The 10 Best Rams Quarterbacks of All Time, Ranked

The Los Angeles Rams are one of the NFL‘s oldest franchises, originally based in Cleveland before relocating in 1946.

The winners of two Super Bowls and two NFL Championships (prior to the 1970 merger), the Rams have been a reasonably successful franchise.

Paramount to that has been consistently impressive quarterback play, from Bob Waterfield to now-Super Bowl champion Matthew Stafford — and the many in between.

Here are Heavy’s picks for the 10 best Rams quarterbacks of all time:

10. Vince Ferragamo (1977-1980; 1982-1984)

Vince Ferragamo went from benchwarmer to Super Bowl starter in the space of just a few games, when he had to replace an injured Rams QB Pat Haden for the final five games of the 1979 season, having spent the prior two years of his young NFL career as a backup. In his first starts as a pro, Ferragamo played very impressively, going 4-1 in the regular season before coming to the brink of handing them a true Cinderella story against the dynastic Pittsburgh Steelers, who they ultimately lost to in the 1980 Super Bowl. Ferragamo followed this up with a nice second season in 1980, going 11-4 and throwing for 30 touchdowns, although after briefly leaving the NFL and the Rams to try his hand in the Canadian Football League, he was never quite the same player.

9. Pat Haden (1976-1981)

Ferragamo’s predecessor, who gets the nod ahead of his successor here by a whisker. Originally a third stringer, Pat Haden came in mid-way through the 1976 season and impressed en route to going 5-1-1. In fact, even with a strong showing and an NFC Championship appearance, the Rams decided to bring in an aged Joe Namath as their starter in 1977, whom Haden took over from once Namath realized his body had little left. Despite only starting 60 total games in his career, he led the Rams to the conference championships on 2 different occasions, the second occurring in 1978 against the Dallas Cowboys.

8. Marc Bulger (2001-2009)

One of the many great underdog stories in Rams history, Marc Bulger went from a sixth pick stranded on the practice squad to starting in seven straight seasons in the NFL. A good QB who collected multiple Pro Bowls and put up strong individual numbers, Bulger was never able to overcome a franchise that was at the time in heavy dysfunction, playing under four coaches in seven years. As a result, Bulger never won a playoff game, despite posting 0.500 or better records as a starter in four of his seven years playing.

7. Jared Goff (2016-2020)

After what was a historically bad start in the National Football League — going 0-7 with 5 touchdowns and 7 picks — the Rams scrapped head coach Jeff Fisher for offensive wonderkid Sean McVay. Under McVay, Jared Goff turned into a Pro Bowl caliber QB, reaching the 2018 Super Bowl, which he lost in a defensive (snoozefest) battle to the New England Patriots, 13-3. But successive seasons of good, but not elite, play convinced the Rams brass to take a swing at the stronger armed veteran Matthew Stafford in a trade that sent Goff to the Detroit Lions.

6. Jim Everett (1986-1993)

Jim Everett’s final few years at the Rams do not do a proper service to his initial fast start. Everett pushed the Rams into the playoffs in three out of his first four years at the team — and almost into the Super Bowl in 1989. Sadly, despite keeping strong performances — such as a 1990 Pro Bowl appearance — Everett was unable to bring the Rams back to the postseason, with his final four years in LA all ending as losing ones. A big, prototypical quarterback who ultimately never quite got to the place he desired, Everett still had a good career in Los Angeles and is without doubt one of their top all time QBs.

5. Norm Van Brocklin (1949-1957)

The winner of the Rams’ second NFL Championships in 1951, Van Brocklin is best known for holding onto the record for most passing yards in a game — an incredible 554 in that ’51 championship winning year. Van Brocklin spent the majority of his storied career with the Rams, obtaining six Pro Bowls and three second-team All Pro nods in his nine years in Los Angeles — generating both team and individual successes during his spell at the Rams.

4. Bob Waterfield (1945-1952)

Waterfield split the snaps with the man who would prove to be his future successor, Norm Van Brocklin, en route to winning the 1951 NFL Championship. The Hall of Fame QB spent his entire 8-year career with the Rams and was appointed to an All-Pro team in five of them, in addition to receiving the NFL MVP in 1945. One of the original pioneers of the game, Waterfield was an athletic, impressive competitor who helped generate sparkling initial success upon the Rams franchise.

3. Roman Gabriel (1962-1972)

Former MVP Roman Gabriel did close to nothing in the playoffs during his 11-year run, reaching the postseason twice and collecting an 0-2 career record in it. However, this does not tell the entire story: only contributing from the bench for his first four seasons, Gabriel finally managed to scoop the starting job in 1966, after which he led the Rams to six consecutive winning seasons. In the modern era, Gabriel would have likely had a crack at generating more playoff success, but at the time only four teams moved on from the regular to the postseason. Regardless, Gabriel is unquestionably one of the greatest Rams quarterbacks — indeed Rams, period — whose dual-threat capabilities and improvisational skill helped LA become one of the consistently best franchises in football in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

2. Matthew Stafford (2021-Present)

The first of two Super Bowl winners — it was always going to come down to these players at the end of the list. Matthew Stafford’s career with the Rams has actually been somewhat mediocre outside of the the 2021 Super Bowl victory, although much of that comes down to injuries that have haunted the team for the past three seasons. The decisive, large-armed Georgia quarterback finally fulfilled his promising talent when he moved from Detroit to LA, and came ultra close to going on a second playoff run in 2023 only to be closely beaten by, ironically, the Lions. Stafford’s best days are probably behind him, but his composure and professionalism in continuing to play well and persevere in the face of a challenging past three years has earned him the respect of the entire organization and more, and for the elusive second Lombardi Trophy he delivered in 2021, he gets No. 2 on this list.

1. Kurt Warner (1998-2003)

The true underdog story, so much so that they even made a film about it. Kurt Warner, coming undrafted out of college, had to try his hand in the arena football league and NFL Europe before being signed by head coach and GM Dick Vermeil. After an injury to incumbent starter Trent Green, Warner shocked the NFL world by going 13-3 and picking up an NFL MVP in 1999 for an offensive that was so powerful it was given its own nickname — the “Greatest Show on Turf” — winning the 2000 Super Bowl. Warner went on to win a second MVP in 2001, but the Rams were defeated by the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots in the 2002 Super Bowl through a last-minute Adam Vinatieri field goal. Although Warner’s final two years in St. Louis did not go as he would have wanted them to, Warner put up the single best seasons of any Rams QB, ever, and thus is the No. 1 pick on this list.

The list isn’t over yet! See our pick for Number 11 HERE. Sound off to let us know who we missed!

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