All Time Best Numbers (uPDATED)

[OrangeAfroMan]

He wasn't the best QB ever (I don't think); he was the best in college football in 1982 (and probably while he was in college, so 1979-82), and the best college player I'm aware of to wear #7.

Tom Ramsey is a good one to juxtapose, because he looks a lot more like Wuerffel, playing on #5 UCLA and putting up solid stats. Yet the Pac-10 voters, the All-American voters, and the Heisman voters all thought Elway was the better quarterback. That wasn't because of what he did in the NFL--he wasn't there yet.

You're looking for the best player to wear a number, not the best player on a great team to wear a given number. If the latter were your criteria, Theismann is probably back in the running, and Wuerffel has a great argument. If you're looking for the best player--in college--Elway takes it.

Alright, great.  Lets remove all the players from the list, 1-99, who played for winning teams.  Well shit, we're back at square one.  
Have you read Moneyball?  We're not selling jeans, here.  All of Elway's "support" involves voters because Elway's strength was looking the part.  Ramsey ended his career with a better passer rating than Elway, but since he didn't have a hyper-strong arm, he didn't impress voters.  And he had the biggest strike against him - HE WON!  

[OrangeAfroMan]

What do you think those voters (for All-American and Pac-10 conference honors in addition to the Heisman) were basing their votes on? Future wins in the NFL? Sure, that makes sense.

Please don't play dumb.  

[SFBadger96]

So he gets credit for losing?!?  Why?  Was he not a good-enough leader?  lol  Was he lacking the 'eye of the tiger'?

This ain't tennis. Teams of players determine the wins and losses, not single players. To receive the kind of college accolades Elway did while playing on a bad team is nearly unheard of--unless you played for Notre Dame in the old days, and 1982 Stanford sure as heck wasn't Notre Dame.

[OrangeAfroMan]

All-Time Losers Uniform list:
1-
2-
3-
4-
5-
6-Jay Cutler, QB, Vanderbilt
7-John Elway, QB, Stanford
8-
9-
10-
11-Antwaan Randle El, QB/WR, Indiana
12-

[OrangeAfroMan]

This ain't tennis. Teams of players determine the wins and losses, not single players. To receive the kind of college accolades Elway did while playing on a bad team is nearly unheard of--unless you played for Notre Dame in the old days, and 1982 Stanford sure as heck wasn't Notre Dame.

But don't you understand that probably hundreds of good, quality QBs were stuck on crappy teams and because they didn't have otherworldly arm talent, didn't stand out to voters?!?  Yet their production was similar to that of Elway...
This is so plainly obvious to me....
-------------------------------------------------
Why is Montana "better" than Marino, as an NFL QB???  It ain't tennis, yet this remains......something is backwards here....

[OrangeAfroMan]

John Elway = Jay Cutler
=Anthony Thompson
=Paul Palmer

[SFBadger96]

Jay Cutler may actually fill in your #6 roster spot, since you're looking based on his college body of work. I don't know a lot of great #6's, but his college career was better than Jerome Bettis's.

Anthony Thompson of IU fame? He wore 32 and 34. I doubt he goes above O.J. Simpson, Johnny Lujack, or Herschel Walker, but yeah, he was a heck of a player.

[OrangeAfroMan]

Oh how i wish CFR had similarity scores like BBR does.....I'll create Elway's list here.  Based on production:
Willie Tuitama, Arizona
Steve Stenstrom, Stanford
Tom Ramsey, UCLA
Jay Cutler, Vanderbilt
Chad Henne, Michigan
Shane Matthews, Florida
Bo Wallace, Ole Miss
Rex Grossman, Florida
Jacory Harris, Miami
Trevone Boykin, TCU
David Klingler, Houston

These are not bad QBs.  They're really good.  But they're not Danny Wuerffel.  They're not the best player ever who wore their jersey number.  

[Kris61]

I’d still vote Wuerffel because I do think Elway’s HOF NFL career biases us.  If Elway blows out his knee his rookie year and never plays again I don’t think this is a discussion.

[OrangeAfroMan]

Stop being a homer, Kris.

The more I research this, one thing becomes clear:  to find a program with such a good QB who still sucks is difficult to do.  So I gather 2 new hypotheses from this:
1 - Stanford's coach in 1982 must've been a dumbshit
2 - John Elway was most certainly the best QB ever, when only considering schools like Vandy and Indiana.  

[Kris61]

I’d still vote Wuerffel because I do think Elway’s HOF NFL career biases us.  If Elway blows out his knee his rookie year and never plays again I don’t think this is a discussion.

Along the same lines if Andre Ware had a couple of Super Bowl MVP’s I bet his name is bantered about on here.  And now that I think about it is his college career really inferior to Steve Spurrier’s at #11?  Probably not.  I still say Lavar Arrington and Antoine Winfield were better choices at that number than Spurrier.

[OrangeAfroMan]

I was thinking Arrington, but then I wondered, is having a Heisman a trump card?  I say no, because Heismans are only awarded to 3 positions.  

My issue with Ware is that it's hard to remember Houston was a "P5" team back then, in the SWC.  I'm a total conference quality/schedule quality snob, so I harshly discount G5-type teams and players.  And while the SWC may not have been especially strong, it was on par with the others, in terms of opportunity.

[OrangeAfroMan]

I thought I'd get grief for #57, as he was a good player who is mostly a place-holder.  But no.  LOL

[SFBadger96]

All good players. Best at their position for their number? No (except maybe Cutler?). Henne, Ramsay, and Matthews--particularly Matthews--are pretty much the opposite of Elway: they received the attention they did because they were on good teams, not bad ones (don't get me wrong, anybody who can earn an NFL paycheck is a freak of nature). Don't know why you have Tuitama and Stenstrom on there. No one called them all-worldly in college. Good? Yes. The kind of accolades Elway got? Not even close.

Cutler is a good comparison, though, and maybe does belong as the #6 representative. Got a better one?

Best at his college number? Elway was better in college than Wuerffel. I have no problem reaching that conclusion. Florida 1993-1996 was much better than Stanford 1979-1982, though.