Who is the greatest QB in Steelers history?

2 words..... Steel curtain

 

Apocryphal tales...... Exactly!

 

Let's ask this question again after the Mason beats out Trub and guides us for years to come.

Couldn't get it to turn green.

 

As someone old enough to have watched them both

1 Ben

2 Bradshaw

and yes

3 Kordell

Let's stop the Johnny Unitas silliness. Putting him on the list of like putting Elway on the Colts list or Eli on the Chargers.. Heck if you believe the stories Unitas was not even given snaps in practice before getting cut. Which means Kurt Warner is a Packer and Favre is the best Falcon of all time.


HACK

 

Your theory would have held up if Steelers hadn't lost to Tebow, Bortles and Mayfield the way they did. Ben played like feces in those games. He also played like crap in the 2016 AFC Championship vs. Patriots. Not to mention vs. Ravens in 2014 playoffs... one and done at home.

 

Bradshaw. 4 rings, 2 Super Bowl MVPs. All in 6 years. Could have had another ring in 76 if not for injuries. Called his own plays and the rules were not in favor of QB protection.

 

This is the best answer to this question there is. Ben has sucked in some very big games. Terry won 4 superbowls. No losses. Thank you for this comment

 

Unless you look at Terry's 2-5 record in non SB years.... then you would see some not great games too

Terry Bradshaw was my HERO growing up. I dreamed of him throwing me passes in the NFL.. I wanted to be the next Swann and acted it out every day in my back yard. I lost my mind when I was in the theater watching Smokey and the Bandit 2 and my HERO QB showed up...... so when I talk of TB is with the most B AND G glasses of all time. Heck I still watch him in anything he does.

TERRY was my football God, Ben was just a kid

All things being equal... I'll take Ben

HACK

 

Terry had a better head coach. However he never lost a super bowl. That's huge. Called his own plays. They both played under different rules. You cannot ignore the fact that receivers could be mugged when Terry played. The fact that he never lost a super bowl in my mind closes the deal. Love Ben and he's a first ballot hall of famer. So we will disagree

 

Mark Madden thinks NOD was a good quarterback

Mark Madden is a low life pos idiot who knows little about football

That alone says all anyone needs about NOD even being in the same conversation with Terry and a distant Ben

 

I'm not supporting one ,or the other, but I can show You playoff games that Bradshaw played worse in...yet won because of a freaking awesome D.
Also Ben against Jacksonville 5 td ...one int.....and yet lost because of how(Not) awesome our D was then. Name Me a playoff game Bradshaw threw 5 tds, and only one int, and they lost. Wasn't possible with that Defense, but dang sure was with the D Ben had that Year, and other years.
How many times has Ben had 2 put up over 34 points just 2 sneak out a win....because our D was so bad. Hell I still Hear old teammates saying...some years if Ben doesn't put up major points....We have no chance.
Sorry I don't remember that ever being the case for Bradshaw.
See You people are making Me chose, and I don't want 2.

 

Mark Madden said Ike Taylor in round 4, 2003 draft was the worst pick in NFL history. He lost all credibility decades ago. Madden is a master of click bait.

 

Which makes me wonder, he still is getting paid, what level of intelligence is/are the people who support him

 

Kordell.

Ha, made you look.

Seriously, I understand the cases for both Terry and Ben. My pick is Bradshaw, but it is close enough to me to warrant a good, long time thinking about it. As many have said here, they both had great moments and bad moments, in both regular and post season games.

Here's the thing I'm not seeing, though. Their games weren't played in the context of general, career spanning statements. They were played with specific conditions in each and every game, each and every season. For example,

In all the comments, I see plenty about how Ben performed with lesser defenses than Terry did, which I agree is true AS A GENERAL STATEMENT APPLIED TO THEIR ENTIRE CAREERS. However, it ignores the fact that Ben won his second Lombardi with the league's best defense that year, and his first with one of the league's best that year. And I'm not referring to statistical leaders, either, but what most people who know this game agreed was the case when watching those seasons. So they both won their 6 Super Bowls in seasons with either the league's best, or one of the league's best, defenses those years. Yes, Terry had more seasons with a better defense than Ben did. But let's not apply a GENERAL statement that tries to claim that Ben won Super Bowls in years with poor defenses. He most assuredly did not.

