So recently I posted a poll asking you to rank the greatest QBs in league history, using the MaxDiff method. Essentially, you would be given 4 QBs and told to pick the best and worst between the 4. The QBs nominated for this list were HOF QBs, QBs who won MVP/OPOY/QBOY, or multiple time Pro Bowlers. And Logan Noble, who I didn't realize only made 1 Pro Bowl.
So what were the results? We had 46 total ballots submitted, from 35 different users (I voted 4 times, @moonlight voted 4 times, @speculadora voted 3 times, and @woelkers voted 4 times, but that's okay because it gives a random selection each time). Here are the results:
Listed in gold are current Hall of Famers. Italicized players are currently active.
The top 3 are unsurprising - Franklin Armstrong, Mike Boss, and Borkus Maximus III, though Borkus was significantly behind his peers. Armstrong, Boss, and Maximus are typically the 3 consensus best QBs of all time. Boss owns pretty much every passing record, and Borkus is not far behind statistically. Armstrong has won so many awards and Ultimus trophies it's hard to count, and has revolutionized the game with his legs and efficiency. Armstrong seems to be the favorite of most, having never been rated worst in his group. (Can we also make fun of @flyeaglesfly29 and @zaynzk for putting Boss as the worst and putting Andrew Reese and Adriana Falconi best respectively? Whaaaat?!)
Of those 3, Borkus seems to have fallen just above the second tier, which has fellow HOFers Gus TT Showbiz and Avon Blocksdale, along with future HOFer Cooter Bigsby. Personally I think Showbiz is over-ranked here. While he had a deserving HOF career and won several trophies, I don't think he has the efficiency numbers of one of the members of the next tier down - Childish Gambino. Gambino's QB career was short, but at his peak he may have been the most efficient QBs to ever play the game (#2 in career passer rating, #3 in career completion percentage, and 2 of the top 3 passer rating seasons of all time). Joining Gambino are HOFers Joliet Christ and King Bronko.
The next tier has Condominium Hamburger Corvo Havran and Wolfie McDummy, with one of these arguably a lot better than the other. Havran has won several awards for his performances as Baltimore QB, meanwhile Wolfie has had a subpar career being saved by his current MVP-caliber season. I think McDummy has benefitted the most from recency bias in this group.
After this, we start seeing QBs who were rated worst in the group more often than they were rated the best. Tyler Oles, Mat Akselsen, Jay Cue, and Easton Cole make up the highest tier in this region. I think Akselsen might be a bit hurt by recency bias as I would personally rate him higher than Wolfie and Oles, though he doesn't pop on the leaderboards. Cole has arguably had a better overall career than Wolfie, but he's also hurt by Wolfie's huge S24 season.
Below them are Adriana Falconi and Micycle McCormick, one who was scratched from the Hall of Fame and the other who really made the Hall as a kicker/punter. I think Micycle is getting absolutely wrecked by recency bias and his lack of bulk statistics - until Dexter Banks this past season, McCormick was the last player to ever throw for 5000 yards (and he did it in 2 fewer games!). After them are Andrew Reese and Ryan Applehort. Reese had a mostly forgettable career (outside his miraculous Ultimus run), while Applehort absolutely does not belong down here. Ryan Applehort was hurt by his first few seasons with the 0-32 Yeti, but was one of the best QBs of his era. He also has bulk statistics (#5 in career completions and #9 in career passing yards). I don't think he's top 10 material, but he's definitely been underrated here.
Finally the bottom tier include Chris Orosz, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Scrub Kyubee, and Logan Noble. I can't claim to know a lot about Orosz and Kyubee other than them being QBs in the first few seasons of the league. Noble is at the bottom because of course. Fitzpatrick ends up on the bottom here simply because he wasn't better than a lot of the QBs ahead of him - but he was good as well. He had one or two seasons where he had the best TD-INT ratio in the league, but his overblown expectations of his team ended in a surprise retirement at his peak.
Here's a nice graph of this data
It has ranks and scores graphed against each other. You can clearly see just how dominant the league thinks Armstrong and Boss both were.
