Who had the strongest arm in NFL history?

[BuffaloSol]

In today's game Flacco and Rodgers seem to complete the longest through the air, not sure who has the strongest though.

[offsides#76FredSmerlas]

Dan Fouts

 

3 minutes ago, offsides#76FredSmerlas said:

Dan Fouts

 

I was actually surprised to just read in an article that Fouts didn't have a strong arm, surprised me with all his 20 yard throws and deep bombs to Winslow, Chandler,and Jefferson.

[buffaloboyinATL]

Flacco is up there. I will add one to the list. Dan McGwire, Mark's brother, had a cannon for an arm. He was a first round pick of the  Seahawks out of San Diego State University. (ahead of Brett Favre) Ended up being a bust, but he could bomb the ball. He was a big man and has a daughter, Mallory, who is 6'5" and plays basketball for the Oregon Ducks.

[Wsam4031]

russel's arm was insane id say him. Vick up there though. that dude threw it 50 yards sitting down

[BearNorth]

Daryle Lamonica wasn't called the "Mad Bomber" for nothing, he def had arm talent for the day.

 

[Eric Moulds on my A**]

Jamarcus Russel, throwing 80 yds.. on his knees from the end zone.

 

 

Monumental Bust!

 

Now he's tossing pigskins over the mountain with Uncle Rico.

[Helpmenow]

Former bill James Harris 

[HumbleAndHungry]

Burt Reynolds

[VABills]

It was Bert Jones and not sure anyone else was close.  Maybe Elway.  But Jones could easily throw the ball the length of the field.  

[BillsSbSoon]

9 hours ago, NewDayBills said:

I don't think Jeff George and Jamarcus Russell count. Arm strength should be also determined by accuracy and ball placement as well, not just throwing 70 yard Hail Marys. To me it's Aaron Rodgers, it takes arm strength to make those tight throws in insanely small windows.

This. I wouldnt say rodgers has the best arm in history, but he still has an absolute cannon

[major]

1 hour ago, BuffaloSol said:

Check out this high school kid, I found when looking up throws. In a game he threw it about 74 yards in the air even though it says 77, unfortunately doesn't look like it translated to college QB.

 

https://youtu.be/IGeeDv6g2LY

Nice find

[blacklabel]

Chad Pennington!

 

Nah, everyone has pretty much already been named. Byron Leftwich had a pretty strong arm as well. He won the longest throw contest at the Pro Bowl back in '04 or '05 I think.

1 hour ago, SmokinES3 said:

I have to go with Favre on this one. Jeff George is a good choice as well. Have you heard some of the Glanville stories on placing prop bets on how far he could throw it into the stands?

 

With Favre, right? Glanville used to call him "Mississippi" and would call him out before games and bet other coaches in opposing team stadiums that Favre could chuck the ball up into the 300s. 

[Augie]

8 hours ago, NewDayBills said:

No. Accuracy takes arm strength is my point, I think the two are closely related.

 

Yeah, you need both, but accuracy with a slightly weaker arm beats a cannon that can’t hit the broad side of a barn. Brady doesn’t have a cannon, especially at 40. 

[Bill from NYC]

I am really quite surprised that nobody mentioned Ryan Mallett. I once saw him stand flat footed and throw a 50 yard post pattern with NO air under it. It looked like an outfielder throwing a baseball.  He was still at the University of Arkansas.

You see, I readily admit that back then I thought his abundance of talent would translate into the NFL but he was such a schmuck, he wasted all that skill. 

 

Another guy not mentioned was Dan Pastorini. He was not a great qb but he could heave it a mile.

[RollBillsRoll]

1 hour ago, Wsam4031 said:

russel's arm was insane id say him. Vick up there though. that dude threw it 50 yards sitting down

 

 I remember watching Jamarcus Russell's pregame warm up in college. He would throw the ball 65 yards from his knees, using nothing but his hips/shoulders...

[KDIGGZ]

4 hours ago, Fadingpain said:

He commented on that a few months ago during the season.

Now if I could only remember what he said.  It was that Gilbert could do some type of "trick" that Kelso couldn't believe.

 

Like in practice one day Gilbert sat in a chair on the 50 yard line and threw the ball through the uprights from a seated position, or something like that.

 

Anyone remember what that was?

 

 

Yes he said from his knees he could throw it through the end zone from the 50. The same type of trick Allen and Boller have done in the past

[Bookie Man]

I thought I read somewhere that Dez Bryant could throw it 90 yards.. Why don't they have the long ball competition anymore. That'd be fun to watch.

[row_33]

11 hours ago, major said:

Is Bert the one who threw a ball 100 yards one time?

 

Bert threw it 100 yards to Roger Carr who was placed as designed 50 yards down the field.

 

And Bert screamed at Roger every chance he got over the next 10 minutes over failing to catch it.

 

Doug Williams is my pick, which would be a joke except he unleashed it like a boss in that SB win.

 

2 hours ago, Epstein's Mother said:

 

I remember they used to talk about the "Elway cross".  That was the mark left on the receivers by the tip of the ball.

 

Elway's release while rolling to the other side was incredible.

 

[dave mcbride]

Interestingly, Jameis Winston only hit 55 mph at the combine, but his fastball sat in the 93-94 mph range when he was a pitcher for Florida State. 

[Beast]

James Harris

[The Frankish Reich]

12 hours ago, Blue on Blue said:

James "Howitzer" Harris of the Buffalo Bills.  (O.K., he was never called "Howitzer," but he should have been!) 

