Winners and losers: QBs ranked by win percentage

Cold, Hard Football Facts for Aug 09, 2008

Here's a look at the winning percentages of every active quarterback in the NFL (with a minimum 10 starts).

We compiled their regular season and postseason records, and then ranked the quarterbacks based upon their cumulative winning percentages.

We'll try to put together some more interesting highlights from the list later. But here's the short version:

ONE - We almost forgot Brett Favre! In our initial version of this story, published Saturday morning, we forgot to include Favre. The reason we forgot is that the base list of regular-season wins and losses we used to kick-start this complilation was issued by the NFL a couple weeks ago, when Favre was still "retired." We've added him to the list here.

TWO - There's certainly no shock at the No. 1 spot. Tom Brady has won 78.7 percent of his games in New England, the best winning percentage of all time for a quarterback with so many starts under his belt. Even with the loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, the numbers remain truly awe-inspiring.

Brady, for example, was won 14 playoff games in just seven years as a starting quarterback and in six postseason appearances.
Compare that to Favre, who has won more games than an QB in history. He boasts 12 playoff wins in 16 years as an NFL starter and in 11 postseason apperances.

In an average season, Brady's Patriots have won 14.3 games and lost 3.9.

THREE - San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers in the No. 2 position may be something of a surprise. He's lost just nine of 36 games in his first two seasons as an NFL starter. And three of those nine losses came the juggernaut-tastic Patriots. Rivers seems to have what it takes to ultimately lead his team to its first-ever Super Bowl crown. (By the way, we realize Rivers did not play the entire game against the Colts in last year's divisional playoffs. But he played the vast majority of the game so earns credit for the victory. We couldn't start issuing portions of victories. If you were the primary QB, you get the win or the loss.)

FOUR - The biggest shocker is probably the fact that not one but two Chicago quarterbacks currently count themselves among the nine winningest quarterbacks in the NFL (albeit with a small number of games under their belts), sandwiching Pro Bowlers and Hall of Famers Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb and Brett Favre. That Chicago defense, not to mention special teams wonder boy Devin Hester, have really done a miraculous job over the past few seasons to win consistently with two under-performing players at QB. Typically, quarterbacks have the biggest impact on whether a team wins or loses. The Bears of recent vintage have been one of the rare exceptions. But had they fielded even a solid NFL starter, instead of guys like Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman, the 21st-century Bears might be walking around with a couple Super Bowl rings right now.

FIVE - It's damn hard to win the playoffs. After all, you don't get a second shot to win in a given year. Lose and you're done. So only eight of the 53 active quarterbacks on the list below have a winning record in the postseason: Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Donovan McNabb, Favre, Jake Delhomme, Brad Johnson, Kurt Warner and Eli Manning. Six of those eight QBs have won Super Bowls, and all eight have led a team to the Super Bowl.

The regular-season won-lost data came from the NFL. The playoff wins and losses came from various sources, including the great stat database at ProFootballReference.com.

QUARTERBACK WINNING PERCENTAGES (at start of 2008 season, min. 10 starts)

	Reg. season	Postseason	Total	Pct.
Tom Brady	86-24	14-3	100-27	.787
Philip Rivers	25-7	2-2	27-9	.750
Ben Roethlisberger	39-16	5-2	44-18	.710
Tony Romo	19-7	0-2	19-9	.679
Kyle Orton	12-6	0-0	12-6	.667
Donovan McNabb	73-39	7-5	80-44	.645
Peyton Manning	105-55	7-7	112-62	.644
Brett Favre	160-93	12-10	172-103	.625
Rex Grossman	19-11	2-2	21-13	.618
David Garrard	19-11	1-2	20-13	.606
Jake Delhomme	38-27	5-2	43-29	.597
Vince Young	17-11	0-1	17-12	.586
Damon Huard	14-10	0-0	14-10	.583
Brad Johnson	71-51	4-3	75-54	.581
Matt Hasselbeck	57-39	4-5	61-44	.581
Kurt Warner	48-37	5-2	53-39	.576
Tarvaris Jackson	8-6	0-0	8-6	.571
Eli Manning	30-25	4-2	34-27	.557
Derek Anderson	10-8	0-0	10-8	.556
Brian Griese	42-36	0-0	42-36	.538
Carson Palmer	32-29	0-0	32-29	.525
Marc Bulger	38-34	1-2	39-36	.520
Mark Brunell	78-72	5-5	83-77	.519
Drew Brees	47-43	1-2	48-45	.516
Chad Pennington	32-29	2-3	34-32	.515
Trent Green	56-56	0-2	56-58	.491
Jeff Garcia	52-53	2-4	54-57	.486
Todd Collins	10-10	0-1	10-11	.4762
Kyle Boller	20-22	0-0	20-22	.4762
A.J. Feeley	7-8	0-0	7-8	.467
Kerry Collins	67-82	3-3	70-85	.452
Gus Frerotte	37-44-1	0-2	37-46-1	.446
Charlie Batch	22-28	0-0	22-28	.440
Chris Simms	7-8	0-1	7-9	.4375
Matt Leinart	7-9	0-0	7-9	.4375
Jay Cutler	9-12	0-0	9-12	.429
Parick Ramsey	10-14	0-0	10-14	.417
Jon Kitna	46-65	0-2	46-67	.407
Anthony Wright	8-11	0-1	8-12	.400
Jason Campbell	8-12	0-0	8-12	.400
Chris Redman	4-6	0-0	4-6	.400
Josh McCown	12-19	0-0	12-19	.387
Alex Smith	11-19	0-0	11-19	.367
Joey Harrington	26-50	0-0	26-50	.342
J.P. Losman	10-21	0-0	10-21	.323
Kelly Holcomb	8-16	0-1	8-17	.320
Charlie Frye	6-13	0-0	6-13	.316
Matt Schaub	4-9	0-0	4-9	.308
Billy Volek	3-7	0-0	3-7	.300
David Carr	23-56	0-0	23-56	.291
Bruce Gradkowski	3-8	0-0	3-8	.273
Brooks Bollinger	2-8	0-0	2-8	.200
Ken Dorsey	2-8	0-0	2-8	.200

By Kerry Byrne

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