Ranking ALL Buffalo Bill QB's who have started ONE Game

[SinceThe70s]

That was simply a unforgettable game. Fergy, played when in today's NFL ,anyone with that injury would be sitting in the owners box.

In any game he wore his emotions on his sleeves. INT or 3 and out. he would walk off the field shoulders slumped and pissed off.

 

...and he'd rip his chin-strap off with fury!

[KD in CA]

My Brother, having nothing better to do, started a thread with his friends that created the following list that rated the BILLS QB's from Best to Worst.

 

In Buffalo’s 55 years of existence, there have been 3 franchise QB’s, 3 good QB’s, 2 average QB’s, and 19 QB’s that suck.

1. ==== Franchise QBs ====

2. Jim Kelly

3. Joe Ferguson

4. Jack Kemp

5. ==== Good QBs ====

6. Doug Flutie

7. Tyrod Taylor

8. Frank Reich

9. ==== Average QBs ====

10. Drew Bledsoe

11. Ryan Fitzpatrick

12. ==== QBs that Suck ====

13. Kyle Orton

14. Dennis Shaw

15. Daryl Lamonica

16. Trent Edwards

17. Thad Lewis

18. Rob Johnson

19. Kelly Holcomb

20. Bruce Matheson

21. Dan Manucci

22. Ed Ruthkowski

23. Vince Ferragamo

24. Alex Van Pelt

25. EJ Manuel

26. JP Losman

27. Todd Collins

28. Gary Marangi

29. Brian Brohm

30. Billy Joe Holbert

31. Jeff Tuel

We are interested in hearing any comments...

 

I love Fergy, but no question you gotta swap him and Kemp. Also need to swap Drew and TT. No way is TT higher than Reich at this stage.

 

And JP is way too low. If it's a draft value list than he's dead last, but as a QB he's in the top half of the scrub list. Lamonica seems out of place on that list but I don't remember what he did in Buffalo. I guess not much.

 

Good idea for the thread. Next up, wide receivers?

[BringBackFergy]

Agreed. He won us two AFL championships.

Ugh. Boooooo

[The Frankish Reich]

Fun thread. Beats the heck out of another draft thread.

 

I think there aren't enough old timers here. I'm a semi-old timer; I don't remember the 60s. But I absolutely remember the 70s, and Gary Marangi is synonymous with horrific quarterbacking.

 

http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=schatz/050812

 

http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/peyton-manning-denver-broncos-gary-marangi-buffalo-bills-qb-rating-111615

 

The second article is a lot of fun.

 

I remember it well. It's why even though Joe Ferguson kind of sucked, watching Marangi -- hell, even thinking about Marangi -- makes me appreciate the value of mediocrity. Oh, and you'll notice Dan Darragh is on that list at #3. Two of the three worst QB seasons of all time in the NFL belong to Bills QBs. By the way, Dan Darragh became a very successful attorney in his post-NFL (well, AFL) days:

 

http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/150427-dan-darragh-bills-quarterback-late-1960s/

 

 

But again, I only know Darragh from my dad muttering his name in disgust well into the 1970s. Kind of like people on this board will say "JP Losman." But Losman was great compared to Darragh.. I knew Gary Marangi first-hand, watching him with my own eyes. Gary Marangi, you'll always be da man.

Edited May 11, 2016 by The Frankish Reich

[D. L. Hot-Flamethrower]

Joe Ferguson was a pretty darn good QB! Not sure how you define "Franchise", but the guy had passing stats that were above avg for the time. He led the league in TDs passes in'75 and took the team to the playoffs 3-4 times. And, he started 180 games in the league. Better than some on here are giving him credit for.

[ganesh]

 

Bledosoe was an above average QB...Better than Fitzpatrick, Taylor, Reich and Flutie.

Trent Edwards was better than Fitzpatrick.

Kyle Orton was an average QB

Edited May 11, 2016 by ganesh

[Never Wrong]

Fun thread. Beats the heck out of another draft thread.

 

I think there aren't enough old timers here. I'm a semi-old timer; I don't remember the 60s. But I absolutely remember the 70s, and Gary Marangi is synonymous with horrific quarterbacking.