He was the first black QB to ever start a season (1969) opener in the NFL. He was the first QB I ever saw who 'flicked' the ball, effortlessly.

You beat me to it. Harris had an absolute cannon. His receivers were known to complain that his throws, even when right on target, were too difficult to catch because of the velocity. He left many a welt on a WR. He learned a little bit of touch with the Rams later on.  Bert Jones is also a good choice here. 

[BuffaloHokie13]

13 hours ago, atlbillsfan1975 said:

Vick had a cannon.

 

[buffalobloodfloridahome]

Elway and Favre always had rockets and could really sling the ball a long way. Jamarcus Russell threw it through the uprights from 70 yards on his knees that's hard to beat. Vick had the flick of his wrist and the ball just flew out of his hands arm strength too. The jury is out and who knows.

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

Favre for me, as a just constant stream of fastballs. He never seemed to just soft toss, always whipping it.

[Rico]

4 hours ago, horned dogs said:

Jack Kemp had an endzone to endzone type of arm, his problem of lacking touch and knocking receivers down, were stuff of legend. I remember stories my Dad and my cousins telling me about his arm strength. You don't get those kind of stories told about you unless you had it!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/707156-the-nfls-10-strongest-armed-qbs-of-all-time.amp.html

[formerlyofCtown]

Trent Edwards or Jeff Tuel

[Dr. Fong]

13 hours ago, Pete said:

Stafford has strong arm no doubt, but show me a Stafford throw stronger then Rodgers at the :17 mark and the following 3 throws.  A picture is worth a 1000 words.  What you got?

 

 

Thank God for mute buttons.

[DE Bills Fan]

13 hours ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

Bert Jones

James Harris. He could throw end zone to end zone!

[Juror#8]

2 hours ago, RollBillsRoll said:

 

 I remember watching Jamarcus Russell's pregame warm up in college. He would throw the ball 65 yards from his knees, using nothing but his hips/shoulders...

 

People are joking about this but it happened. It happened with Al Davis on the field while he was warming up on his pro day or during the combine. I was watching Nfl network or espn 2 and he threw it about 60 yards (a little short if I recall) on a knee. The pundits talked about it for the next 5 minutes. One even juxtaposed his raw physical skill with Brian Bosworth which brought jeers from all the other empaneled talking heads. Turns out he was spot on. 

 

Anyone who says “easily ______,” or “easily ______,” that doesn’t involve JaMarcus Russell is more focused on him being a bust than they are his arm strength. Not sure anyone ever had a more powerful throwing arm. 

Edited March 29, 2018 by Juror#8

[Tyrod's friend]

6 minutes ago, Juror#8 said:

 

 

 

Anyone who says “easily ______,” or “easily ______,” that doesn’t involve JaMarcus Russell is more focused on him being a bust than they are his arm strength. Not sure anyone ever had a more powerful throwing arm. 

 

This.
To that ends, if you don't include at the least Favre and Elway ... they are part of the discussion. Here's a question - does any of this relate to success as a QB? Does it end in less or more interceptions? Long TD plays? How would you want to measure it? 

[McBean]

Purple drank ( Russell)

[JohnBonhamRocks]

Justin Ernest set the bench press record at the Combine in 1999 with 51 reps of of 225 pounds, so I would have to say he had two of the strongest arms.

 

He didn't play a down though, so maybe 2011's Stephen's Paea, who put up 49 reps?

[Charles Romes]

Gary Hoogeboom 

 

darryl lamonica

 

 

[Tyrod's friend]

2 minutes ago, JohnBonhamRocks said:

Justin Ernest set the bench press record at the Combine in 1999 with 51 reps of of 225 pounds, so I would have to say he had two of the strongest arms.

 

He didn't play a down though, so maybe 2011's Stephen's Paea, who put up 49 reps?

Leif Larsen sighting here ...

[GoBills808]

21 minutes ago, Juror#8 said:

 

People are joking about this but it happened. It happened with Al Davis on the field while he was warming up on his pro day or during the combine. I was watching Nfl network or espn 2 and he threw it about 60 yards (a little short if I recall) on a knee. The pundits talked about it for the next 5 minutes. One even juxtaposed his raw physical skill with Brian Bosworth which brought jeers from all the other empaneled talking heads. Turns out he was spot on. 

 

Anyone who says “easily ______,” or “easily ______,” that doesn’t involve JaMarcus Russell is more focused on him being a bust than they are his arm strength. Not sure anyone ever had a more powerful throwing arm. 

Kyle Boller could do the same thing, except he threw it 80 yards from one knee. 

[row_33]

half the names on here had barely longer careers than Uncle Rico

 

[boyst]

14 hours ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

Bert Jones

In other words the first answer to come up on nfls strongest QB ever 

 

Nice research.

[Alphadawg7]

Im pretty sure Marino and Elway are going to be at the front at that conversation.  Their receivers would talk about how they would get a cross imprinted on their Chest when they would catch the ball in their chest from the tip of the football it was coming so hard and fast (thats what she said...). 

 

Im sure there is some scrub out there who could throw it harder, just like their are scrub golfers who hit the ball longer than the best real pros, but thats all gonna be hear say essentially.  Of the guys who really played and suited up, I think Marino and Elway lead that conversation.

[I'm Spartacus]

Chad Pennington

[Buffalo Barbarian]

17 hours ago, major said:

Jeff George. Yours?

 

Purple Drank Yo !