Also, I'm not seeing anything, or at least anywhere near enough, of the comparisons showing the things Ben had better than what Terry had. And there absolutely were some. For example, quarterback protection was almost non-existent in Terry's time. There were a couple of protections they were afforded, but very little. And it simply didn't compare to what Ben had. And if you think that's just a minimal advantage for Ben, I'll state just one name - Turkey Jones. As much as I like and respect Ben for his entire career, I'm not going to lie for him, and as such, there's no way anyone is going to convince me that drama queen "my pinkie was really hurting and affected my play, so look at how I toughed it out" Ben wasn't going to be severely affected by going through that Turkey Jones play in a way that when he came back, Terry simply was not. Granted, it would take quite some doing for anyone to lift Ben off his feet and suplex his head into the turf, but that, of course, isn't the point. The point is what we each believe would be Ben's response in comparison to Terry's had that ever happened to him. And I'm quite confident in my belief there.

So this comparison deal is fine, as long as everyone is honest about the fact that each one had clear and meaningful advantages in his time that the other one did not. Making any one way argument in that regard simply isn't dealing with reality.

 

Ike Taylor turned out to be great value for a 4th round pick. It's safe to say that Ryan Leaf and JeMarcus Russel were worse picks than Ike Taylor.

 

Funny, Ben and Terry obviously were our two best but one of my favorite Playoff wins was from good old Tommy Maddox. Fantastic comeback against the Browns. Can't remember exactly but the Browns pretty much had us going into the 4th qtr. I think Maddox threw 2-3 INTS. during the game but he caught fire the last 8-9 minutes of game. We went crazy that cold January night. Some of my younger drunk family members went outside streaking after victory.

Sadly we lost the following week.

 

Where's the love for Dick Shiner? Another great Steeler from the U of Maryland.

 

How many S.B.did Terrry lose? How many play off games? Defence, the Q.b helped make the D tougher by being so tough him self .Competition ,staughback ,stabler ,Moon ,Marino and several more great qbs terry played against.Ben could not beat Brady! No comparison and when Terry played he played against some of the truly great Ds and the rules mabe pass compleations much harder ,football was a real mans game .Loved Ben but he would not have lasted playing under the rules Terry played under.Bradshaw was a real clutch player ,our best though as a fan I hope some one comes along who is better ....but no one has so far.

 

For those arguing that Ben didn't have good defenses..... yeah right.

The '05 and '08 Super Bowl Champion defenses are ranked among the best with... Steel Curtain, '85 Bears, '00 Ravens, '02 Bucs and '15 Broncos.

 

Ben is overrated. Terry stepped up when it mattered most.

 

i voted other. in pittsburgh the greatest qb ever is the next backup.

 

Ben, barely made it through this new age of nfl flag football. Can you imagine him going against the "Orange Crush", the "Purple People Eaters", "Doom's Day Defense", "Monsters of the Midway"... just to name a few. Imagine TB not being able to get hit in the head, below the knees, not getting body slammed or pile driven. Bradshaw and many of those qbs of the 70's would eat this league up alive. Every player on the Steel Curtain would've been banned from the league. Ben had some great games and awesome moments. But, not enough, to overtake Terry Bradshaw. And, we were a run first team back then.

 

Bradshaw had an offense with 5 HOFers (including himself) on it. How many HOFers did Ben have on his teams? You can't include The Bus cuz he was well past his prime when Ben came along.

Bradshaw had a Defense with 5 HOFers on it. How many defensive HOFers did Ben have the luxury of playing with?

Remember how Bradshaw kept getting benched because of his wretched play his first 5 seasons? He was totally inept until he got a great supporting cast. Meanwhile, Ben was rookie of the year and won 2 SBs in his first 5 years, including in 08 with an O Line that was every bit as bad as we had last year.

You really can't judge a QB solely on the win-loss record. great QBs can look like crap without a line, receivers, and running game. Likewise, a mediocre QB can look elite if he has a great line, receivers, and runner.

Bradshaw was a damn good player, but how often did he have to come from behind in the 4th qtr? His defense kept him in every game so he never had to carry the entire team. During the Killer B era every game was a shootout because of a bad defense so it was up to Ben (with fewer elite teammates) to carry the team.

I'm not trying to belittle #12's abilities and accomplishments. I just think #7 was the better player by a small margin. I could be wrong, but c'mon, how often does that happen?

 

Just this once as far as I can tell