which quarterback had the strongest arm?

craig44

I realize this question will have no definitive answer, but maybe some names we have all forgotten about will get brought up.
here are some I remember:

Jeff George
John Elway
Drew Bledsoe
Dan Marino
Brett Favre
Randall Cunningham
Vinny Testaverte

If I had to choose one, probably Elway. he had the best arm i can remember.

craig44

of the current guys, I would say Josh Allen has the strongest arm. he can really chuck it.

craig44

you know it will usually come back to Tommy. While he does not have an elway or favre type arm, he used to be able to chuck it. there is video of him uncorking an incomplete pass in the 2008 super bowl that goes around 73 or 74 yards as best i can tell. looks like he released at his own 12 and had Moss not touched it, it seems it would have landed around the giants 15 or 16-yard line.

pretty good for an in-game throw. he may have had longer ones, but that is the only one i can find video evidence of.

countdouglas

Mahomes can supposedly throw a football 80 yards from his knees. I know they made a big deal here locally when a news helicopter was flying over Arrowhead during practice, and Mahomes launched a ball from the field completely out and over the top of the stadium. I believe there is video somewhere online.

Alfonz24

Bobby Douglass

Bobby Douglass: Flamethrower of Yesterday

Several years ago I wrote a piece about Tim Tebow and Bobby Douglass. When I look at the gloves that wide receivers use today, I think it might be worth another look at Douglass.
Tim Tebow reminded me of Douglass who was the Bears QB from 1969 to the beginning of 1975. After leaving the Bears, Douglas played for San Diego, New Orleans and Green Bay.
Both Tebow and Douglass are left-handed and big men. Tebow is 6-3, 235 lbs. Douglass played at 6-4, 225 lbs and like Tebow, he did a lot of running. For his career, Douglass had 507 completions on 1178 attempts giving him a 43% completion rate for a total of 6,493 and 36 touchdowns. In one of his best games, he was 10 for 15 passing—sounds Tebow like? On the downside, it’s been said that Douglass was not a quick study of the Bears playbook and he did throw interceptions–perhaps more than would have been expected by a running quarterback. In his defense however, he was asked to play pretty early in his career without an apprenticeship under a solid offensive system. He would play under three head coaches–Dooley, Gibron and Pardee.
His career rushing yards are more impressive. He had 410 rushes for a total of 2,654 yards and 22 touchdowns. In 1972, Douglass had 968 yards rushing and an incredible 6.9 yards gained per run. It would be decades before the NFL would see another running quarterback of the caliber of Douglass–Michael Vick.
Like Tebow, Douglas was a fearless runner. He played aggressively, he was a scrambler and was not likely to hang around the pocket much and take a sack. Although his throwing stats were never great, he had the strongest arm in football and with seemingly little effort could throw a ball 70 yards. Douglass himself said he could throw at least 90 yards and probably 100 in certain conditions.

craig44

@countdouglas said:
Mahomes can supposedly throw a football 80 yards from his knees. I know they made a big deal here locally when a news helicopter was flying over Arrowhead during practice, and Mahomes launched a ball from the field completely out and over the top of the stadium. I believe there is video somewhere online.

no way he or anyone else could throw a ball 80 yards from knees. I call impossible on that one.

well, maybe uncle Rico

craig44

@Alfonz24 said:
Bobby Douglass

Bobby Douglass: Flamethrower of Yesterday

Several years ago I wrote a piece about Tim Tebow and Bobby Douglass. When I look at the gloves that wide receivers use today, I think it might be worth another look at Douglass.
Tim Tebow reminded me of Douglass who was the Bears QB from 1969 to the beginning of 1975. After leaving the Bears, Douglas played for San Diego, New Orleans and Green Bay.
Both Tebow and Douglass are left-handed and big men. Tebow is 6-3, 235 lbs. Douglass played at 6-4, 225 lbs and like Tebow, he did a lot of running. For his career, Douglass had 507 completions on 1178 attempts giving him a 43% completion rate for a total of 6,493 and 36 touchdowns. In one of his best games, he was 10 for 15 passing—sounds Tebow like? On the downside, it’s been said that Douglass was not a quick study of the Bears playbook and he did throw interceptions–perhaps more than would have been expected by a running quarterback. In his defense however, he was asked to play pretty early in his career without an apprenticeship under a solid offensive system. He would play under three head coaches–Dooley, Gibron and Pardee.
His career rushing yards are more impressive. He had 410 rushes for a total of 2,654 yards and 22 touchdowns. In 1972, Douglass had 968 yards rushing and an incredible 6.9 yards gained per run. It would be decades before the NFL would see another running quarterback of the caliber of Douglass–Michael Vick.
Like Tebow, Douglas was a fearless runner. He played aggressively, he was a scrambler and was not likely to hang around the pocket much and take a sack. Although his throwing stats were never great, he had the strongest arm in football and with seemingly little effort could throw a ball 70 yards. Douglass himself said he could throw at least 90 yards and probably 100 in certain conditions.

