NFL Twitter Mailbag: QB Debate

NFL Twitter nation had plenty to say about quarterbacks this week, starting with response to my tweet about ESPN analyst (and former NFL quarterback) Trent Dilfer saying the NFL has better quarterbacks right now than ever before in its history, and then moving to the question of who got the better end of the Bears-Broncos quarterback swap.

Your questions and comments, and my responses, in our NFL Twitter mailbag are below.

MortChristenson: Did he think HE was great? Very good? Average?
I didn't talk to Dilfer specifically about how he rates himself, but I don't think he's under any illusions that he was a great quarterback. I think he views himself as having had a successful career because he stuck around for 13 seasons, made a Pro Bowl and got a Super Bowl ring, but when he was talking about the quarterbacks he considers great, like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, he wasn't including himself in that conversation.

JohnRadcliff: Early 80's QB's were the best. Add in Jim Plunkett, Jim Zorn/Dave Krieg, I guess Ken Stabler was around, Archie Manning.
This is an interesting point. Paul Zimmerman wrote a Sports Illustrated piece in 1988 in which he said there was a dearth of talented quarterbacks -- he agreed with you that there had been a lot of quarterback talent in the early 80s, and he worried that the great quarterbacks who retired hadn't been replaced by a young group of great quarterbacks.

Comparing the early 80s to today, it's a close call. Just to pick one year, the 1981 Pro Bowl quarterbacks were Ken Anderson, Joe Montana, Dan Fouts and Steve Bartkowski. Montana may be the best quarterback in NFL history, but both Brady and Manning have a chance to be remembered as even greater. Anderson, Fouts and Bartkowski were all good passers, but were they better passers than, say, last year's NFC Pro Bowl trio of Kurt Warner, Drew Brees and Eli Manning?

I don't know. It's close. But I think Dilfer can make a pretty strong case when he says we're heading into the 2009 NFL season with the best group of quarterbacks the sport has ever seen.

writetokal: Who got the better quarterback in the trade between the Bears and the Broncos to swap Orton for Cutler?
The Bears definitely got the better quarterback: Jay Cutler is far more talented than Kyle Orton.

But if the question is who got the better part of the trade, that's a tough call. In addition to Orton, the Broncos got the Bears' first-round picks this year (they chose defensive end Robert Ayers) and next year. I'm not totally sold on Ayers, but if he and next year's first-round pick turn into a couple of solid starters in Denver, that shifts the balance to the Broncos.

There was also a bunch of other stuff going on with this trade: The Broncos got a third-round pick from the Bears that they subsequently traded, and the Broncos also shipped their fifth-round pick to the Bears but, in a series of trades, ended up getting that fifth-rounder back. Who knows? Maybe one of those players will turn out to be better than either Orton or Cutler.

But, for right now, I'm going to go ahead and say the Bears will end up getting the better part of this trade. Cutler is a quarterback with unique talent, and Bears fans will be very happy they have him.

Want to be part of our next NFL Twitter mailbag? Post a question or comment on Twitter.com, and be sure to start it with @MichaelDavSmith.