What's more important:

[Hemlepp53]

Many have made a comments about the eras of Bills greatness that started me thinking. In each there was a great coach and a great quarterback.

It would be nice to have both but what if you could have only one?

Is it more important to have a great coach or a great quarterback?

[Hemlepp53]

I go with Coach. A Great Coach can draft a Great QB.. Great QB can't disappear under a Dick Type Coach...

[psubills62]

A great coach, without a doubt. You think Matt Cassel is as good as he looked last year?

There's one or two QB's every generation that can make any team or coach look good (Brady, Manning), but great coaches can build teams even without amazing QB's. That plus a great coach can help develop average QB's into good QB's.

[SABURZFAN]

i'll take a great coach EVERY day. several teams have won Super Bowls who had QB's that were not great.

[elltrain22]

A great coach can make a good qb great, and a great coach can make an average qb good. Don't worry though, b/c as long as Ralph is alive, that'll never happen here w/ us.

[BoyILuvLoznStupidly]

great coach

[Philagape]

All other things equal, the guy who's on the field handling the ball is the only one who directly affects the outcome. A coach can't control that.
You can come up with the most brilliant game plan ever, be the greatest teacher ever, the greatest motivator ever ... it all means nothing until it's put on the scoreboard, and only the players do that.

[Demon]

Coach. For the reasons many already said and Josh McDaniels is making Kyle Orton look like Tom Brady.... that's just not right.

[cookie G]

A great coach.

A great coach would never tolerate a QB refusing to look at receivers when they're open and repeatedly ignore golden opportunities.

Parcells, Shula, Walsh and Belichick would never tolerate that crap.

[Night Train]

In the current era of Free Agency with high roster turnover every season, coaching has never been more important.

I see Shawn Hill starting in SanFran while a former #1 overall pick rides the bench. Across the Bay , another #1 overall pick continues to show why devoting top picks to QB's fail more often than not.

You want to win ? Draft IN THE LINES FIRST ! Find a smart Vet QB who can manage a game and get the ball to playmakers. This is why I shake my head at the " Which QB will we draft in Round 1 Next Year " threads . I'd throw up if we did that. The bust factor is far too great and it cripple$ your team$ future.

[TacklingDummy]

Without a great quarterback there is no such thing as a great coach.

[Dozerdog]

I would rather have Bill Belichick than Tom Brady. He turned a QB who never started a game in college into a first round pick

[Buddo]

I think in this day and age, you have to go with the coach. Times change, and while in the past it could seem as though the great QB made the team, I would say from the Walsh 49ers era onwards, coaches have been increasingly a factor.

[ChristopherWalken]

I think in terms of value, a great QB will get you far - see Payton Manning, Matt Hasselbeck, Brett Favre and Drew Brees.

But there are more great coaches out there than QBS and you still need a great system implemented in order to excel.

I guess if I had to choose one I would vote coach.

As long as I've been a professional football fan you need a solid balanced combination of the following:

GM -> Head Coach -> QB

That gets you off to a hell of a start. The pieces seem to just fall into place after that.

[Mahdi]

Many have made a comments about the eras of Bills greatness that started me thinking. In each there was a great coach and a great quarterback.

It would be nice to have both but what if you could have only one?

Is it more important to have a great coach or a great quarterback?
Manning, Elway, Brady, Montana, Brees would all be successful no matter who the coach is...

However I cant say that Gruden would win with any QB, or that Holmgren would win with any QB or that Andy Reid would win with any QB.

A great QB puts points on the board, the game is about scoring more points than the other team.

Dungy couldn't win the SB with King as good as his defense was... he got it done with Manning though.

[TacklingDummy]

I would rather have Bill Belichick than Tom Brady. He turned a QB who never started a game in college into a first round pick
What happened in Cleveland?

Without a doubt a great QB is more important.

Levy: Kelly
Walsh: Montana/Young
Dungy: Tampa good coach, Indy great coach,why? Manning.
Belicheck: Clevelnd bum, New England, Brady.
Noll: Bradshaw
Holgrem: Favre
Cowher didn't win anything until Ben.
Coughlin: Manning
Reid: McNabb
Revees: Elway
Shula: Marino
Vermeil didn't win crap until Warner
Shananhan: Elway

[madness]

Brad Childress or Farve and Peterson? Did Jeff Fisher have a lobotomy this year?

