76-100

76) Jim Harbaugh (1987-2000) - 261
One of I don't even know how many quarterbacks to be nicknamed "Captain Comeback" at some point in their careers. Very inconsistent as an NFL quarterback with his stats varying wildly from year to year, making it tough to get a read on how to categorize him. Ran well and played with supreme confidence in his prime, but was sacked too much and fumbled too much. Led the league in passer rating in 1995 with the Colts. His defining game in my mind was his last stand with the Colts in 1997, the final game of the season with a team that was playing out the string against a Vikings team fighting to get into the playoffs. Indy was up early, but Harbaugh was hurt, and backup Kelly Holcombe was awful, throwing three interceptions and having trouble even taking a snap from center Jay Leeuwenburg. The Vikings took a commanding lead, and though the Colts came back when Harbaugh re-entered the game, they were able to hold on. As a result of the loss, the Colts were able to draft Peyton Manning.

77) Bernie Kosar (1985-1996) - 261
Manipulated the rules to get taken by his home state Browns at the top of the supplemental draft. Beloved in Cleveland, but got canned by Bill Belichick before The Hoodie was a genius. Picked up a Super Bowl ring in Dallas backing up Aikman in 1993. Avoided interceptions like the plague.

78) Vinny Testaverde (1987-2007) - 260
Kosar's successor at Miami succeeds him on this list. There's good reason to believe that Testaverde was a better quarterback than his record suggests, largely because he played on lousy teams for most of his career. His reputation is as a compiler, a guy who was never that good, but who stuck around long enough to accumulate lots of stats. If he got to do his career over again, I wouldn't bet against his being a Hall of Famer. Circumstance does often trump talent.

79) Neil O'Donnell (1990-2003) - 260
Best remembered for his Super Bowl appearance following the 1995 season, where he threw three interceptions. Before that point had established himself over several years as a solid and careful passer who fit the Steelers scheme. Afterward, signed with the Jets as a free agent and suffered through his worst season. His post-career reputation seems to have been defined by the Super Bowl, that first putrid year with the Jets, along with a coda as a veteran backup to Steve McNair in Tennessee. In fact, he rebounded with a decent year in 1997 with the Jets, and played pretty well in Cincinnati as their starter in 1998. His record is really that of a slightly above average passer who could be an asset to a good team as long as he wasn't asked to do too much.

80) Charley Johnson (1961-1975) - 257
Played nine seasons for the Cardinals, as a backup, then a starter for five seasons, then a backup for three more. After going to Houston and losing the starting job there, he went to Denver, where he had his most efficient years in his mid-3os. Got his PhD from Washington University, and became a professor of chemical engineering at New Mexico State. It's not often that you can finish out a quarterback biography with a line like that.

81) Aaron Brooks (2000-2006) - 254
There was a brief period around 2001 or so where some people thought the New Orleans Saints offense was about to explode into greatness behind their trio of Brooks, Ricky Williams and Joe Horn. It was one of those things that analysts do so often, taking a good run over a period of a few weeks and extrapolating it unbroken into the distant future. Brooks was quite impressive in his debut season in 2000, displaying efficiency, athleticism and winning a playoff game in New Orleans, the first time that had ever happened. Is it any wonder people got carried away? The Saints didn't return to the playoffs again until after they'd gotten rid of their QB and coach, and Brooks was out of football at 30 after a disastrous half-season as the starter in Oakland.

82) Jake Delhomme (1999-Present) - 253
Football is obsessed with narrative. Announcers try to shoehorn ongoing games into preselected story forms rather than letting them play out as football games and letting the storyline write itself. Analysts constantly present players as stories, with the player's status at that given moment providing the end of the story. This leads to bizarre distortions of players' careers. In a book or a movie, a character is defined far more by where he is when the story ends than where he is at some point in the middle. That isn't, or shouldn't be, true of athletes. Right now, Jake Delhomme is defined by his meltdown in the 2008 playoffs against Arizona, and in truth he's done nothing to change that perception since then. But I hear, repeatedly, people speaking as though that's always been Jake Delhomme, as if the competent quarterback of a successful team who had a lifetime 5-2 record as a playoff starter heading into that Arizona debacle never existed at all. We're better once some time has passed. Eventually, Jake Delhomme will be remembered more or less as he deserves to be.