 

http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=schatz/050812

 

http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/peyton-manning-denver-broncos-gary-marangi-buffalo-bills-qb-rating-111615

 

The second article is a lot of fun.

 

I remember it well. It's why even though Joe Ferguson kind of sucked, watching Marangi -- hell, even thinking about Marangi -- makes me appreciate the value of mediocrity. Oh, and you'll notice Dan Darragh is on that list at #3. Two of the three worst QB seasons of all time in the NFL belong to Bills QBs. By the way, Dan Darragh became a very successful attorney in his post-NFL (well, AFL) days:

 

http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/150427-dan-darragh-bills-quarterback-late-1960s/

 

 

But again, I only know Darragh from my dad muttering his name in disgust well into the 1970s. Kind of like people on this board will say "JP Losman." But Losman was great compared to Darragh.. I knew Gary Marangi first-hand, watching him with my own eyes. Gary Marangi, you'll always be da man.

 

Blast from the past reading about Gary Marangi again. He's definitely one of the all time bums. Isn't it funny that any QB that registers a 0.0 rating blames it on being hurt. I guess I would too.

 

I remember the Marangi versus Ferguson argument.. Turned out to be no contest. I'm in the camp that Fergy was underrated. The 1980 team with a healthy Fergy had a chance to win the Super Bowl. The fact that Jim Plunkett and the Raiders, which we destroyed during the regular season, won that year still bothers me.

[hondo in seattle]

If you did a similar list for RBs, it would be so much stronger.

 

Our history with QBs is sad.

[metzelaars_lives]

Bledosoe was an above average QB...Better than Fitzpatrick, Taylor, Reich and Flutie.

Trent Edwards was better than Fitzpatrick.

Kyle Orton was an average QB

What? I mean, WHAT??

 

This is right up there with Gugny declaring that EJ Manuel is better than Tyrod Taylor right now. In fact, it is even more outlandish.

Edited May 11, 2016 by metzelaars_lives

[DC Tom]

What? I mean, WHAT??

 

This is right up there with Gugny declaring that EJ Manuel is better than Tyrod Taylor right now. In fact, it is even more outlandish.

 

Can we at least agree that EJ Manuel is better than Bruce Mathison? Even stipulating that Manuel is bad (which is debatable), he's still nowhere near the apocalyptic suckitude that Bruce Mathison achieved on the field.

[Formerly Allan in MD]

Vince Ferragamo and Bruce Mathison are not nearly low enough. Joe Dufek is last and will always be last until the Bills start an actual dead person at QB. How about Brian McClure, are we not counting strike scabs? Dennis Shaw was Offensive ROY in 1970 so that automatically puts him ahead of a bunch of guys.

 

Lamonica absolutely positively did not suck. My grandmother would tell you until the day she died about how pissed off she was when they traded him to Oakland.

 

Others missing:

Matt Cassel

Leo Hart

Dan Darragh

James Harris

Kay Stephenson

Tom Flores

Warren Rabb

Al Dorow

Johnny Green

MC Reynolds

Tommy O"Connell

Bob Brodhead

and Richie Lucas (our 1st ever draft choice)

You took the names right out of my memory bank.

You took the names right out of my memory bank.

And Lamonica did not suck. Dennis Shaw played well and showed real promise but injuries ruined him in short order. Dan Darragh, if I'm not mistaken, was the only QB on these lists who was never drafted by an NFL team (if he was, it was very late, out of that football hotbed William and Mary). My "favorite" was Johnny Green, who when they couldn't figure out why he threw so many interceptions was tested and turned out to be color blind. Ah, the good old days.

[metzelaars_lives]

 

Can we at least agree that EJ Manuel is better than Bruce Mathison? Even stipulating that Manuel is bad (which is debatable), he's still nowhere near the apocalyptic suckitude that Bruce Mathison achieved on the field.

HA! Have you read what I've written earlier in this thread!?! Of course he is. We agree on something! The OP is clearly not familiar with the '85 Bills.

[Thrivefourfive]

Love the idea of a list. Lists win everytime haha.

 

Of course the main debate is everywhere but the top, but I think splitting up the franchise QBs would prove helpful.

