TOP FIVE STEELERS QUARTBACKS SINCE BRADSHAW-#1 ENOUGH SAID

…but I’ll take a shot. Here goes:

5. Kordell Stewart. An amazing athlete but a terribly frustrating QB. He had an unfortunate penchant for making the huge mistake at the worst possible time. I remember lots of great plays he made with his feet (beautiful scamper down the sideline for a TD in a 7-6 playoff win over the Patriots in ‘97 tops the list) but my most enduring memory of him was when Bill Romanowski gave him the “Doh!” sign after a stupid end zone interception in the ’97 AFCG. That was Kordell. He’d get your hopes up but could never deliver. Like a hot chick who sucked in bed…

4. Neil O’Donnell. Unspectacular but efficient, he did a good job of steering the ship for those great early-Cowher teams. However, he too suffered with the inability to deliver when the lights were brightest. His ‘94 AFCG and the ’95 Super Bowl disasters clearly outshadow what was otherwise a decent Steelers career, and certainly have earned him a place in the Pittsburgh Hall of Goats. I’m also pretty sure his middle name is “F**king,” because every time my friends refer to him they call him Neil F**king O’Donnell…

3. Bubby Brister. Granted, he was no great QB. But take a look at that list and find me another guy besides Ben who was better. Bubby played for some pretty bad Steelers teams (one of his starting receivers was Weegie Thompson for God’s sake) but he managed to deliver some pretty gutsy performances, including a HUGE upset of the Oilers in the Astrodome in the ‘89 playoffs. Look at it like this: had he quarterbacked the Steelers (in his prime) during the O’Donnell-Stewart years, would we have made it to more than one Super Bowl? I say yes. And we probably would have won the ’95 game vs. Dallas. Those teams were really that good, and unlike Kordell and Neil, Bubby had guts. He made some dumb-ass mistakes but I think he would have showed up in the big game.

2. Ben. Duh. And the separation between him and the rest of the list is Grand Canyon-wide. The only question here is when it’s all said and done will we rank him 1 and Bradshaw 2.

There you have it. Good idea, Grapes. Should make for some interesting debate…

1) Bradshaw…with 4 Lombardi’s he is still the 1.
2) Ben…the best since Bradshaw with time on his side to add to his 2 Lombardi’s.
3) Brister…Agree with Cliff above. What this guy lacked in talent he made up for with intestinal fortitude. He played on some of the worst Steelers teams of the 80’s. He willed the Steelers to many a victory. The 89 team which beat Houston and had Denver on the ropes was one of Noll’s greatest jobs ever and had Cowher picked 6 instead of 14 the Steelers and Bubby would have won a Super Bowl in 92, 94 or 95 instead of Bubby getting a ring as a back up to Elway.
4) Slash…Great athlete. Inconsistent QB. If he would have played WR he would have been a regular in Hawaii. Until Maddox came along he was the Steelers best shot to win.
5) Batch…He is lower on the list if you just consider his career with the Steelers but in his day was quite the QB. If I needed to win one game I would choose Charlie in his prime over any QB listed below.
6) O’Donnell…Won a lot of games with some great teams but was always the “deer in the headlights” in the big game. See 92 Playoffs vs Buff, 94 Playoffs vs SD and 95 Playoffs vs Indy & Dallas.
7) Tommy Gun…Not much athletic ability here but by the time he got to Pittsburgh had plenty of knowledge. Was a step up from Stew at the time who was done. Who can forget when 8 brought us back in the 4th quarter against that boob Arians and the Brownies?
8) Bono…liked him in the strike games and had some success with the 49ers. Cerebral QB who was a mini Montana without the talent.
9) Malone…Had potential but a knee injury playing WR hindered his athleticism. Never had a big arm. Was outclassed by Marino in 84 AFCCG.
10) Woodley…Played in a SB with Miami. Won some games for Pitt subbing for Malone. Timid QB.
11) Scottie Campbell…Little guy who was the most popular guy in town as the number 3 QB. Didn’t play much but looked decent in preseason.
12) Cliff Stoudt…Stiff Drought
13) Blackledge…College pedigree but was a dog in the NFL
14) Graham…Kent Gray Ham. Big, white, small arm and no legs. Held the ball longer than Ben. I think he still is holding his last NFL snap waiting for someone to get open.
15) Miller…Started and played 1 quarter and then Cowher had seen enough. Me too.

1.) Big Ben 2004-2008 51-20
2.) Neil O’Donnell 1991-95 39-22
3.) Kordell Stewart 1995-02 46-29
4.) Bubby Brister 1986-92 28-29
5.)Mike Tomzcak 1993-99 15-12

1.) It’s obvious. I picked 2.) even though he so frustrated me during that Subparbowl. He was an excellent quarterback, but not when the pressure was on, and not when he did not have a good running game for support. I picked slash 3.) because I thought he was actually a very good qb in the right system. No OC ever put him in the right system. Imagine this: Every play is a roll out right or left. He chooses which way based on the defensive alignment. I think he could have changed the position of qb with the right plays called for him. I picked 4.) because he was fun and won more games than any other and his supporting cast was not great. I picked 5.) because he was decent, although not a world beater. Pickings get slim after 3.

Bradshaw is 1.) My list was going AFTER the great TB!

