Overrated; The real John Elway career (and the stats to prove it)
Blasphamy. I know.
Elway over-rated? Yes. Does over-rated mean "not good"? No. It means that people rank him higher (in this case WAY higher than he should be ranked. Is he a Hall of Famer? Ofcourse.
THE GOOD -
Yes Elway is an all timer. Like as in top 15-20 all timer. And this is where the Over Rated label comes into play. He is regularly top 3-5 all time. NO WAY.
THE BAD -
How can you be the best all time, when you were NEVER the best in any given year?
Elway has ZERO All Pro selections. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Doughnut Hole....You get the point!!!
During his 16 year career the following Quarterbacks were ALL PRO SELECTIONS (meaning at least for that year they were the best QB in the NFL);
How can you put Elway above any of these guys, especially the ones that won multiple All Pro Selections during his own era (Marino, Montana, Young, and Favre).
Other QB's that have won multiple All Pro in the Superbowl Era.
Other QB's with 1 All Pro Selection -
Players with ZERO All Pro Selections -
Elway is commonly considered "Clutch"; a "winner". 40 to 136. That was the total scores of Elway's 1st 3 Superbowl appearances. In those 3 Super Bowls, Elway was 45.5% Completion, 223 YPG, with 2 TD and 6 INTs. (Mannings 2 Super Bowl losses 69.1% completion, 307 ypg, with 2 td and 3 ints).
In fact in his 22 playoff appearances he only has 9 games with more TD's than INTs. He only threw >1 TD 7x in his 22 Playoff Games. Only 4 games with more than 300 yards passing. and only 6 games with 60%+ completion. Why does Manning get crushed for playoff performances (I use Manning as a comparison because he is most often used as an example of postseason struggles), but Elway gets a pass? Manning in 24 playoff appearances has 14 games with more TD's than INTs. 9 games with more than 300 yards passing. and 15 games with 60%+ completion.
In the 2 Super Bowls that Denver won, Elway's line was 54.5% Completion, 123 Yards, 0 TD & 1 INT, and 62.1% Completion, 336 Yards, 1 TD & 1 INT (This was his MVP performance, while Terrell Davis had 100 yard rushing 50 yards receiving and had 2 TD poached away from him on the goal line).
People said he didn't have help. That just wasn't entirely true. Was his team as stacked as the Staubach's Cowboys, Bradshaw's Steelers, or Montana's 49ers? No. But to say it was just Elway doing it all is a misconception. He had 3x All Pro RB Terrell Davis. 4x All Pro TE Shannon Sharpe. All Pro Guard Gary Zimmerman, All Pro Defensive Ends Rulon Jones, and Alfred Williams, 3x All Pro Linebacker Karl Mecklenburg, All Pro Safety Steve Atwater.
Every year he played he had at least 1 Pro-Bowl teammate, and in the years he made the Super Bowl he had an average of 5 Pro Bowl teammates. He has averaged in his career having 3.8 Pro Bowlers / Year on his team. Brees for comparison has had an average of 2.7 Pro Bowlers / Year. Brady for comparison has had an average of 3.8 Pro Bowlers / Year. Brett Favre? 3.5 Pro Bowlers / Year.
John Elway has lead the NFL in one of those 3 main QB categories exactly 1x (1993 lead league in Passing Yards). 1x. That's it. Even if you expand it to top-3 finishes, he only has 4 top-3 finishes to his name and 3 of those were all in 1993 when he was 1st in Passing Yards, 2nd in TD's, and 3rd in completion %age. Some comparatives. Summing up years in top 3 for each category (Comp %, Yards, TD's), -
What about touchdowns? Elway has 300 of them. Pretty impressive. Passing stats are hard to compare in total, because of different eras. But what about against his contemporaries.
Below is how many times the player threw for 0 tds in a game they started and how many times they threw 1 td in a game they started.
Below is how many times the player threw 3 or more TDs in a game in their career
Is he better than his contemporaries? Maybe some...but definitely not Marino, Montana, Young, Favre. Then what about all time. We already see he isn't on the Mount Rushmore of the 80's-90's. There have been so many Mount Rushmore type QB's in NFL history, and Elway just does not make the cut. He's great. An All Timer. But not a GOAT.
Here is a test. Which quarterback is most clutch? I provided their career Playoff Per Game Stats and Super Bowl Stats.
WHO WOULD YOU TAKE BASED ON THESE STATISTICS.
QB1 IS THE WORST IN ALL CATEGORIES (COMP%, YARDS, TD, TD/INT) FOR BOTH PLAYOFFS AND SUPERBOWL PERFORMANCES.
QB2 AND QB3 ARE OFTEN RECOGNIZED AS GREAT REGULAR SEASON QBS BUT "CHOKERS" IN THE PLAYOFFS. QB1 IS JOHN ELWAY (22 PLAYOFF GAMES / 5 SB). QB2 AND QB3 WITH BETTER PLAYOFF AND SUPERBOWL STATISTICS ON A PER GAME BASIS ARE PEYTON MANNING (24 PLAYOFF GAMES / 3 SB) AND DAN MARINO (18 PLAYOFF GAMES / 1 SB) RESPECTIVELY.
Again why is Elway revered for a couple big games, a couple big comebacks, and 2 end of career superbowls, while someone like Manning is crushed for "only" winning 1 SB.
Again. Elway is an all time great. He is a HOFer and deservedly so. But he is not a GOAT or in the discussion for GOAT.
