[Mile High Mania]

Originally Posted by RealSNR

Some would. I don't think we'd be seeing 5000 yard seasons out of these guys, and the scoring would be down, but they're overall simply better QBs than those guys who played back then. As a whole, that is.

Andy Reid talked about it when he first got the KC job, of whether it's a problem that it's getting really hard to find so-called blue chip pro style pocket passers in college, and that so many of them are running spread systems. Andy Reid said no, not at all, because as a result, these QBs coming out are so much better throwers of the football than guys in the past. Many QB prospects back then, even the highly drafted/regarded ones, needed time to just further develop and get in the 10,000 reps or whatever it is of mechanically throwing the football the right way, and by colleges going to spread systems, these QBs were seeing a lot more in-game chances to hone that craft, even going back to high school play.

You see this trend in the stats of old guys that it isn't until their 6th or 7th years when they can go a whole season without throwing 15+ INTs. I think current top young QBs would cut down on the early-career INTs for sure, and I think they'd be better throwers and put up much better stats. And I think if Mahomes or Burrow or even Herbert were guys back then, they would have been a lot more impressive than guys like Unitas.

I still have respect for the old guys and what they've done, and I think of QBs always as what they did when they played, not how they would fare against each other in their respective primes. But in terms of better players? No, they just simply aren't. And the same goes for Elway.

So there is the other element. Let's agree that QBs now are bigger, stronger, better trained... all that than late 70s/80s.

The rules of the game and what defenses could do to a QB are much different. QBs today going against the 70s Steelers would get crushed. Defense ruled that era for the most part.