Quick google of best qb's of 80's had Bernie 8th, i know not how we think trusting a website, but that seems about right to me. I am not saying Bernie wasnt good, he as, but he wasnt great, stats are decent but not over the top, and he is barely in the top 10 in his own decade and that is hard to argue
I think who/what Bernie was gets lost in the numbers sometimes.
@CBBI
If you're going to rank best QB's of a decade, it's likely that how much they played during that decade is going to affect the rankings. Bernie started 10 games in 1985, and wasn't a full time starter until 1986. Then he only played 21 out of a possible 32 regular season games in 87-88 and 88-89 because of injuries. Out of 160 games total games in the decade, Bernie only started 63.
Bernie's peak was short due to injuries that not only limited his games played, but affected his ability to move and thrown the ball well. I think that really gets overlooked by those who act like he was just a "meh" QB hyped by old guys yelling at kids to get off their lawn.
To really get a sense of what he was for Cleveland, you have to look at his first few years when he was still a developing young QB, and how his career projected at that time to understand that he was seen, at that time, as one of the future truly great QB's. especially because he came out younger than most QB's, with 2 seasons of eligibility remaining.
He started 10 games in '85 -- QB rating of 69.3.
He started all 16 in '86 -- QB rating jumped up to 83.8. He went a stretch of 171 passes without throwing a single interception.
In 1987,
at the age of 24, he posted a blistering QB rating of 95.4. That was second in the entire league to Joe Montana (age 31).
Ahead of future Hall of Famers Dan Marino (26), John Elway (27), Warren Moon (31), Jim Kelly (27), and Dan Fouts (36). That's what Kosar was as the youngest starting QB in the entire league. Think about that for a second.
That's the guy older fans remember, and thinking about what he meant for our future. I have a very vivid memory of a Sports Illustrated cover from around that time with Kosar on the front, and the title was "Last of the Great Quarterbacks". Here's an article pre-season 1998 talking about how other, older QB's couldn't believe his accuracy. And again, he was the youngest starting QB in the league.
https://www.si.com/vault/1988/08/29...mind-has-opponents-of-the-browns-feeling-blue
But he suffered various injuries in 1998, and only played in 9 games. And he was never really fully healthy after that even though he played more seasons. He played banged up, and actually wore a piece of rubber on his hand during parts of the 1989 season to help his had stabilize the ball:
He had limped slowly off the field as someone else's celebration began. The small piece of rubber that had been taped to the base of the index finger on Bernie Kosar's right hand was no longer necessary to help him try to throw a football.
Kosar walked alone at the end of another Cleveland Browns season, a 37-21 loss to the Denver Broncos, Cleveland's third in an American Conference championship game since Kosar brought his skills and his promise to the team in 1985.
Back then, the only qualities that made Kosar seem old beyond his years were his maturity and his knowledge of the game. But this afternoon, as Kosar picked himself up after being tackled for a loss with 46 seconds to play and a spot in Super Bowl XXIV out of reach, as he slowly left the field at Mile High Stadium, as he exited beneath a yellow sign that said ''Bernie Who?'' Kosar appeared much older than 25....
...Kosar acknowledged that he had been forced to experiment with different ways of throwing the ball in the latter weeks of the season. He had been limited to no more than two-thirds of practice time with the first unit after suffering an elbow injury in the 10th week of the season.
A week ago, in the playoff victory over Buffalo, his problems became more complicated when his index finger collided with the front of an opponent's shoulder pad. On Wednesday, Bill Tessendorf, the Browns' head trainer, taped a small piece of rubber to the base of his index finger to create some stability. ''It was just to give some support to the ligament, which was partially, I guess, torn,'' Kosar said. Beneath the piece of rubber designed to protect his finger, there was a separate piece of rubber to protect a bruise on his wrist.
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/15/sports/a-painful-ending-for-kosar.html
Anyway, just thought Bernie sometimes gets short-shrift among fans who weren't watching the Browns back then. At 24...dude looked like a for-real Hall of Fame talent.