that is a cool story, never heard of Bobby Douglass. sounds like he had a .30-06 attached to his left shoulder!!

thisistheshow

@craig44 said:

@countdouglas said:
Mahomes can supposedly throw a football 80 yards from his knees. I know they made a big deal here locally when a news helicopter was flying over Arrowhead during practice, and Mahomes launched a ball from the field completely out and over the top of the stadium. I believe there is video somewhere online.

no way he or anyone else could throw a ball 80 yards from knees. I call impossible on that one.

well, maybe uncle Rico

...........
There are some crazy Mahomes throwing videos online. Don't remember specifics or how legit they are.

craig44

could be like the brady video from this summer when he was playing catch with himself with the ball thrower. cool, but not legit.

countdouglas

Ok, I got the Mahomes legend a bit incorrect. I believe it occurred at his workout for scouts before the draft, but it was a throw of 65 yards from his knees, and 83 yards from a windup. I'm fairly sure there is video off these 2 feats, and not of the doctored kind. Regardless, he can legit wing it.

craig44

Jamarcus Russel could throw the ball a ton, but I hesitate to call him a quarterback

1948_Swell_Robinson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEMJk39km6c&t=13s

The blonde guy in this clip could throw it pretty far.

coinkat

Bobby Douglass was left handed and fearless... He was a runner and not afraid of contact or running over defenders. He was entertaining to watch. He was strong... I am just not sure how his arm would rate against others mentioned here.

One name I didn't see is Daryle Lamonica... He was the Oakland Raiders QB in the 1960s and perhaps into the early 1970s. I thought he had an arm... as good as some mentioned? I think so

Tabe

The strongest arm I can remember seeing would be Jeff George. In reality, though, the top 5 or 10 guys are all essentially equal in terms of strength. There's not much difference between Elway, Georga, JaMarcus, etc, in terms of pure arm strength.

streeter

I don't know about Mahonnes tossing the rock 80 yrds from his knees but Kyle Boller could kneel at the 50 in college and put the ball through the up rights. A clothesline.

When I was a freshman in 71, everyone was giving Bartkowski grief( about a lot of stuff, lol) while we were in the end zone and he swung his arm around a few times and one bounced into the other endzone. Complete silence. Had to be at least 80yds in the air. At 20-30 yards, you could not catch Bart with just your hands.

2dueces

Don’t remember Douglas but George was probably right up there. Josh Allen was drafted to throw through the swirling winds of Rich Stadium. Pretty darn impressive

Tabe

@streeter said:
I don't know about Mahomes tossing the rock 80 yrds from his knees but Kyle Boller could kneel at the 50 in college and put the ball through the up rights. A clothesline.

When I was a freshman in 71, everyone was giving Bartkowski grief( about a lot of stuff, lol) while we were in the end zone and he swung his arm around a few times and one bounced into the other endzone. Complete silence. Had to be at least 80yds in the air. At 20-30 yards, you could not catch Bart with just your hands.

When I was coaching high school football, we were having a day at the end of the season just fooling around - kicking contests, long-distance throwing, etc. We had a freshman - not even a quarterback - throw a ball 65 yards on the fly. It was highly impressive. We knew he had an arm before that and had him throw some halfback passes for touchdowns. Why halfback passes? "I don't wanna learn all the stuff to be a quarterback, coach". LOL, kids. That kid was an amazing athlete. Could throw 80+ as a freshman pitcher. Hit .500 playing varsity as a freshman - and once hit a ball 450ft in batting practice. Averaged 20+ as a freshman in basketball. He was just a big goof- super nice, fun to be around.

Hydrant

Uncle Rico. "See that mountain over there?"

LandrysFedora

I have to go with John Elway. I have yet to see someone throw the dangerous cross field pass as good as he did with accuracy and raw power. Not many qb's can get away with throwing those passes like he did.

LandrysFedora

https://youtu.be/TgprV3u_t9M

coolstanley

They didn't call him the blonde bomber for nothing.

perkdog

@coolstanley said:
They didn't call him the blonde bomber for nothing.

Bobby Layne was the original Blond Bomber, I never knew Bradshaw was given that name as well.