyalty to boyhood club Roma meant he won only on Italian Serie A title and not a single Champions league.

In that school of thought, the currency for quarterbacks has to be passing yards per game and touchdowns per game. Now, as Joe Montana highlighted, the league has changed a lot and become more pass-heavy. So, let us consider the individual periods in which they played.

Dan Marino played from 1983 to 1999 for the Miami Dolphins. During that period he had an average of 253.6 yards per game and 420 touchdowns in 242 games at 1.74 per game. In that period, considering other quarterbacks who played for than 50 games, only Dan Fouts of the San Diego Chargers had more passing yards per game at 265. But his 92 touchdowns in 60 games in those years meant an average touchdown rate of 1.53 per game.

Joe Montana played from 1979 to 1994 and his career overlapped significantly with Dan Marino. His passing yards per game was only 211.2 and his 273 touchdowns in 192 games meant a production of only 1.42 per game. So, purely based on individual statistics, the former San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs player must be ranked behind the Dolphins legend.

Now, we come to a different era where Tom Brady played from 2000 to 2022. He has an average of 267.1 yards per game and 649 touchdowns in 334 means 1.94 per game. However, like Dan Marino, he is not at the top for the period he played in. Drew Brees leads that metric with 280 yards per game and 1.99 touchdowns per game.

So, Tom Brady is 4.6 percent down on the top passer in his era, wheras Dan Marino was down just 4.5 percent from Dan Fouts. Therefore, rationalizing for the era, one could say that the Dolphins quarterback was slightly better than the Patriots and Buccaneers player, considering passing yards per game.

In terms of touchdown per game, Marino ranks over the player, Fouts, who had most passing yards per game in his era, whereas Tom Brady is behind Drew Brees during the time he played. Hence, one could argue based on such equalizations, that Dan Marino is indeed better than Tom Brady.

However, if we are not trying to consider different eras into account, Drew Brees could be considered the best quarterback of all time based on passing yards and touchdowns per game. In fact, for average passing yards, only three players are ahead of him: Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow. This means that among retired players, he is at the top.

Therefore, it is fiendishly difficult to determine who the best NFL quarterback of all time is. Maybe it is Dan Marino or perhaps it is Tom Brady. Possibly, it is Otto Graham or Drew Brees. Ultimately, what we can agree on is that those who came later stood on the shoulders of giants that played earlier.

And when all is said and done, maybe Patrick Mahomes with his two Super Bowl rings at the age of 27 and current average of 303 passing yards per game will outshine them all.