Want to see the data? Want to see who voted for what? Come check out the results at this link HERE! There is a tab for overall rankings as well as little sparklines to help you visualize the ratings each player received. The other tab shows all of the ballots submitted, with details on who was in each pod and who each person picked as their best and worst.
I wonder what this project might evolve into...
So what were the results? We had 46 total ballots submitted, from 35 different users (I voted 4 times, @moonlight voted 4 times, @speculadora voted 3 times, and @woelkers voted 4 times, but that's okay because it gives a random selection each time). Here are the results:
Listed in gold are current Hall of Famers. Italicized players are currently active.
The top 3 are unsurprising - Franklin Armstrong, Mike Boss, and Borkus Maximus III, though Borkus was significantly behind his peers. Armstrong, Boss, and Maximus are typically the 3 consensus best QBs of all time. Boss owns pretty much every passing record, and Borkus is not far behind statistically. Armstrong has won so many awards and Ultimus trophies it's hard to count, and has revolutionized the game with his legs and efficiency. Armstrong seems to be the favorite of most, having never been rated worst in his group. (Can we also make fun of @flyeaglesfly29 and @zaynzk for putting Boss as the worst and putting Andrew Reese and Adriana Falconi best respectively? Whaaaat?!)
Of those 3, Borkus seems to have fallen just above the second tier, which has fellow HOFers Gus TT Showbiz and Avon Blocksdale, along with future HOFer Cooter Bigsby. Personally I think Showbiz is over-ranked here. While he had a deserving HOF career and won several trophies, I don't think he has the efficiency numbers of one of the members of the next tier down - Childish Gambino. Gambino's QB career was short, but at his peak he may have been the most efficient QBs to ever play the game (#2 in career passer rating, #3 in career completion percentage, and 2 of the top 3 passer rating seasons of all time). Joining Gambino are HOFers Joliet Christ and King Bronko.
The next tier has Condominium Hamburger Corvo Havran and Wolfie McDummy, with one of these arguably a lot better than the other. Havran has won several awards for his performances as Baltimore QB, meanwhile Wolfie has had a subpar career being saved by his current MVP-caliber season. I think McDummy has benefitted the most from recency bias in this group.
After this, we start seeing QBs who were rated worst in the group more often than they were rated the best. Tyler Oles, Mat Akselsen, Jay Cue, and Easton Cole make up the highest tier in this region. I think Akselsen might be a bit hurt by recency bias as I would personally rate him higher than Wolfie and Oles, though he doesn't pop on the leaderboards. Cole has arguably had a better overall career than Wolfie, but he's also hurt by Wolfie's huge S24 season.
Below them are Adriana Falconi and Micycle McCormick, one who was scratched from the Hall of Fame and the other who really made the Hall as a kicker/punter. I think Micycle is getting absolutely wrecked by recency bias and his lack of bulk statistics - until Dexter Banks this past season, McCormick was the last player to ever throw for 5000 yards (and he did it in 2 fewer games!). After them are Andrew Reese and Ryan Applehort. Reese had a mostly forgettable career (outside his miraculous Ultimus run), while Applehort absolutely does not belong down here. Ryan Applehort was hurt by his first few seasons with the 0-32 Yeti, but was one of the best QBs of his era. He also has bulk statistics (#5 in career completions and #9 in career passing yards). I don't think he's top 10 material, but he's definitely been underrated here.
Finally the bottom tier include Chris Orosz, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Scrub Kyubee, and Logan Noble. I can't claim to know a lot about Orosz and Kyubee other than them being QBs in the first few seasons of the league. Noble is at the bottom because of course. Fitzpatrick ends up on the bottom here simply because he wasn't better than a lot of the QBs ahead of him - but he was good as well. He had one or two seasons where he had the best TD-INT ratio in the league, but his overblown expectations of his team ended in a surprise retirement at his peak.
Here's a nice graph of this data
It has ranks and scores graphed against each other. You can clearly see just how dominant the league thinks Armstrong and Boss both were.
Want to see the data? Want to see who voted for what? Come check out the results at this link HERE! There is a tab for overall rankings as well as little sparklines to help you visualize the ratings each player received. The other tab shows all of the ballots submitted, with details on who was in each pod and who each person picked as their best and worst.
I wonder what this project might evolve into...