Most everything has already been said indivually, so I’ll drop my 2 cents worth in, starting at number 3

3) O’Donnell
4) Bubby Brister
5) Kordell Stewart
6) Mark Malone – his team gave the 49’ers their only loss in ’84 {?} and I have to give him & the team props for that! And he once caught a 90 TD pass. I liked him as a leader, but he was no star and his supporting cast was not that super either.

most everything’s already been said, but here’s my five:

1a.) Terry Bradshaw
1b.) Ben Roethlisberger
(both born with that drive in their hearts—a little something extra)

3.) Kordell Stewart (breathtaking at times)
  barely over
4.) Bubby Brister (Rudy-like player you just wanted to root for)

5.) Neil O’Donnell (as much as I hate what happened in that Super Bowl, he was a good solid QB most of the time)

Mike Tomczak was decent at best. Geez, it really has been a struggle at QB, hasn’t it? After all those heartbreaks for Steeler faithful over the years, it sure is nice to have Big Ben.

Did anyone besides me watch the XFL? Man, that dude dominated that league. Led the L.A. eXtreme to win the X-bowl. Where did he come from? Teaching ENGLISH (I think). That’s gotta be a hard enough transition into a league that was just for kicks, from NFL starters point of view, b ut to then go and start in the NFL? Now that takes STONES.

I love the guy, I just wish he could have lasted longer and played better on the bigger stage…

BTW, I don’t want to get into the discussion of the ‘top 5’. There’s arguments for and against each QB to be in their particular spot, and it’s purely the opinion of the poster as to where each QB lands. I just don’t feel like going into it today.

Regardless, good debate promoting, and boredom killing post, Grapes.

He served a role for a couple of years, and had that great ’02 season with the big playoff win vs CLE and a game we easily could have won against TEN.

1. Kent Graham-worst
2-4. Miller-Blackledge-Woodley (three way tie), altough Miller had that one great preaseason

15 since 1983….

hell, brian billick had 11 in 10 years! lol.

as a raven fan, i respected ben and slash far more than any other.

For the life of me I can’t understand how Malone lasted eight seasons in Pittsburgh!! We could have made the playoffs easily in ’87 with a decent quarteback. I particularly remember a close home loss vs NO that Malone figured prominently in.

Wow, I forgot how ugly ’87 was for Malone-6 td and 19 int!!!

Honestly considering he had as much success as he did in 89 and eventualy got on a hot streak in 1990 before combusting in 1991… I always wondered what the offense when Bill Cowher would’ve looked like had he named Brister the starter.

What I remember most about 1992 was Neil O’Donnell did start off strong in 1992. Then as another poster said really became a deer in the headlights.

Brister always struck me as a hard headed guy that may actually have been solid with better receivers.

I only saw Stewart (briefly), Maddox and Ben…

So my order would go Ben, Kordell then Tommy Gun

Hopefully, i dont have to add anyone to the list of Steeler QBs ive seen anytime soon

1. Bradshaw – Gotta go with the legend… Although at Ben’s retirement, he could very well be right here.

2. Roethlisberger – No other QB in the NFL I’d rather have on my team.

3. Tomzcak – I realize he’s not ranked particularly high here, but I always thought he was a good player.

4. Brister – Bubby was a character… He wasn’t great, but he had guts. He played for a bad team.

5. Stewart – Raw passer. Damn good athelete. I’m not a fan of his style of Quarterbacking, though. His talents were great, but he was not a QB.

6. Batch – Good leader. In his prime, he would rank much higher.

7. Maddox – I always liked Tommy. Not a great QB, but he had one magical season where the stars aligned perfectly.

8. O’Donnell – Coward. Left like a thief in the night. His performance in big games was pitiful.

9. Blackledge – I think if he had been drafted to a better situation than the Chiefs, he would’ve been coached better. His failure, I think came down to the team he went to.

10. Bono – I only managed to see one game he ever played in. I liked what I saw, but I can’t rank him higher because I never learned enough about him.

11. Malone – Good athlete, but awful QB. No leadership.

12. Woodley – Better served as a backup journeyman.

13. Stoudt – Awful. Nothing good about him.

14. Miller – Saw only one quarter of him. Not any good, either.

15. Graham – It’s funny how a lot of Steelers fans have simply erased Kent from memory… Hell, I had forgotten him until I heard the name.

Art Rooney was not running the team at that time. Dan Rooney had been suggested by a sportswriter (whose name escapes me at the moment) that they take Marino in the first round and shop Cliff Stoudt around for a high 2nd round pick in order to pick up Gabe Rivera, whom they had their eyes on. When Rooney passed this along to Chuck Noll and the scouts, they loved the idea and asked him where he got it. Instead of saying it was his own, Dan passed the credit to the reporter, and Noll was indignant, and unecessarily stubborn. He decided to take Rivera and rebuild around the defense as he had with Joe Greene… But Rivera was paralyzed in a car accident the next year.

The Steelers have only had 1 even good QB since Bradshaw

1 Big Ben
2. O’Donnell – Come on people. We all know he choked in the Big One and then ran to the Jets, blah blah, but anybody looked at that pass he threw to I think it was Sims at the end of the AFC Championship game against the Colts? Thats the kind of passer he was…accurate and he could throw deep. How many Steeler QB’s can you say that about. Certainly not the next guy.
3. Kordell — Shoulda stayed a slash. Woulda a been hall-of-famer. Could run, catch, and throw a ball 70 yards. And don’t forget in 2001 he was a league MVP candidate. Just could not maintain any level of consistancy or confidence.
4. Tommy Gun – great arm. give him time and he could pick a D apart. If he had Warners guts he’s still be playing, but he heard steps and telegraphed his throws.
5. Bubby — Ton of guts, not much talent, but put his heart on Kordell and we’d be talking about an 8th or 9th SB.