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Reactions: Ranking Young Users say Young is definitely in top 10, not top fivePosted: Thursday June 15, 2000 09:55 AM
CNNSI.com asked in a Head to Head whether Steve Young was one of the top five quarterbacks of all time. While most users conceded that he was an excellent QB -- and many said he belonged in the top ten -- most of our responses indicated that he doesn't quite crack the top five. A sample of your submissions follows: Ten or twenty years from now his statistics will get him on the list, but its rings that get you to the top. Performance in the playoffs and the Super Bowl counts more than all the regular season stats and should. That's why they're called big games. It's when the pressure to succeed and lead is the greatest. History is told in the success or failure of the key or final drive for the championship lead by the QB -- you have to be there to be part of the story. You have to be there to make the list. You have to be there more than once to top the list.
Steve Young was an excellent QB, but I am not sure that he was even one of the top 5 QB's during his career. Montana, Elway and Marino rank above him. Favre, who is still playing at a high level also surpasses him. Young is somewhere in the pack with Aikman, Kelly, Simms et, al.... Better than most, but not necessarily the best. When you add names like Unitas, Starr, Bradshaw and others from earlier eras, Young cannot make the cut.
Steve Young did not get into the NFL & become a star until later in his career. He sat behind one of the best QB's ever in Joe Montana. Young could have very well been the QB that won some of the championship rings on that Montana did. Young was a better all-around QB than a number of the QB's mentioned in every debate. Being able to run as well as pass made him double dangerous earning him the respect of the coaches that had to devise schemes to stop him
Steve Young didn't have the best arm, or throw the most touchdown passes, or win a lot of Super Bowls. But when it comes down to it he was one of the five best. He was the complete player. It's unheard of to win four straight passing titles. The QB rating takes into account all the statistical categories, so this just proves that he is one of the best all around passers. And when he didn't do it through the air, he would do it on the ground. No other QB could run like him. How many other QB's can run a 4.5 40 and score 43 rushing touchdowns? He won two MVP awards. And it wasn't just his skills. He had guts. He wasn't afraid to stick his nose in there to get the extra yard. He wasn't afraid to take the hit. He had the most desire to win out almost any player this decade. He knew how to be a leader. Then it comes down to him just being a nice guy. He didn't drink or smoke. He gives so much to charity. He had brains. Most of all, nobody else took pride in their game like he did.
Steve Young is one of the greatest QB's of all-time. Young single handedly won games and carried a team with no defense and no running back to the playoffs for most of his career as a starter. None of the other QB's considered to be in the top five of all time could've done that. The year he had some "D" and an RB they won the Super Bowl in a romp. Put young in Montana's shoes and he would've won at least five and probably more.
1.) John Elway These are the guys I'd rank in the top five. Aikman was good, but he was surrounded by great talent and never really showed an ability to win games by himself, unlike these gentlemen. Much is made of Steve Young having "only" one Super Bowl as a starter, but that doesn't seem fair given that Montana benefited from being the starter when the 49ers were much stronger as a whole.
Give me a break! Steve Young was, of course, an outstanding, Hall of Fame quarterback. But the same people who are falling all over themselves to declare him in the top 5 will do the same with Troy Aikman when he retires in three years, and yet again with Brett Favre when he hangs 'em up in six years. That Joe Montana, John Elway, Johnny Unitas and Dan Marino were better should go without saying. So that leaves one spot for Steve Young to compete with, aside from Aikman and Favre, Bobby Layne, Bart Starr, Joe Namath, Terry Bradshaw, Fran Tarkenton, and Dan Fouts, among several others that older folks might want to throw into the conversation. To say Steve Young was a great quarterback is probably accurate. To say that Montana, Unitas, et al. were great quarterbacks defines understatement.
Steve Young was, no doubt, a great quarterback. But one of the top five of all time? Get serious. He won a lot of passing titles, and he won a lot of passing percentage titles (and we all know how important that statistic is), but he only won the big one once. When you talk about the greatest, you're talking about Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham, Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Joe Montana, Troy Aikman and John Elway -- guys who won more than one world championship. It might not be fair to judge on that basis, but in today's society, that's what counts the most.
It is always hard to rank players, especially the great ones. The NFL has seen it's share of great quarterbacks going back to the earliest days of the NFL. When I think of the way Steve Young played, I think he is one of the top 5 quarterbacks. It can also be said that it was the Bill Walsh system that made him great. He often had a offensive line that was prone to having at least one of the key blockers out due to an injury most seasons, and you don't have 10+ wins every season because you are average. Steve put his heart on his sleeve each game, and you smiled at how easy he made it look to play some days.
Steve Young is a Hall of Fame quarterback but not one of the top 5. He may be the top passer/runner but my top five are Montana, Unitas, Staubach, Starr and Luckman, they won more championships which I believe is the ultimate measurement of greatness because it shows that you lead a team and not just throwing up numbers.
Steve Young was a good QB, but top five? No way. A lot of people forget that the year he won the Super Bowl as a starter, the 49ers were a very controversial call from losing to Dallas and not even making it to the game. Young was never the on-field leader that Montana, Elway or Aikman were. He racked up impressive stats, but who wouldn't in that offense?
Steve Young may be one of the 5 most productive QBs, but not among the best 5. If Terry Bradshaw and John Elway would have played their careers for losing organizations people would have still have been in awe of their natural ability. When Young played for the Bucs he didn't look like much of a talent to fans. If you were to put Steve Bartkowski on the Bill Walsh Niners he'd be in Canton in a heartbeat. Steve Young should have mentioned Deion Sanders in his retirement speech because without Deion in '94, Young would be Randall Cunningham.
Of course Steve Young is one of the all-time greats. The numbers don't lie. Number one in percentage & rating. Let's not be fooled by the single Super Bowl title he won as a starter. Remember, he doesn't play defense and unfortunately, he didn't have the defenses the 49ers had in the 80's.
One Steve Young point that needs further discussion: the fact that Steve carried the Niners far beyond what they were really capable of. He extended the aura of dynasty much longer than the club had any right to. Call it the "John Stockton/Karl Malone factor." Despite having the greatest receiving corps of all time, the last few years the Niners had very little else. Steve made the Niners respectable, even dangerous. Joe Montana had one of the great O-lines in his time, Young had to deal with a line so patchwork that very rarely did the same 5 guys ever start 2 weeks in a row. STILL, Young put the Niners in the second round of the Playoffs in '99 with that incredible last second finish against the Packers. Remember, Young had more rings than Elway, until Elway got Terrell Davis. Give Young a Davis, and watch him win 4 more rings.
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