Elway, Bradshaw, & Aikman Better Than Peyton Manning? Shame on You NFL Network

As I was watching NFL Network today, I became quite disturbed with their list of the Top 10 quarterbacks to have ever been drafted No.1 overall.

It's not so much that I personally place any value on their lists because I don't. Rather, the greater issue is that the lack of research and credible criteria brings fourth more and more lists that continue to shape the minds of millions of NFL fans world—wide.

In this particular instance, the NFL Network ranked John Elway No.1, Terry Bradshaw No.2, Troy Aikman No.3, and Peyton Manning No.4.

Needless to say, I disagree with NFL Network's conclusion that Elway and especially Bradshaw and Aikman had been better quarterbacks than Peyton Manning has been thus far.

So what I'm going to do is breakdown the above mentioned quarterbacks and compare their top three to the No.4 guy on their list.

First we have the No.3 quarterback on the list, Troy Aikman.

Not much was said of Troy beyond when Jamie Dukes referred to Aikman as "The most accurate quarterback I've ever seen".

Interesting as you'd think he might have been watching guys like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, both of whom have higher career completion percentages (64.4 for Manning & 63.0 for Brady) compared to Aikman's 61.5 career completion percentage.

That is not to say that Aikman wasn't an accurate quarterback by any means.

It just appears as though that one singular aspect of his game has had a greater emphasis placed upon it due to the fact that he never produced to any great degree in any other particular areas as an individual player.

Then we have Terry Bradshaw who ranked second on NFL Network's list.

They obviously made reference to Bradshaw's four Super Bowl victories.

Funny how there wasn't much more to say about him. That's likely due to the fact that Terry Bradshaw rarely performed at an elite level despite the success his team had.

That's really the key word here, team.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Terry Bradshaw the guy playing with a Hall of Fame running back, a Hall of Fame center, Two (albeit possibly one undeserving) Hall of Fame receivers, and possible the greatest defensive unit in NFL History?

If one were to imply that Peyton Manning was afforded an equal opportunity to win four Super Bowls in terms of the support of his team as a whole (remember now, that accounts for Offense, Defense, & Special Teams) then I would love to hear a detailed explanation.

Then there was one No.1 on the list and that man was John Elway.

He is perhaps the only quarterback in which you could substantiate a valid claim for.

It's not so much that I have anything against John Elway (I don't) but he has simply not accomplished as much as Peyton Manning has and he has had longer to build up his resume.

The best argument that one could provide is that he carried a team that wasn't exactly elite to five Super Bowls.

The issue with that theory is, the 1997 and 1998 Denver Broncos were elite.

The 1986 squad that he led to the Super Bowl was anything but however, the 1987 team possessed a seventh ranked defense and the 1989 squad had the No.1 defense in the entire league.

So did Elway make a lot out of teams that weren't as great as Aikman's Cowboys or Bradshaw's Steelers?

Absolutely, but the quality of support he had to work with is often made out to be far worse than it really was which in turn, has made Elway appear that much more heroic.

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