5 underrated NFL quarterbacks of all time
The modern NFL is dominated by passing endeavors, a league where having a sustainable, high-profile franchise quarterback is a necessity to remain relevant.
There is nothing more that needs to be said about the all-time champions of the game — Brady, Montana, your choice of Manning — but there are some legendary throwers who deserve a better legacy than the one written by amateur and expert observers alike. We take a look...
Ken Anderson
On nearly every list concerning the records of NFL quarterbacks who aren't in the Hall of Fame, Anderson is at or near the top. Anderson spent 16 years (1971-86) as the Cincinnati Bengals' franchise man, leading the team to one of the most lucrative stretches in franchise history, one that included their first Super Bowl appearance at the end of the 1981-82 season, a campaign that also saw him earn the NFL's MVP honor.
Under future 49ers head coach Bill Walsh, Anderson became one of the first practitioners of the West Coast offense. In an era where passing records fall like dominoes, one of Anderson's best marks (his completion rate of 70.6 percent in 1982) stood for 29 years before it was broken by Drew Brees.
Though Canton has yet to call, Anderson earned a Super Bowl ring as a quarterbacks coach with his former divisional rivals from Pittsburgh.
Drew Bledsoe
Bledsoe, unfortunately, is better known as a footnote in NFL history, his 2001 injury forever altering the timeline of the sport after it gave way to the rise of Tom Brady. It's a bit of a shame, as Bledsoe began to give the then-downtrodden New England Patriots franchise a true taste of glory, guiding them to Super Bowl 31, an eventual loss to the Green Bay Packers.
Overwork might've contributed to Bledsoe's eventual downfall. He topped 600 pass attempts (at a time when that was a rarity) three times over his first four seasons and did so on one final occasion in 2002 with the Buffalo Bills.
Nonetheless, a rather incomplete career had some strong moments of glory, not least of which was relieving an injured Brady during the first AFC title game of the new century Patriots dynasty in January 2002.
Chad Pennington
Sinatra once sang that if one could "make it" in New York, they'd make it anywhere. Few knew that feeling better than Pennington, who achieved the NFL's relative impossible: creating a lasting mark as a New York Jets franchise quarterback.
Injuries unfortunately ate away at a good portion of Pennington's career, but he maintained a relatively consistent prescience in green.
Between 2001 and 2019, Pennington was the only non-Tom Brady outlier as the quarterback of AFC East championship teams, doing so with the Jets in 2002 and the Miami Dolphins in 2008. Pennington's rise from said injuries allowed him to become the only player in NFL history to win the Comeback Player of the Year Award twice.
To date, Pennington is the last man to quarterback a Jets playoff home game, doing so when they demolished the Indianapolis Colts in the 2002-03 Wild Card round.
One of his most famous moments, however, came in the colors of the Jets' rivals. The latter division title was earned when Pennington, scorned by the Jets in favor of Brett Favre, returned to East Rutherford as a Dolphins and stole the divisional crown with a Week 17 triumph.
At the time of his retirement after the 2010 season, Pennington held the NFL record for best completion rate, which has since been topped by the aforementioned Brees.