The 10 most underrated quarterbacks in NFL history

5. Jim Hart

In retrospect, this looks like a big miss for me when I formed the Mount Rushmore for the Cardinals. From 1967-1980 Hart started 168 games, with nine seasons in the top-10 of the league in passing yards. He also finished top-10 in pass attempts nine times in that span, with eight top-10 finishes in completions as well.

In 1974, Hart earned the first of four straight Pro Bowl nods and won NFC Offensive Player of the Year as the Cardinals made the playoffs for the first time since 1948. From 1974-1976, the middle years of Don Coryell’s tenure as head coach, the Cardinals won double-digit games each season with a 31-11 combined regular season record. In 1974 and 1976, in an early rendition of the “Air Coryell”, offense, Hart finished first and third in the league in pass attempts.

When he retired after the 1984 season with the Washington Redskins, Hart was third all-time in passing yards (34,665), behind only Fran Tarkenton and Johnny Unitas. He’s still 30th on that list today. And yet he’s not in the Hall of Fame, surely due to spending his career with the generally dismal Cardinals and an 87-88-5 overall record as their starter.

Another black mark on Hart is a 209:247 career touchdown-to-interception ratio, with more touchdowns than picks just three times in a season where he played a notable amount. But he’s still criminally underrated for what he did during the era he played, and in the broad annals of NFL quarterbacking.