Which Modern QB is Namath most comparable to?

[HawkeyeJet]

So I am to young to have seen Namath play.  I know about his exploits, but really nothing about what his skill set was.  I saw a tweet from a football guy I think very highly of that said if turf didn't exist and the shotgun did, Namath could have played until 40 because he was a "natural gunslinger".

So my mind immediately goes to Favre, but for those of you that watched him back in his prime, who did he resemble the most on the field from from say the Elway/Marino class to present day?

[Untouchable]

Probably Marino 

Namath was a shell of his former self when I initially became a fan as a kid,  but he still had a cannon and that super quick, flick of the wrist release that Marino had.

[jetrider]

Marino is the only one who came close to replicating Joe's mechanics and style. He even wore the same Namath face mask.

Nobody since has touched Namath.

That's why it's important that Darnold sees old game tape and doesn't think Joe was just a fruit in garish clothes.

[rangerous]

21 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

So I am to young to have seen Namath play.  I know about his exploits, but really nothing about what his skill set was.  I saw a tweet from a football guy I think very highly of that said if turf didn't exist and the shotgun did, Namath could have played until 40 because he was a "natural gunslinger".

So my mind immediately goes to Favre, but for those of you that watched him back in his prime, who did he resemble the most on the field from from say the Elway/Marino class to present day?

marino.  i know he's not modern in that he's been gone for nearly 20 years but marino had the same quick and compact throwing motion.

[MDL_JET]

7 minutes ago, rangerous said:

marino.  i know he's not modern in that he's been gone for nearly 20 years but marino had the same quick and compact throwing motion.

I haven’t seen either play. Would you compare to Rodgers? He probably has the quickest throwing motion out of the guys playing now I think. 

[kelly]

marino but there's..

... only one Joe     ? 

[rangerous]

Just now, MDL_JET said:

I haven’t seen either play. Would you compare to Rodgers? He probably has the quickest throwing motion out of the guys playing now I think. 

i haven't watched rodgers play that much.  rodgers is way more mobile than marino or namath. i just know marino's throwing motion was scarily similar to namath's.

[ASH1962]

Marino hands down. That quick drop and rocket arm quick release. 

[Patriot Killa]

Is it fair to say that Joe is the first true Gunslinger to come around?

[Larz]

Just now, Patriot Killa said:

Is it fair to say that Joe is the first true Gunslinger to come around?

Kinda. The AFL was all about exciting play and deep passes. 

Werblin was a talent executive Hollywood, he was more interested in making Joe a star than a QB, so I think it's fair to say that Joe was the first superstar QB 

[Charlie Brown]

No one!!

Namath’s footwork was absolutely unbelievable.  Bill Walsh said Namath’s footwork was the best he had ever seen and that was after Namath’s knee injury. 

Namath had a chance to be the best QB of all time, but he accomplished a tenth of what he could have IMO based on his crazy partying and unwillingness to take care of his body and phenomenal skill sets. 

[jetrider]

14 minutes ago, Patriot Killa said:

Is it fair to say that Joe is the first true Gunslinger to come around?

The first flatfooted laser bomb thrower 

 

[joewilly12]

Joe Namath was fun to watch from what I remember, on the field he was a true warrior off the field his charisma was never to be repeated. 

The kid from Beavers Fall PA and Alabama could throw the pig skin. 

After all these years and with his success as a NY Jets QB why hasn't the organization brought him back at some capacity. 

I would agree with Dan Marino. 

[jetrider]

1 minute ago, Charlie Brown said:

No one!!

Namath’s footwork was absolutely unbelievable.  Bill Walsh said Namath’s footwork was the best he had ever seen and that was after Namath’s knee injury. 

Namath had a chance to be the best QB of all time, but he accomplished a tenth of what he could have IMO based on his crazy partying and unwillingness to take care of his body and phenomenal skill sets. 

You posted a great video way back when. Still have it?

[joewilly12]

[jetrider]

 

[JetFaninMI]

32 minutes ago, Charlie Brown said:

No one!!

Namath’s footwork was absolutely unbelievable.  Bill Walsh said Namath’s footwork was the best he had ever seen and that was after Namath’s knee injury. 

Namath had a chance to be the best QB of all time, but he accomplished a tenth of what he could have IMO based on his crazy partying and unwillingness to take care of his body and phenomenal skill sets. 

This. Joe could light it up with the best of them. If he had taken better care of himself the sky was the limit. The other side of the coin is that if Joe didn't have the personality he did maybe he wouldn't have been as good. All I know is I never saw a guy with his release and the way he got the ball out. Marino was close but as was written above there is, was, and always will be only one Joe Namath.

[chirorob]

1 hour ago, Patriot Killa said:

Is it fair to say that Joe is the first true Gunslinger to come around?

No

Norm Van Brocklin.   Google his #s.  19 yards per completion for a whole season.