 

1. Hall of Fame

2. Franchise

And so on

[GunnerBill]

Okay... fun thread... I don't go back as far as most of you guys... but going back to 2002 I would rank the ones I have seen as:

 

1. Drew Bledsoe

2. Ryan Fitzpatrick

3. Tyrod Taylor

4. Kyle Orton

5. JP Losman

6. EJ Manuel

7. Trent Edwards

8. Thad Lewis

9. Kelly Holcomb

10. Brian Brohm

11. Jeff Tuel

 

Bledsoe is still top for me. I still think the best year I have seen from a Bills QB was the first year I watched - Bledsoe in 2002. I anticipate Tyrod being above Fitz by the end of 2016. I just think based on 14 games it is hard to put him above a guy who was a solid starter for 3 years going over 3,000 yards and 20 passing TDs in each. Tyrod is the first time since that first Bledsoe season I have thought we might have our guy.

[ganesh]

What? I mean, WHAT??

 

This is right up there with Gugny declaring that EJ Manuel is better than Tyrod Taylor right now. In fact, it is even more outlandish.

May be you should argue why you think Fitzpatrick was better than Trent Edwards. Both had very poor games and some good games...Edwards was stuck in a 3-way competition with Losman and Holcomb.

[Helpmenow]

...and he'd rip his chin-strap off with fury!

 

In 1984 he might have done that a lot. The 80-81 teams don't remember that

[Dave in Avon Lake now]

An old timer here. I've followed Bills since 60s but don't remember too much of them in early 70s when I was in college. I second those who said Lamonica should be rated much higher and maybe above Kemp. He saved several games before he was traded. Bills were a ground and pound team in those days and might have given the Packers a run for their money because of that defense.

 

Fergy in 80s was good, but that team was also built on a great defense and solid running game. Its too bad Knox got run out of town by Wilson as he really put together a terrific team from nothing in a short period.

 

Kelly is still the best in my book and although the defense was good, it was not great. He and the offensive machine only met their match in those Superbowls.

 

I loved that Flutie was a winner although he was supported by a great defense too.

 

Bledsoe had a couple of good years but was probably past his prime. Still think he was much better than most QBs on this list.

 

TT and Fitz are average at this point in my mind.

[hondo in seattle]

I really liked Fergy but in my opinion he was not a franchise QB though I can see both sides of the argument...

 

Fergy's job his first few years in the league was to hand the ball off to OJ. From 1973-1976, Fergy only threw for a mere 123 yards per game. In his rookie year, Fergy didn't crack 1,000 yards for the season despite starting all 14 contests.

 

But Fergy seemed to mature as he got older. We may forget that Fergy led the NFL in passing yards in 1977, beating out the likes of Roger Staubach, Terry Bradshaw, Ron Jaworski, Ken Stabler, and Joe Theisman among others.

 

Fergy was #8 in passing yards in '79, #6 in '81 and #11 in '83.

 

Fergy had a lively arm, and had a few good seasons, but he had a number of unproductive years as well.

Great topic. So many terrible QBs, which speaks volumes.

 

My thoughts: D. Flutie was better than most give him credit for. He deserves to be #4 overall.

 

T. Taylor has a lot to prove to be where he is.

 

Fitzpatrick and Lamonica could both be higher on the list.

 

Bledsoe was good with the Pats. He totally sucked with the Bills.

 

The remaining QBs on the list should be tied for last. None of them were worth a damn.

 

Here's how I remember Flutie... He would be terrible for 3 quarters but our good defense kept us in the game. Then Flutie would do something magical in the 4th quarter to pull out the win.

 

If Flutie hadn't sucked the first 3 quarters, we would have gone into the 4th with a the lead and wouldn't need him to lead a comeback. He only threw for about 194 yards per game in an era when good QBs were throwing for a lot more.

[KDIGGZ]

Yea but did anybody ever eat Flutie Flakes? I don't think they were very good but I can't remember. I still have a box but they are probably stale by now

[hondo in seattle]

Looking at the list of past Bills QBs, it's easy to understand why some people are skeptical of TT.

 

We've been down this road too many times before - promising young QB flashes signs of talent only to disappoint us in the end.

 

I think if we were fans with a different history, we'd be more enthusiastic overall about TT's prospects.