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Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Montana was better than he was given credit for, but no he was not Mahomes. Mahomes is used as a genuine weapon and teams have to account for him when playing man coverage. They KNOW he'll find a spot and take off.
And Montana simply didn't have the range of throwing abilities that Mahomes has or Young had. Yeah, Montana could clear out, buy a little time and make a throw - but not like Young could.
And really, I think you have to combine eras to make a peak throwing Montana who's also mobile. It was in the mid-80s when he first hurt his back, right? That Giants hit that absolutely folded him. He didn't make his first All Pro team until '87 and I think that was a season or more after his back issues started and his mobility fell off.
There just wasn't a time where Montana was a pristine passer AND an asset with his legs, IMO. He was a good passer with some mobility, then he was a physically limited wizard with the football.
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All true. Joe never really ran for yardage or TDs. He'd scramble around and try to find an open receiver when he had to, but he just didn't run. But back then, when a QB tried to run down the middle of field the way these QBs do now, well that was open season for the defense. There was no "giving yourself up" at the end of the run.
And Joe definitely didn't have the array of arm angles nor the sheer arm strength that Mahomes has. or Steve Young's, for that matter. Though I do remember watching a Sorts Science episode (or whatever it was called back then) and they did an analysis of several QBs and found that Joe had the most efficient throwing mechanics of any QB in NFL history (up to that time). So Montana could throw a pretty deep pass, or laser one over the middle for 15-20 yards, he even threw some no-platform passes occasionally, but his bread-and-butter was the perfect form pass.
But what really set him apart as a passer imo was his ball placement. Every pass seemed like it was perfectly delivered so that it helped the receiver either stay in stride or allowed the receiver to protect himself from the inevitable crushing hit from the defender. He just never led a receiver into a big hit. All these years later, watching countless QBs, and I still have never seen anything like it. The closest in that regard is probably Mahomes, Brady or Manning. But Montana was just a wizard at protecting his receivers.
P.S. for one game, I'd probably take Favre over Rodgers. And I get that Rodgers is the better overall QB, and probably more consistently accurate, and overall makes better decisions. But Favre could just make miraculous things happen, and his teammates would run through walls for him. Not sure Rodgers could get that level of buy-in from his entire team the way Favre could. And Favre didn't need a great receiver, the way Rodgers seems to. Favre would just throw it; and let whoever it was try to make a play. I still remember that game he played against GB when he was a Viking. That throw to the back of the EZ, to whoever that was (Lewis?). That guy was just some faceless dude up to that point, and Favre just let it rip and made that guy a hero. I'll take that Favre over Rodgers in one gotta-have-it game.