If it were just about having a franchise QB WHY does
Aaron Rodgers have ONE Super Bowl Win
Drew Brees have ONE Super Bowl Win
Russell Wilson ONE Super Bowl Win
Brett Favre ONE Super Bowl Win
(Dan Marino ZERO Super Bowls)
Same as:
Nick Foles
Joe Flacco
Brad Johnson
Trent Dilfer
Mark Rypien
Jeff Hostetler
Doug Williams
Granted 12 QB have won multiple times for 32 Super Bowl titles.
But 20 QB have won ONE Super Bowl.
ODDS are better with franchise QB. MUCH better still with a strong balanced team.
The answer may be simpler than you think ... A franchise QB does not guarantee a Super Bowl. What a franchise QB does is put your team in a position to get to the playoffs. Once in the playoffs, you will most likely be going against other Franchise QBs. As far as winning the Super Bowl, there can be only 1 each year, but that does not mean there can be only 1 franchise QB.
Maybe what would be better would be to define what a franchise QB really is? Wikipedia says “In professional sports, a franchise player is an athlete who is not simply the best player on their team, but one that the team can build their "franchise" around for the foreseeable future. The term may be used alongside a particular position name to describe a player, such as a "franchise quarterback" in American football.”
However, if you look at my caveat that a franchise QB gets your team in a position to be in the playoffs, then said QB should be able to show continued success in getting to the playoffs … so lets set a bar of a minimum of 10 playoff wins. Next, they should have a winning record in the playoffs, and when you do that … guess what … there have only been 24 “franchise QBs” in the history of the NFL. Notice Rogers, Brees, Wilson are all on the list, and the others you mentioned are not.
| Name |
Wins |
Losses |
Total Games |
Winning % |
| Bart Starr |
9 |
1 |
10 |
0.9 |
| Jim Plunkett |
8 |
2 |
10 |
0.8 |
| Terry Bradshaw |
14 |
5 |
19 |
0.737 |
| Troy Aikman |
11 |
4 |
15 |
0.733 |
| Tom Brady |
27 |
10 |
37 |
0.73 |
| Joe Montana |
16 |
7 |
23 |
0.696 |
| Kurt Warner |
9 |
4 |
13 |
0.692 |
| John Elway |
14 |
7 |
21 |
0.667 |
| Joe Flacco |
10 |
5 |
15 |
0.667 |
| Eli Manning |
8 |
4 |
12 |
0.667 |
| Russell Wilson |
8 |
4 |
12 |
0.667 |
| Roger Staubach |
11 |
6 |
17 |
0.647 |
| Ben Rothlisberger |
13 |
8 |
21 |
0.619 |
| Phil Simms |
6 |
4 |
10 |
0.600 |
| Ken Stabler |
7 |
5 |
12 |
0.583 |
| Steve Young |
8 |
6 |
14 |
0.571 |
| Aaron Rodgers |
9 |
7 |
16 |
0.563 |
| Donovan McNabb |
9 |
7 |
16 |
0.563 |
| Bob Griese |
6 |
5 |
11 |
0.545 |
| Fran Tarkenton |
6 |
5 |
11 |
0.545 |
| Brett Favre |
13 |
11 |
24 |
0.542 |
| Drew Brees |
7 |
6 |
13 |
0.538 |
| Jim Kelly |
9 |
8 |
17 |
0.529 |
| Payton Manning |
14 |
13 |
27 |
0.519 |
Note 1, I sorted on winning %.
Note 2, Every loss means they got their team to the playoffs another year. You lose you are out.
Note 3, Payton Manning had a reputation of never being able to win the big game. This list sorted this way shows why he had that reputation.