Top 50 NFL Quarterbacks: #16 - Sid Luckman

Sid Luckman

Sid Luckman is the second-oldest quarterback to make this countdown, drafted just a couple years after Sammy Baugh, but he is ranked 8 spots ahead of his contemporary because of his head-to-head record in title games against Baugh.

He was the #2 overall pick in 1939, and entered a league where the quarterback position didn't exist yet. He started out as a punter, but helped lead the transition into quarterbacks taking care of the ball and actually passing more than a few times a game.

In his second season, he earned 941 yards, which was average for the time, with 4 touchdown passes and 9 picks on the season. It may not have looked impressive, but it was enough for an 8-3 record and a berth in the championship game against Baugh's Redskins. He threw for 88 yards and a touchdown and ran for another, which were just 2 of the 11 touchdowns they scored in a 73-0 romp, the biggest blowout in NFL championship history.

The next season he upped his performance just a little, and Chicago finished at 10-1, beating Green Bay in a tiebreaker before destroying the Giants for their second straight title, 37-9. Luckman was still not amazing in the title win, throwing for 160 yards without a touchdown.

The next season was more of the same, with Luckman having an average season and the Bears destroying the competition, finishing the season undefeated at 11-0. In their 3rd straight title game, the Bears were finally defeated, giving the game to Baugh and the Redskins 14-6, with Luckman finishing with as many yards as interceptions (2).

1943 is when he became a superstar. That season he surpassed Sammy Baugh, if only for one season, beating his nemesis and all others with 2194 yards and 28 touchdowns, leading Chicago to an 8-1-1 record and their 4th straight title game, and also won the league MVP award. He also finally had a great title game, throwing for 286 yards and 5 touchdowns as they destroyed Baugh and the Redskins 41-21.

He spent the next two seasons playing only part-time while serving stateside with the Marine Corps during World War II, and the Bears struggled, missing the playoffs both times. When the war ended and he returned to playing full-time, he picked up where he had left off, leading the league in yardage and touchdowns and taking Chicago back to the title game, where they beat the Giants again, this time 24-14, overcoming Luckman's 2 interceptions to take their 4th title in 5 tries.

In 1947 he set a new career high with 2712 yards and also had 24 touchdown passes, but nearly doubled his career high in interceptions with 31, which caused the Bears to miss making the title game for the first time with Luckman since he was a rookie. He played 3 more seasons, but was declining quickly and retired in 1950.

He finished his career with 4 championships and 5 trips to the title game. His 1943 season combined with his championship performance would have been enough on its own to qualify him for the lower reaches of this countdown, as it was one of the most dominant seasons ever for a quarterback. He doesn't qualify to reach the top 10, however, because he wasn't the driving force behind most of those titles, just a very good game manager.

Top 50 NFL Quarterbacks: # 24 - Sammy Baugh

Sammy Baugh

Sammy Baugh is by far the oldest quarterback to make it into this countdown, and while his statistics don't look eye-popping by today's standards, he was easily the top QB of his era, and is often credited as the person who first popularized the forward pass as a standard football play.

Baugh was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the first round in 1937, at a time when quarterback wasn't even considered a position. He started out as a tailback, but back then the ball was snapped to anyone in the backfield, and as a rookie he set a league record for completions in a season, with 81, and led the league with 1127 yards, 300 yards more than his nearest competition.

Not only did he introduce the league to true passing that year, he also led the Redskins to the Eastern Division title, which earned them a berth in the championship game. They played that game against the Chicago Bears at Wrigley Field, and Baugh threw for 335 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead Washington to an upset victory, 28-21. His 335 yards remained the playoff rookie record until 2012, when Russell Wilson broke it, a run of 75 years.

The Redskins finished in second place the next two years, which kept them out of the title game, but they made it back in 1940, as Baugh led the league again with 1367 yards and 12 touchdowns, getting them into the title game against Chicago again. It didn't go as well as it had before, with the Bears scoring the biggest win in league history, 73-0. Washington threw 8 interceptions altogether in that game, 2 coming from Baugh.

They again met the Bears in the 1942 and 1943 title games, winning the first and losing the second, giving him 2 titles in 4 tries during his first 7 seasons. Then in 1945, he set a new league record for completion percentage, at 70.3%, which would remain the record for 37 years, and is still the fourth-highest in league history. They lost to the Cleveland Browns 15-14 in that season's title game, his fifth appearance in the big game.

By the time he retired in 1952, he had led the league in passing yards 4 times, touchdowns twice, and completion percentage 9 times. He threw for nearly 3000 yards in 1947, went to 5 title games, and won two championships. He was also one of the original 17 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His numbers don't look incredible compared to some of today's QB's, but he was a winner, an innovator, and far ahead of his time.