[justasportsfan]

What happened in Cleveland?

Without a doubt a great QB is more important.

Levy: Kelly
Walsh: Montana/Young
Dungy: Tampa good coach, Indy great coach,why? Manning.
Belicheck: Clevelnd bum, New England, Brady.
Noll: Bradshaw
Holgrem: Favre
Cowher didn't win anything until Ben.
Coughlin: Manning
Reid: McNabb
Revees: Elway
Shula: Marino
Vermeil didn't win crap until Warner
Shananhan: Elway

NO, Eli would've continued to stink if we drafted him. The giants beat the patriots with Brady and it wasn't because of QB performance but great gameplan by the coach of the giants, Coughlin.

The steelers won inspite of BEn in his first sb. Ben would've sucked here if we drafted him instead of JP.

The bills got their arse owned by a team with Hostetler at qb vs. Kelly
The bills got their arse handed to them with a qb named Rypien vs. Kelly


Don't look now but the Broncos are 5-0 with a qb named Orton, a nobody before he got there.

Cassel, isn't he struggling now without McDaniels?

Dilfer won a sb.

Brad Johnson won a sb.

Like I said, talent can only take you so far. Without the right people calling the plays, talent means nothing.

The list you posted just proves that coaching and talent go hand in hand.

[Michael82]

You need a great Quarterback before even a great coach can do anything to get the team to the playoffs and beyond.

[Philagape]

How many rings would Belichick have now if Bledsoe had never gotten hurt? Zero.

[yordad]

Did you mean to ask....

"What makes a QB good, a coach, or the QB?"

[Ingtar33]

this is a coach talking... but.

I'd say a great QB is more important then a great coach.

[ddaryl]

great coach IMO

I've witnessed sub par QB's win superbowls a few times, but not every great QB makes it to a SB or wins them....

coaching trumps QB's easily in this debate

[TacklingDummy]

I've witnessed sub par QB's win superbowls a few times, but not every great QB makes it to a SB or wins them....

There's always an exception.

The past 48 starting QB's in the Super bowl were drafted in...

Round 1: 26
Round 2: 3
Round 3: 5
Round 4: 1
Round 5: 1
Round 6: 7
Round 7: 0
Round 8: 0
Round 9: 1
UDF: 4

[justasportsfan]

How many rings would Belichick have now if Bledsoe had never gotten hurt? Zero.

You mean Brady was already a great qb? Was Cassel a bonafied qb before Brady went down?

[justasportsfan]

You need a great Quarterback before even a great coach can do anything to get the team to the playoffs and beyond.
sometimes it takes a coach to make a great qb out of nothing. See Brady and Eli.

[Buddo]

sometimes it takes a coach to make a great qb out of nothing. See Brady and Eli.

This is also very true of Montana and Steve Young with Bill Walsh.
Parcells got the job done against us with Hostetler. :(
In respect of someone who mentioned Marino and Shula earlier, Marino didn't win a SB, although Shula did.

A point I was trying to make earlier, is that times have changed considerably.
The 'golden era' for QBs has passed by (80s to 90's) and systems have also changed considerably.
Nighttrain also makes a valid point about the FA era. QBs do not get the same amount of time to 'develop' as they used to. The onus is on the 'now' for the most part. This is also true for all other positions, and as a consequence, the good coach will succeed far sooner than the good QB.

[bflojohn]

It's interesting that points can be made for BOTH sides in the argument! Maybe this one depends on the relative strengths of both teams at that critical moment where a championship is won/lost! Essentially, it is the chicken and the egg dilemma considering the range of good answers.

[BuffaloBlitz83]

I rather have a good coach and great QB

over

a great coach and good QB

[TacklingDummy]

It's interesting that points can be made for BOTH sides in the argument! Maybe this one depends on the relative strengths of both teams at that critical moment where a championship is won/lost! Essentially, it is the chicken and the egg dilemma considering the range of good answers.
The thing is though we can give many examples of a coach who is considered great that had a great QB then that coach went somewhere else where he didn't have the great QB and he wasn't so great.

I think it's safe to say that great QB's like Kelly, Brady, Marino, Elway, Montana, Farve, Young, etc...helped make their coach look great.