The Sporting News assembled a group of NFL experts to determine it's Top 50 NFL quarterbacks of all-time. It was a subjective poll, but it makes a nice read. It will come as little surprise that the Lions only had two members of the team make the list, #16 Bobby Layne and #44 Dutch Clark, neither of whom has played in a Lions uniform since 1958. The issue is worth a look, it also ranks the Top 5 Qb's for each team.

Sporting News Top 25
1.Johnny Unitas/14.Sid Luckman
2.Joe Montana/15.Dan Fouts
3.Otto Graham/16.Bobby Layne
4.John Elway/17.Norm Van Brocklin
5. Sammy Baugh/18.Sonny Jurgensen
6.Dan Marino/19.Jim Kelly
7. Brett Favre/20.Yelbertson A. Tittle
8.Terry Bradshaw/21.Len Dawson
9.Roger Staubach/22.Bob Griese
10. Bart Starr/23.Joe Namath
11. Fran Tarkenton/24.Warren Moon
12. Troy Aikman/25.Peyton Manning
13.Steve Young

I personally feel this list is slanted a little towards modern day QB's. I believe the game management skills and play-calling exhibited by early vintage NFL QB's merits some weight over the modern day QB's inflated passing stats due to the priority placed upon the passing game in modern day football. I have a very hard time accepting that Brett Favre is better than Terry Bradshaw or that
Troy Aikman is ranked higher than so many great players.

Other notables in the top 50:
#48 Tom Brady U of M grad
#50 Bennie Friedman U of M grad/Detroit Wolverines who were purchased by Tim Mara and became the New York Football Giants.

Lions Top 5 (according to Sporting News)
1.Bobby Layne
2.Dutch Clark
3.Scott Mitchell
4.Greg Landry
5.Bill Munson

This list is quite debatable. Where is Milt Plum? How about Eric Hipple or Erik Kramer. I think Mitchell had one or two spectacular seasons but I do not believe he should be on this list. What do you think?

Lions Passing Yards-Career
1.Layne 15,710
2.Mitchell 12,647
3.Landry 12,451
4.Danielson 11,885
5.Hipple 10,711
6.Batch 9,016
7.Plum 8,536
8.Munson 8,461
9.Peete 8,164
10.Morrall 6,280

TD Passes-Career
1. Layne 118
2.Landry 80
3.Mitchell 79
4.Danielson 69
5.Munson 56
6.Hipple 55
Plum 55
8. Morrall 52
9.Batch 49
10. Peete 38

Comp %-Career (min 500 passes)
1. Peete 57.0
2.Mitchell 56.7
3. Danielson 56.5
4.Batch 56.0
5.Kramer 55.2
6. Long 54.8
7.Landry 54.8
8. Munson 54.5
9.Hipple 53.7
10. Harrington 53.3

Passer Rating-Career
1.Mitchell 79.2
2.Batch 76.9
3. Morrall 76.4
4. Kramer 75.5
5.Munson 75.2
6.Danielson 74.7
7.Landry 73.4
8. Peete 72.9
9. Hipple 68.7
10. Long 64.8