Most Dominant Fantasy Players Since 1970: Quarterbacks (Career)

by Chase Stuart on June 19, 2019

Peyton Manning is the best quarterback in fantasy football history. That much is not open to debate. What separates Manning is not just his remarkable longevity, or his remarkable peak, but sustained level of very, very good play.

Here were Manning’s yearly fantasy ranks:

1998-9
1999-3
2000-3
2001-5
2002-4
2003-2
2004-2
2005-3
2006-1
2007-3
2008-6
2009-5
2010-3
2011-dnp
2012-4
2013-1
2014-3
2015-34

That’s a whopping 10 top-3 seasons, and 14 top-5 seasons, marks that will be difficult for any quarterback to ever match. Drew Brees and Tom Brady each have 7 top-3 seasons, while Aaron Rodgers has 6; Brees has 9 top-5 seasons, while Brady and Rodgers are at 7 and 6, respectively. That’s right: Peyton Manning has more top-5 fantasy seasons than Brady and Rodgers have combined.

The graph below shows each of the four superstar fantasy quarterbacks of our era shown in their primary team colors. This shows their VBD score by year — and remember, a player gets 0 VBD points if he was not a top-12 player in adjusted fantasy points (as described in yesterday’s post).

The 2011 season was a lost year for Manning, but a fantastic year for the other three quarterbacks. Rodgers and Brees both had their best fantasy years, while Brady had the second best fantasy season of his career (Brady’s 2007 season was as remarkable as you remember).

Using the methodology described yesterday, the table below shows the top fantasy quarterbacks since 1970. Manning leads the way, by a sizable margin:

Rk	Quarterback	First Yr	Last Yr	VBD
1	Peyton Manning	1998	2015	1102
2	Drew Brees	2001	2018	978
3	Dan Marino	1983	1999	896
4	Steve Young	1985	1999	841
5	Aaron Rodgers	2005	2018	816
6	Tom Brady	2000	2018	793
7	Brett Favre	1991	2010	739
8	Joe Montana	1979	1994	700
9	Dan Fouts	1973	1987	652
10	Randall Cunningham	1985	2001	649
11	Roger Staubach	1969	1979	642
12	Warren Moon	1984	2000	597
13	Fran Tarkenton	1961	1978	533
14	John Elway	1983	1998	527
15	Ken Anderson	1971	1986	524
16	Daunte Culpepper	1999	2009	498
17	Donovan McNabb	1999	2011	451
18	Terry Bradshaw	1970	1983	391
19	Kurt Warner	1998	2009	383
20	Cam Newton	2011	2018	343
21	Bert Jones	1973	1982	332
22	Rich Gannon	1987	2004	294
23	Steve Grogan	1975	1990	292
24	Jim Kelly	1986	1996	286
25	Matt Ryan	2008	2018	281
26	Boomer Esiason	1984	1997	279
27	Jeff Garcia	1999	2011	271
28	Michael Vick	2001	2015	271
29	Brian Sipe	1974	1983	265
30	Tony Romo	2004	2016	260
31	Neil Lomax	1981	1988	259
32	Ben Roethlisberger	2004	2018	254
33	Ken Stabler	1970	1984	248
34	Andrew Luck	2012	2018	237
35	Jim Everett	1986	1997	236
36	Greg Landry	1968	1984	233
37	Philip Rivers	2004	2018	223
38	Joe Theismann	1974	1985	223
39	Tommy Kramer	1977	1990	214
40	Jim Hart	1966	1984	208
41	Dave Krieg	1980	1998	203
42	Roman Gabriel	1962	1977	199
43	Steve McNair	1995	2007	192
44	Archie Manning	1971	1984	188
45	Danny White	1976	1988	185
46	Vinny Testaverde	1987	2007	182
47	Russell Wilson	2012	2018	181
48	Matthew Stafford	2009	2018	181
49	John Hadl	1962	1977	177
50	Jim Zorn	1976	1987	172
51	Drew Bledsoe	1993	2006	159
52	Jim Plunkett	1971	1986	158
53	John Brodie	1957	1973	158
54	Patrick Mahomes	2017	2018	155
55	Trent Green	1997	2008	154
56	Carson Palmer	2004	2017	154
57	Steve Bartkowski	1975	1986	153
58	Marc Bulger	2002	2009	151
59	Mark Rypien	1988	2001	139
60	Mark Brunell	1994	2011	134
61	Steve Beuerlein	1988	2003	130
62	Jeff Blake	1992	2005	125
63	Joe Ferguson	1973	1990	125
64	Don Majkowski	1987	1996	122
65	Lynn Dickey	1971	1985	121
66	Bob Griese	1967	1980	117
67	Billy Kilmer	1961	1978	113
68	Doug Williams	1978	1989	111
69	Chris Miller	1987	1999	109
70	Scott Mitchell	1991	2001	108
71	Jeff George	1990	2001	108
72	Phil Simms	1979	1993	106
73	Ken O'Brien	1984	1993	106
74	Deshaun Watson	2017	2018	92
75	Eli Manning	2004	2018	89
76	Aaron Brooks	2000	2006	89
77	Ron Jaworski	1974	1989	88
78	Joe Namath	1965	1977	88
79	Elvis Grbac	1994	2001	84
80	Troy Aikman	1989	2000	80
81	Bill Kenney	1980	1988	76
82	Jeff Hostetler	1985	1997	75
83	Carson Wentz	2016	2018	74
84	Matt Hasselbeck	1999	2015	74
85	Tony Eason	1983	1990	74
86	Bernie Kosar	1985	1996	72
87	Kirk Cousins	2012	2018	71
88	Bobby Douglass	1969	1978	67
89	Matt Schaub	2004	2018	67
90	Sonny Jurgensen	1957	1974	66
91	Kordell Stewart	1995	2005	65
92	Jay Cutler	2006	2017	63
93	James Harris	1969	1979	62
94	Brad Johnson	1994	2008	60
95	Jon Kitna	1997	2013	54
96	Richard Todd	1976	1985	54
97	Robert Griffin	2012	2018	53
98	Bobby Hebert	1985	1996	53
99	Alex Smith	2005	2018	52
100	Daryle Lamonica	1963	1974	50

Every quarterback in the top 9 in career VBD since 1970 is in the Hall of Fame or will be five years after they retire. The 10th quarterback is Randall Cunningham, who was a very good NFL quarterback and an outstanding fantasy one. He had a dominant six-year stretch even including his lost 1991 season due to injury: He was the top fantasy QB in ’87, ’88, and ’90, a top-5 fantasy QB in ’89 and ’92. He also was a superstar fantasy quarterback with the Vikings in 1998.

After Cunningham, Ken Anderson, Daunte Culpepper, and Donovan McNabb are the next best fantasy quarterbacks not in the Hall of Fame. Anderson and McNabb were great quarterbacks, while Culpepper was a truly great fantasy quarterback. In 2000, 2003, and 2004, he was the top QB in fantasy football. In 2001 he was nothing special, but in ’02 he was also a top-3 fantasy quarterback. The ’00 and ’04 seasons are two of the top 15 fantasy seasons by a quarterback since 1970.

Tagged as: VBD

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