Editor’s note: As part of NFL’s Greatest Quarterback, fans will decide the best quarterback in team, division, conference and league history.
The fans have spoken. We started with 16 NFC East quarterbacks and they’ve been whittled down to just four.
Roger Staubach narrowly edged Troy Aikman as best quarterback in Cowboys history. The race was even closer between Y.A. Tittle and Eli Manning, but history won out and Tittle moved on. Randall Cunningham beat out Donovan McNabb and Ron Jaworski to take the title for the Eagles and Sammy Baugh trounced his Washington competition.
Now it’s time to decide the greatest quarterback in NFC East history. Lets go through their credentials and vote below.
Roger Staubach: Staubach was a 10th-round pick in 1964, but he didn’t start his NFL career until 1969 when he was 27 years old. Staubach served in the Navy for five years.
Staubach became a full-time starter in 1971 and led the Cowboys to a Super Bowl victory. He won the MVP in that game after throwing for 119 yards and two touchdowns. Staubach led the Cowboys to two Super Bowl victories and five NFC championships. He was a six-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro during his 11-year career. Staubach was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.
Y.A. Tittle: Tittle played for years in Baltimore and San Francisco, but his best seasons were in New York, where he was traded at 35-years old. With the Giants, Tittle made the NFL Championship and the Pro Bowl in 1961, 1962 and 1963. New York never won an NFL title under Tittle.
The former LSU Tiger was named league MVP in 1963 when he threw for 3,145 yards, 36 touchdowns and just 14 interceptions while completing 60.2 percent of his passes. He was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.
Randall Cunningham: Cunningham was about 25 years too early for his craft as a mobile quarterback with a rocket arm. You can see a lot of the same tools in Robert Griffin III, Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson that the league saw in Cunningham as far back as 1985 when he was the Eagles’ No. 37 overall pick.
Cunningham and Jaworski shared time under center in 1986 under head coach Buddy Ryan. The fleet-footed Cunningham would come in on third down — the team went 5-10-1 that season.
Cunningham’s best season came in 1990 when he threw for 3,466 yards, 30 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He added another 942 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. Cunningham tore his ACL during the 1991 season and never fully recaptured the mobility he flashed early in his career. After making three-straight Pro Bowls early in his career, he wouldn’t make it again until he had revived his career in 1998 in Minnesota.
Sammy Baugh: Baugh was one of the early stars of the NFL. He was the No. 6 overall pick in 1937 and immediately led the Redskins to an NFL Championship. Baugh’s Redskins were one of the first teams to use the forward pass heavily in their offense.
Baugh’s 335 yards in the 1937 NFL Championship was a rookie playoff record until Russell Wilson broke it in 2012. Baugh led the league in passing four times, completion percentage nine times and completions five times during his 16-year career. He was a nine-time All Pro and was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in its 1963 inaugural class.