83) Jack Kemp (1957-1969) - 251
The formation of the AFL gave new life to Kemp, who signed with the brand new LA Chargers. He became their starter, and the team was very successful with the Sid Gillman offense. In '62, Kemp was injured and the team put him on waivers, where he was snapped up despite his injury status by the Buffalo Bills. They won the AFL's title game in '64 and '65 under Kemp. Statistically, Kemp doesn't look as good as his won-loss record would suggest. Whether that's an indictment of using statistics to measure quarterbacks, a reason to believe the team surrounding Kemp was that much better, or something else, I'm not going to attempt to decide. Kemp went into politics serving as a congressman, cabinet member, and was the 1996 Republican vice presidential nominee.

84) Jay Schroeder (1985-1994) - 251
Surprisingly high? Yes, definitely. Judged purely by his passer rating, Schroeder was below average. However, he's a great example of a guy who gets screwed by the passer rating formula. Passer rating emphasizes completion percentage, and Schroeder was godawful in that category. But he was very solid in yards per attempt, because his average completed pass was so good. He led the league in average per reception three times, and in the top 4 two other times. What it adds up to is a guy who comes off looking worse in the usual statistics than he probably deserves.

85) Chris Chandler (1988-2004) - 248
Seventeen seasons, seven teams; eight if you count his stints with the Rams separately. Chandler could get the ball downfield pretty well, and he'd produce points, but he was always held back by his propensity for interceptions and sacks, and his lack of mobility. Had a string of good seasons starting shortly before 30, cresting with a couple of really terrific seasons with the Falcons in '97 and '98.

86) Jeff George (1990-2001) - 248
Has the same score as Chandler, who was pushed out of Indy when George was coming in, and as Bobby Hebert, who took over as the Falcons starter when George forced June Jones to demote him by blowing up on national television. George looks pretty good in terms of straight passer rating, but loses some ground because he was immobile and got sacked a lot. It's not hard to see why George was considered such a great prospect, but his results pretty clearly didn't validate the expectations. Won one playoff game with the Vikings in '99, which was the next to last game he ever won.

87) Bobby Hebert (1985-1996) - 248
From 1987 to 1992, Hebert went 46-20 as the Saints starting quarterback in the regular season. Unfortunately he also threw 7 interceptions while going 0-3 in the playoffs. Threw too many INTs, but was overall an efficient passer who avoided sacks very well and made up for some of the picks by not fumbling very often. Would get a bit of boost if we included his time in the USFL with the Michigan Panthers and Oakland Invaders, where he was quite successful, winning the first USFL championship with the Panthers in 1983.

88) Jake Plummer (1997-2006) - 247
Remembered in Arizona in part for winning a playoff game that nobody expected the Cardinals to win, and in Denver for losing playoff games that the Broncos were expected to win. Over six seasons with the Cardinals his passing efficiency was pretty consistently lousy, and over four years with the Broncos it was fairly consistently pretty good; a reminder that nobody in football is ever evaluated in a vacuum... the talent around a player always makes a huge difference.

89) Eli Manning (2004-Present) - 246
His passing statistics took a dramatic turn for the better after the Super Bowl win. Through the 2007 regular season, the Giants were winning despite less than mediocre play from their quarterback. Since then his play has been a positive for his team. Throws too many picks, but mitigates this by avoiding sacks well, and avoiding fumbles well even when he is hit. Has produced TDs at a good rate every year since his rookie season. Will climb this list quite a bit if he continues to play as he has the last few seasons, and the good years begin to outweigh the bad ones.

90) Elvis Grbac (1994-2001) - 246
Looked amazingly efficient as Steve Young's understudy in San Francisco, but had mixed success in Kansas City and Baltimore. Won the only playoff game of his career with the Ravens in 2001, but didn't have a good season, couldn't match departed Super Bowl winner Trent Dilfer in the hearts of Ravens fans, and retired when the Ravens released him after the season.

91) Marc Bulger (2002-Present) - 245
Was the third stringer in 2002 for the Rams as Kurt Warner fell apart and backup Jamie Martin was injured, and got the starting gig permanently after Warner melted down in the 2003 season opener against the Giants. Had success for several seasons leading the remnants of the Greatest Show on Turf Rams, but fell apart following the 2006 season, putting up three terrible seasons. His statistics might represent the cleanest Jekyll and Hyde example in football history, with the clearest line of demarcation between good and bad. When he was good, he was fantastically accurate and put up excellent numbers in yards per attempt. When he was bad he was horrid.

