Rams Quarterbacks

Tier 3 on this list is pretty high. Everett when he was doing well and Bulger before the OL got him Bulgerized were very good, top 10 qbs. (Top 10 in a given season, not across all NFL history.)

I have a vote for the best back-up. I don’t count Green or Warner or Bulger as back-ups, they just happened to be starting qbs in the back up role, which is not the same as a career back up.

My career back up vote goes to Jamie Martin. He had no arm at all but very good qb smarts. He had 7 starts with the Rams and in those 7 starts, had 3 comebacks/game winning drive games.

Billy_T wrote:

Always thought Bulger was a lot better than he was given credit for by too many fans . . . caught up in the crazed football warz of that time.

Goff? He’s an arm-kink away from being almost as good as Stafford, in my view. Best chance to have fixed that was McVay’s first season, but he soured on Goff all too soon and basically threw him under the bus. Which was hard to do, given that Bettis had retired and wasn’t in town. ;>)

+1

I have nothing to add on the Gabriel discussion, he was before my time as a Rams fan, never saw him.

WV,

The rise and fall of Foles is strange. And then throw in Joe Flacco and Trent Dilfer winning Super Bowls for the Ravens. Neither QB is a tier one guy.

. . . .

Back to Gabriel. My memory of him is of defensive linemen and linebackers draped all over him as he still gets the pass off. Toughest QB evah. Cannon for an arm. And in those days, the defense could basically maul the QB. Yes, Warner took incredible punishment, especially because he tended to throw at the last split second — to optimize run after the catch, typically. But he also benefited from rules intended to protect that position. Gabriel had no such protections, aside from perhaps the most consistently good O-line in the NFL for a good decade.

Again, I think if he had had decent skill position weapons, the Rams would have won several Big Dances and he wouldn’t have been traded to the Eagles.

wv wrote:

Well for me, what Stafford did in the 4th quarter during the post-season run, is equal (or surpasses) what Kurt did.

ok.  i forgot about those fourth quarters…

it definitely makes it closer…

it doesn’t surpass warner’s 1999 season, but it might be on par with it.

i definitely think he can have the better career with the rams.  he’s under contract until 2026, and i don’t see any reason why he can’t keep up that caliber of play.  especially with all the rules to protect the qbs.  and if we’re lucky, he can play even beyond 2026.

and i agree.  it would have been nice to see warner finish as a ram.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by InvaderRam.

also very good points…

there was a lot more pressure on stafford than warner.

and warner was surrounded by hall of fame talent on offense.

and i might be conflating warner’s season with the rams’ season as a whole. they went from zero to hero in one season. dv’s last hurrah. etc…

but also qbs were not protected like they are now. imagine what warner could have done in today’s league. he probably would have finished his career as a ram in today’s nfl.

as great as stafford’s season was he only ranked sixth in qb rating. warner led the league that 99 season. although yes. that rams’ offense caught everyone by surprise. and he was surrounded by hof talent. and while that schedule was weak, warner had to beat what was in my opinion one of the all time great defenses in the tb bucs. and they were so far ahead of their time. so far ahead of everyone else it seemed surreal.

i might look back on the 21 season differently depending on how these next few years go. i think part of what is coloring that 99 season is what happened in 00 and 01. some of the most ridiculous video game type football i had ever seen.

that 00 season before warner got hurt and the 01 season. if they caught the league by surprise in 99 they still couldn’t catch up to them those two years. although yes. belichick did get them in the superbowl.

but it is close. as the years go by i might actually be convinced that stafford’s season was better.

I think everybody is overlooking the fact that the Dallas Cowboys have not made it to the NFC Championship game since they won the Super Bowl in 1995.

wv wrote:

Every time i see that stat, I smile.

And you don’t even have idiot brothers who are Cowboys fans.

Good video of Gabe, given the limitations of media in that era. He really was fantastic.

WV gave more food for thought. It’s kinda nature/nurture, chicken and egg thing. How would the Rams skill guys have done with a Martz offense, or McVay’s, etc.?  In the moment, I loved the entire team and didn’t see them as limited, anywhere. But looking back, and comparing this player and that . . . Jack Snow, for example, as excellent as he was, just wasn’t Holt or Bruce . . . but he likely would have gotten a lot closer to his potential with a more “creative” scheme than Allen’s. Same with their running backs. They lacked speed, overall, though Willie Ellison was a burner, with good size. Can’t remember why he didn’t last with the Rams longer. Then, of course, you have Billy Truax. He’s an Olympian in any era.

Anyway . . . yeah, comparing one era with the next is basically impossible. But it’s “fun” from time to time. Not so fun is the reality they lived in, financially. If memory serves, Rams starters back in the 1960s likely made in the 20-30K range, and often had to work summers. Merlin and Deacon, I think, worked at car dealerships to supplement their income. And, of course, sometimes starred in TV and movies. The Undefeated, with John Wayne, had Gabe and Merlin in it, and a coupla other players. It was a great movie for a Rams fan still wet behind the ears.

Has there ever been a player who seemed to age so . . . I don’t know . . . so unlike his football days as Gabriel? Olsen, OTOH, seemed to be who he was destined to be.