Then Johnny U.  Daryl Lamonica at the same time as Joe.  

[joewilly12]

[Joe W. Namath]

1 hour ago, rangerous said:

i haven't watched rodgers play that much.  rodgers is way more mobile than marino or namath. i just know marino's throwing motion was scarily similar to namath's.

Namath was a better athlete then rodgers.  Just as mobile if not more.  The injuries robbed him of that so we dont remember him that way.

[maury77]

Namath was before my time, but the book Kriegel wrote on Namath was excellent. 

[JetsFanatic]

2 hours ago, HawkeyeJet said:

So I am to young to have seen Namath play.  I know about his exploits, but really nothing about what his skill set was.  I saw a tweet from a football guy I think very highly of that said if turf didn't exist and the shotgun did, Namath could have played until 40 because he was a "natural gunslinger".

So my mind immediately goes to Favre, but for those of you that watched him back in his prime, who did he resemble the most on the field from from say the Elway/Marino class to present day?

Marino. All the more disappointing the Jets didn’t draft him.

[The Crimson King]

29 minutes ago, chirorob said:

No

Norm Van Brocklin.   Google his #s.  19 yards per completion for a whole season.

Then Johnny U.  Daryl Lamonica at the same time as Joe.  

Don't forget Sonny Jurgensen

First name I thought of as a "gunslinger"

[kelly]

1 hour ago, kelly said:

marino but there's..

... only one Joe     ? 

 

cheers ~ ~ 

[Charlie Brown]

2 minutes ago, kelly said:

 

cheers ~ ~ 

Ok maybe I was wrong..

Maybe Joe did get the best out of his abilities after all......  

[BigRy56]

Case Keenum

[Savage69]

33 minutes ago, Joe W. Namath said:

Namath was a better athlete then rodgers.  Just as mobile if not more.  The injuries robbed him of that so we dont remember him that way.

Check out Joe's college days at Bama he could scramble with the best of them until his 2 knee operations happened.. Many thought he wouldn't last 3 years in the pro's.. Back then Joe wasn't just a QB he was a event much like rock stars got.. I'm the same age as Joe so I know how good he was..If he had good knee's with todays rules protecting the QB and WR's there would be no stopping him IMO..

 

[kelly]

8 minutes ago, Charlie Brown said:

Ok maybe I was wrong..

Maybe Joe did get the best out of his abilities after all......  

ya think ?..

 

?

[HawkeyeJet]

9 minutes ago, kelly said:

ya think ?..

 

?

Who is that?  

[Jetster]

Joe played NFL at a time when it hadn't been pussified. My god, players get 15 yards for brushing Bradys helmet. Check out some of the late hits Joe took from Oakland in the AFC Championship game when he scrambled out of bounds. There is no doubt they were trying to knock him out of the game. 

But check out these stats in 1972 vs the great Johnny Unitas and the Colts. BAM! 15    f*cking completions for 496 YARDS & 6 TDS! Yea, they won 44-34. Like 40% of his passes went for TDs, lol. This is a MICROPHONE DROP performance. 

 

		Passing									Rushing				Receiving				Fumbles
Player	Tm	Cmp	Att	Yds	TD	Int	Sk	Yds	Lng	Rate	Att	Yds	TD	Lng	Rec	Yds	TD	Lng	Fmb	FL
Joe Namath	NYJ	15	28	496	6	1	0	0	0	123.5

[kelly]

6 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

Who is that?  

http://www.ann-margret.com/

[kelly]

she knew..

[Alka]

I pretty much saw Namath's entire career, and i must say that many have him accurate as comparing to Dan Marino.

Namath threw lasers and was accurate as well.  I remember seeing him throw a 50 yard bomb to Richard Caster, a "great Jets Tight end by the way" right on the money for a touchdown. 

Namath threw with velocity and on the mark.  His arm was as good as I have ever seen, as good as Marino. 

Unfortunately, it was his knees that got worse and worse, and IMO that is what finally did him in.

Interestingly, he was able to run well in college, before his knee problems.

[rangerous]

1 hour ago, Joe W. Namath said:

Namath was a better athlete then rodgers.  Just as mobile if not more.  The injuries robbed him of that so we dont remember him that way.

no doubt. the injuries are always part of the debate as in "if the doctors had the same expertise in dealing with knee injuries as they do now. who knows how much better guys like namath and sayers would've been with better health care.

[rangerous]

2 hours ago, Patriot Killa said:

Is it fair to say that Joe is the first true Gunslinger to come around?

just what does gunslinger mean, anyway?  it's all about hitting the open receiver or at least putting the ball where the receiver can catch it.  the old afl teams has mad bombers like daryl lamonica and john hadl who would go deep.  maybe it was because the receivers could get mugged off the line by the db's so the only place they could catch was deep.