Least-spectacular NFLCG-winning QB, '32-thru-'65?

[74_75_78_79_]

Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson appears to be the general consensus in Super Bowl era. 2015 Peyton has been mentioned as well.

Of all the signal-callers who were under-center on an NFL team that won the League Championship Game in the pre-SB era, who to you was the most unassuming?

[Brian wolf]

My choice would be Paul Christman of the Cards amongst modern T-Formation QBs, who was a better broadcaster. Some might choose Thompson, Conerly or Ryan who managed great years and teams, though I feel these QBs, especially Thompson playing with one bad eye, are not getting the respect they deserve, similar to Simms in the SB era ...

[Brian wolf]

May have to amend my choice of Christman. Irv Comp for GB won a championship but was nowhere the thrower of Isbell or even Herber ...

[Bryan]

I was never impressed with Billy Wade (Bears 63), although TJ Troup thought a bit more of Wade than I did. Wade did give the Bears stability at QB and was very durable; he was obviously good enough to win with. He actually threw the ball a lot more than I expected in certain seasons with the Rams and Bears. It is interesting that in the 1932 - 65 timeframe very rarely did a team win a championship without a great QB. Maybe its because there were fewer teams in general. The bar is pretty high.

I think Frank Ryan is rated just fine. I remember Mike Tanier wrote an article that called Frank Ryan the most underrated QB of all-time, but the article just spouted off some numbers and didn't look at any context. Milt Plum put up better numbers with the Browns before Ryan, Nelsen put up better numbers after. That Browns offense was stacked with talent. Ryan did well in that offense, but I think there is kind of a Nick Foles element of right place/right time with Ryan. In 1965, Jim Brown ran for over 1500 yards, Ryan passed for 1700 yards, and Ryan earned all conference and pro bowl honors and even got MVP votes. Very strange. He had a couple nice seasons for the Browns, a few average ones, and I don't really see much difference between Ryan, Plum and Nelsen.

[rhickok1109]

May have to amend my choice of Christman. Irv Comp for GB won a championship but was nowhere the thrower of Isbell or even Herber ...

Comp wasn't a QB in 1944.

[Bob Gill]

Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson appears to be the general consensus in Super Bowl era. 2015 Peyton has been mentioned as well.

Brad Johnson was a lot better than Trent Dilfer! It's not even close:

29,000 yards vs. 20.000

166 TDs/122 Ints vs. 113/129

82.5 passer rating vs. 70.2

[Brian wolf]

Had Ryan went to Warfield more often like Nelson did, I feel his numbers might have been better but he was very in tune with Collins on the other side and they scored a lot of TDs. Nelson like Plum, seemed to fare better against weaker teams but ran out of gas at the end of the seasons due to weak knees. Plum might have fared better had he convinced PB to change the plays more at the line but he wasnt the type to get the ball to Renfro enough. Had Howton stayed on their team, the passing offense would have been better but Paul Brown got rid of him and speedster Frank Clarke, who would help give Dallas an entertaining passing offense ...

[sheajets]

May have to amend my choice of Christman. Irv Comp for GB won a championship but was nowhere the thrower of Isbell or even Herber ...

He passed away pretty young too. At only 51 in 1970 while still working for CBS I believe

[Cali_Eagle]

Just took a quick peek at Pro Football Reference and in 1932 the Bears QB was listed as Keith Molesworth (later to be the 1st HC of the Baltimore Colts.) He had some pretty uninspiring statistics. In 1933 Carl Brumbaugh was listed as the Bears QB and it was the same case. Most of the other early passers were listed as being tailbacks so I didn't count them, but technically I think one is easily justified in doing so. Both Molesworth and Brumbaugh had passing numbers for those seasons and for the careers that were less than impressive. Of course it was an earlier era, and even the league leaders didn't necessarily look all that impressive either.

[Bob Gill]

About Keith Molesworth: Over his career he threw 18 TD passes and 19 interceptions. Granted he didn't throw all that much, but for the 1930s that ratio is VERY impressive.