If you add Steve Mcnair a space ahead of Pennington then this poll is pretty accurate. Only us Jet fans think Pennington is a top ten Qb.
Brees and Chad are in the same general vicinity in terms of ability and for the same reasons. The deer-in-the-headlights thing happens to both of them when they run into a strong, aggressive defense. Brees arm is better than Chad's but Chad's smarts come close to evening things up. I would take Brees over Chad but not by a huge margin.
He's talking about RIGHT NOW... Their quality of play now. Now I am not saying I agree. just saying Favre's 16 yrs are meaningless in his rankings.
Brees is a top 4 qb and Chad is maybe in the top 10. Did anyone watch Brees this year? Was there a better qb during the regular season? Without him the Saints would have won about 7 games. You have Peyton, Brady, Brees and Palmer and then a huge drop off imo.
Brees is smart and extremely accurate, he does have velocity but he is short and needs clean lanes to get the ball out, he's arm isn't strong enough to throw when he isn't set up or is being bumped, that's why he is very much like Chad against a really tough D or in bad conditions. Chad at least is big enough to throw over the D line. I prefer Chad to Brees at this point. Brees should not be in the conversation with Brady, Manning or Palmer, totally different level of play.
This looks more like a list of QBs for a "keeper" fantasy league than the NFL. Romo played barely more than half a season and faded down the stretch. Leinart? Did I miss something? Young is a great talent, but let's not coronate him just yet. Rivers over McNabb? McNabb has been the Eagles offense for years while Rivers had to hand the ball to LT and not lose games. And Rothlesberger was absolutely awful last year and his talent is a question mark right now. I never understood the infatuation some have with McNair. He had one good season when he let the Titans to the Super Bowl, but other than that I find him very mediocre and so beat up by the end of every season that he becomes somewhat of a liability.
Favre is over rated at this point. He dosen't start on 50% of the teams in the NFL and the only reason he starts in GB is because he is owed so much fucking money they HAVE to start him.
Except for winning playoff games. For all of Brees' suppossed success and all the weapons he has had the last three years - LT, Gates, Bush, Horn, Colston, McCalister - he has one playoff win. Pennington beat him in SD in 04 and SD's failure to make the playoffs in 05 was a major disappointment. Then when he leaves SD, they win 14 games. He did not play well in the Chicago playoff game either. Let's not annoint this guy as the second coming of Johnny Unitas yet.
Especially in 2005, when Pennington didn't play. Brees was definitely better than Pennington that year.
I don't understand a lot of things about that list, but how are Cutler or Leinart even on there? They've done nothing yet. I'd also rank Young lower, but at least you can "reason" (as dumb as it is) that he should be up there.
It does show a worrying lack of talent at the position, league-wide. I'd say Chad has a shout to be better than 8 guys ranked above him on the list at the present time, some of which are marginal. We're crying out for someone to come in and be better than him, but the facts seem to be that to be better than Chad you need to be be, or almost be, an elite QB in this league.
I saw Brees completely undressed in the playoffs the first time he had some adverse conditions to deal with. The guy played in SD and than moved to a dome. The SD team he played on last year was arguably the best team in football. They outright collapsed down the stretch. My problem with Pennington is he's arm and he's release. Brees is a shorter version of Pennington and I don't think he is as mentally tough. Going up against a top flight D there is nothing that Brees brings to the table over Pennington. Did he have a better year than Pennington, sure he did, did he play better against the Bears in the playoffs than Pennington did against NE? Fact is NE is better than the Bears and Pennington was better than Brees with less weapons. I would love to see us upgrade the QB position. That said the reality of the NFL is there are a handful of guys who have the complete package and can stand in there and deliver the ball when they are being hit, moving backwards, don't have their feet set or rolling out on the move. That's what seperates the elite 3 or 4 guys from the next group. Whether Chad is 10th best and Brees is No. 5 really doesn't matter. What it comes down to is your team over all good enough and do you have a QB who under duress can make game changing plays to make a good D over think and respect the pass. The reality is Ben Rothlesberger when he is playing well is much better than either Drew Brees or Chad Pennington, he proved it in the playoff run last year when he did all the things that Brees and Pennington can't to help he's team win a SB. There are people who think Brees is better than him also. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2gEQXn2IuY
According to this message board, Chad is the worst QB to ever play in pro football. Even Elegant Eli is better than him, some say, because he has 'an arm'.
