2009: A Golden Age For Quarterbacks?

From the 1960's, with the likes of a Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas, Len Dawson, Jack Kemp, or Fran Tarkenton. Or how about the long ball throwers Terry Bradshaw, Ken Stabler, Roger Staubauch, and Bert Jones ruling the 70s? The 80's had some of the all time greats, like Marino, Montana, Elway, Fouts, and Kelly. And everyone knows Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Brett Favre, and Drew Bledsoe from the 1990's. But this is the beginning of a new era. Quarterbacks are being groomed and
pumped out at an astounding pace. Offenses are being tailored to throw the ball and throw it often. Is this the greatest crop of signal callers ever? Take a look at this numbers and you be the judge.

Here are the number of passers to have a quarterback rating over 100 through 6 weeks, with a minimum of 100 attempts.

1972: 1
1976: 2
1978: 1
1979: 1
1980: 2
1981: 1
1982: 1
1983: 4
1984: 4
1985: 2
1986: 1
1987: 2
1988: 3
1989: 2
1990: 4
1991: 1
1992: 2
1993: 1
1995: 3
1996: 1
1997: 1
1998: 4
1999: 2
2000: 3
2001: 1
2002: 3
2003: 2
2004: 4
2005: 3
2006: 2
2007: 5
2008: 4
2009: 8


Look at those last three years. 17 times. 17 times it has happened. In the remainder of this decade, it has happened 18 times. In the 90's, 19 times. During the golden years of the efficient West Coast offense, the 1980's, it happened
22 times. And only five times in the conservative 1970's had it occurred. Here is a list of the 12 quarterbacks who has achieved this the past two years:

Philip Rivers, Drew Brees (twice), Tony Romo, Kurt Warner, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Schaub, Eli Manning, and Kyle Orton. Notable players who started for NFL teams that didn't reach this feat are Donovan McNabb, Jay Cutler, Matt Ryan, Tom Brady, Joe Flacco, Carson Palmer, David Garrard, and Matt Cassel.

Are we in the midst of the greatest collection of quarterbacks ever? You decide....