92) Steve Bartkowski (1975-1986) - 244
Is he the worst QB in history to have his number retired by his team? Since the Falcons say that the numbers in their ring of honor are not officially retired, I guess not, but in practical terms, he might be. The first overall pick in 1975, he ran off a string of good performances in the early '80s, including very good years in '80 and '83. The Falcons went 12-4 in 1980, but lost their first playoff game to the Cowboys. Bartkowski was 1-3 in playoff games, including awful performances against the Cowboys in '78 and the Vikings in '82.

93) Jim Zorn (1976-1987) - 243
Zorn went undrafted in 1976, but was the Seahawks starter in all 14 games of their inaugural season, and remained the team's starter until partway through the 1983 season. A funny and engaging man, I remember him telling the media he was considering naming his son Bjorn, in anticipation of the news reports "Bjorn Zorn born". Currently remembered for failing as the head coach of the Washington Redskins, a distinction he shares with some fairly impressive company.

94) Joe Ferguson (1973-1990) - 242
A starter with Buffalo for 12 years, Ferguson finished up by backing up Eric Hipple, Vinny Testaverde, and Jeff George. Ferguson's biggest problem as a passer was his accuracy. Had a 1-3 record in the playoffs.

95) Drew Bledsoe (1993-2006) - 241
One of the most surprising rankings on this list. However, when you look at the statistics, it's hard to see how he should rank much higher. Ranking here begins with passing efficiency, and Bledsoe was thoroughly average to below average in every passing efficiency category. Beyond that, he brought nothing to the table as a runner, he fumbled a fair amount, particularly later in his career, and he didn't have a great deal of postseason success. If you measure quarterbacks by their counting stats, Bledsoe does very well. If you measure them by efficiency, he's a touch below average as a passer, with very little else to recommend him.

96) Wade Wilson (1981-1998) - 240
For a guy who was very rarely his team's unquestioned starting quarterback, Wilson accumulated a lot of playing time. Shared teams during his career with Tommy Kramer, Steve Dils, Archie Manning, Rich Gannon, Chris Miller, Billy Joe Tolliver, Mike Buck, Steve Walsh, Troy Aikman, Donald Hollas, and Jeff George. The ongoing back and forth between him and Tommy Kramer lasted almost all of the 1980s, and shaped the careers of both men.

97) Babe Parilli (1952-1969) - 238
Didn't really become a starting quarterback until he was 31 years old with the Boston Patriots. Was fabulous in 1962 over ten games, and had some other good years, but for the most part was a pretty average passer on pretty average teams.

98) Norm Snead (1961-1976) - 237
It's hard to say too much about Snead's underlying talent. He was good enough to last a long time as a starter, but on almost universally awful teams. I credit him with 11 years as a starter, and in only one of those did he have a winning record. Never played in a postseason game. The record for sacks in his career is incomplete, but the half that we do have indicates that he was very likely an absolute master at avoiding them. It's very likely that an actual accounting in that category would raise his score by at least 10 points and 10 spots in the rankings.

99) Steve DeBerg (1978-1998) - 236
Had a fascinating career. Started in San Fransisco, where he was replaced by Joe Montana. Went to Denver, where he was beaten out in 1983 by John Elway. Went to Tampa, where he was replaced by Steve Young and then Vinny Testaverde. Went to Kansas City, where he had the best stretch of his career, starting 52 games in four seasons and playing pretty well. Was a backup in Tampa again for a little over a year, and then went to Miami to backup Dan Marino. After all of that, he came out of retirement in 1998 as a backup to Chris Chandler with the Falcons, wound up starting a game, and played pretty well. Statistically, he was about average in passing efficiency, and avoided sacks very well. However, he fumbled a bit more than you might expect from the number of sacks he took, and he was essentially the opposite of a running QB.

100) Lynn Dickey (1971-1985) - 236
Came up with Houston, longtime starter in Green Bay. A passer of average efficiency, he gets dinged because he took a lot of sacks, fumbled a lot, couldn't run, and his Packers were never very good.