The question of who the NFL's greatest ever quarterback is will continue to be debated for as long as the sport still exists - and probably even after.
There have been over 100 NFL seasons each with a multitude of starting quarterbacks, in the 2022 season alone 68 different signal callers got a start.
To go down as one of the greatest of all time, a quarterback will have needed to separated himself from the rest and dragged their team to new heights.
There are countless greats missing from this list, honourable mentions must go to Terry Bradshaw, Otto Graham, Aaron Rodgers, Dan Marino, John Elway and Brett Favre.
The debate will rage on, but DAZN looks at five of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the sport.
Tom Brady (2000-2023)
While this is one of the most common debates in the sport, even the most ardent anti-Patriots fan would have to concede that Tom Brady belongs in this list.
Widely regarded as the best to ever play the game, Brady won seven Super Bowls before calling time of his career at the end of the 2022 season.
His seven Super Bowl wins is not just more than any other quarerback, but more than any other franchise.
Brady also leads the NFL in most games won (286), most career passing yards (102,614) and most touchdowns thrown (737).
The majority of Brady's success came with the New England Patriots, though few anticipated it after being selected 199th overall in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft.
In Brady's 20 years with the Patriots, New England won 17 AFC East titles, reached nine Super Bowls and lifted the Vince Lombari trophy on six occasions.
In his three years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Brady won his seventh Super Bowl ring before temporarily retiring.
He returned for one last season in 2022 in which the Buccaneers disappointingly went 8-9, the worst regular season record of his career, despite which a 45-year-old Brady still set a single-season NFL record for pass attempts (733) and completions (490).
Joe Montana (1979-1994)
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Another name that is hard to argue with, Joe Montana was well deserving of his nicknames 'Joe Cool' and 'The Comeback Kid'.
Montana was under centre for the San Francisco 49ers from 1979 to 1993 before a short two-year stint with the Kansas City Chiefs.
What separates Montana from many other greats is his record in Super Bowls. Four games, four wins. A record he shares with former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw.
'Joe Cool' had an average passer rating across his four Super Bowl appearances of 127.8, the highest ever, and his three Super Bowl MVPs can only be topped by Brady.
In the 1989 season, Montana won his fourth Super Bowl with the 49ers. His 11 postseason touchdowns is still an NFL record, made even more impressive by the fact he threw no interceptions in that run.
Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2000, Montana's time at Kansas City was also a success as he took them to their first AFC Championship Game since the AFL-NFL Merger.
Montana's 'Comeback Kid' nickname was no more apparently than in Super Bowl XXIII, when he led San Francisco 97 yards down the field in the fourth quarter to beat the Cincinnati Bengals 20-16.
And if all that was not enough, Montana's game-winning touchdown throw to Dwight Clark in the 1982 NFC Championship game against Dallas remains one of the most famous in the sport's history - simply nicknamed 'The Catch'.
Peyton Manning (1998-2015)
Peyton Manning's postseason success does not stack up against Montana or Brady, but Manning changed the way the quarterback position was played due to his vision and preparation.
The first overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft began his career with the Indianapolis Colts where he won his first Super Bowl ring, before adding a second later in his career with the Denver Broncos.
When Manning entered the NFL, the art of quarterbacks calling plays was long lost, but he began constantly barking out orders at the line of scrimmage in the early 2000s.
Manning's immense research, work ethic and football IQ allowed him to switch up the play or call audibles at the last moment when identifying the weaknesses in the opponent's defensive formation.
His game-changing approach saw him named NFL MVP a record five times, while his 200 regular and postseason wins puts him second on the all-time list behind Brady.
Even in February 2016 when clearly past his prime, Manning still led the Broncos to glory in Super Bowl 50 against the Carolina Panthers - the last postseason game the Broncos played.
He may not have as many Super Bowl rings, but Manning still thoroughly deserves his mention among the greatest ever quarterbacks.
Johnny Unitas (1956-1973)
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Another Colt, and another game changer. Johnny Unitas' impact on the quarterback position is arguably even bigger than Manning's for the same franchise some 40 years later.
Originally drafted in the ninth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Unitas was cut before the season started as life in the NFL did not start the way he had hoped.
That was until he was signed by the then-Baltimore Colts where he would go on to win three NFL Championships and Super Bowl V.
What makes Unitas stand out is the way he changed football. In a sport where - at the time - the running game was the key to success, Unitas instead elected to pass.
His time management tactics are still employed by teams in the NFL, and his 2,899 passing yards for 32 touchdowns in 1959 stacks up with numbers seen today.
Unitas remains the only playing to lead the league in passing touchdowns for four consecutive seasons from 1957-1960, and picked up the first of his three NFL MVPs in that stretch.
During that remarkable run, Unitas also went 47 consecutive games with at least one passing touchdown, a record that was finally beaten by the next quarterback up in 2012.
Drew Brees (2001-2020)
The man who would break Unitas' long-standing record was former San Diego Charger and New Orleans Saint Drew Brees.
Brees, who retired at the end of the 2020 season, was the epitome of production. Not the flashiest player, not the biggest player, but consistent.
There have been 15 instances of quarterbacks throwing for over 5,000 yards in a single regular season, and five of those belong to Brees.
Only Patrick Mahomes and Brady have also managed the feat more than once, and each did so for a second time after the regular season had been extended from 16 games to 17.
Brees also sits only behind Brady in second place for the most ever passing yards (80,358), completions (7,142) and touchdown passes (571).
And to go back to Unitas' former record of consecutive games with at least one passing touchdown, Brees went seven better to reach 54 straight matches.
On two separate occasions, Brees went three consecutive seasons with the highest pass completion rate in the NFL (2009-2011 and 2017-2019) and holds the highest percentage for a single season with 74.4% in 2018.
Bress' one Super Bowl ring may be modest in this list of greats, but silverware is not always concrete evidence of a players talent as Brees' numbers prove.
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