High school football: Every state's greatest quarterback

Trey Lance, Trevor Lawrence, Mac Jones, Zach Wilson are rookie quarterbacks in the NFL who could someday be considered among the best quarterbacks from their respective states.

Lance is from Marshall (Minn.), while Lawrence is from Cartersville (Ga.), Jones is from Bolles (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Wilson is from Corner Canyon (Draper, Utah). In order to be considered among the best in their respective states, they'll have to beat out the likes of Steve Walsh (Minnesota), Fran Tarkenton (Georgia), Daunte Culpepper (Florida) and Jim McMahon (Utah). Those are the four quarterbacks MaxPreps has chosen as the greatest NFL quarterbacks from those four states.

The rest of the list includes many of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, including Joe Montana from Pennsylvania, Tom Brady from California and Drew Brees from Texas.

There are no hard and fast rules and choosing the greatest NFL quarterback. The selections are somewhat subjective based on career yardage, career passer rating and championships won.



The only rules for the list are that the quarterback had to play high school football in the state and he had to play at least one year in the NFL. As a result, there were no qualifying quarterbacks from Alaska, Delaware, Maine, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Greatest NFL quarterback from each state

Alabama — Bart Starr
High School: Lanier (Montgomery)
Career Yards: 24,718
Career Rating: 80.5
Super Bowls/NFL Champion: 5

Arizona — Danny White
High School: Westwood (Mesa)
Career Yards: 21,959
Career Rating: 81.7
Super Bowls: 1

Arkansas — Brandon Allen
High School: Fayetteville
Career Yards: 1,440
Career Rating: 76.9

California — Tom Brady
High School: Serra (San Mateo)
Career Yards: 79,204
Career Rating: 97.3
Super Bowls: 7

Colorado — Bill Musgrave
High School: Grand Junction
Career Yards: 402
Career Rating: 71.0
Super Bowls: 1

Connecticut — Steve Young
High School: Greenwich
Career Yards: 33,124
Career Rating: 96.8
Super Bowls: 3



District of Columbia — Byron Leftwich
High School: Woodson
Career Yards: 10,532
Career Rating: 78.9

Florida — Daunte Culpepper
High School: Vanguard (Ocala)
Career Yards: 24,153
Career Rating: 87.8

Georgia — Fran Tarkenton
High School: Athens, now Clarke Central (Athens)
Career Yards: 47,003
Career Rating: 80.4

Hawaii — Marcus Mariota
High School: St. Louis (Honolulu)
Career Yards: 13,433
Career Rating: 89.5

Idaho — Jake Plummer
High School: Capital (Boise)
Career Yards: 29,253
Career Rating: 74.6

Illinois — Otto Graham
High School: Waukegan
Career Yards: 23,584
Career Rating: 86.6
NFL/AAFC Champion: 7



Indiana — Jeff George
High School: Warren Central (Indianapolis)
Career Yards: 27,602
Career Rating: 80.4

Iowa — Kurt Warner
High School: Regis Catholic (Des Moines)
Career Yards: 32,344
Career Rating: 93.7
Super Bowls: 1

Kansas — John Hadl
High School: Lawrence
Career Yards: 33,503
Career Rating: 67.4
AFL Championship: 1

Kentucky — Phil Simms
High School: Southern (Louisville)
Career Yards: 33,462
Career Rating: 78.5
Super Bowls: 2

Louisiana — Peyton Manning
High School: Newman (New Orleans)
Career Yards: 71,940
Career Rating: 96.5
Super Bowls: 2

Maryland — Dwayne Haskins
High School: Bullis (Potomac)
Career Yards: 2,804
Career Rating: 74.4



Massachusetts — Matt Hasselbeck
High School: Xaverian Brothers (Westwood)
Career Yards: 36,638
Career Rating: 82.4

Michigan — Kirk Cousins
High School: Holland Christian (Holland)
Career Yards: 28,372
Career Rating: 97.9

Minnesota — Steve Walsh
High School: Cretin-Derham Hall (St. Paul)
Career Yards: 7,875
Career Rating: 66.4

Mississippi — Brett Favre
High School: Hancock (Kiln)
Career Yards: 71,838
Career Rating: 86.0
Super Bowls: 1

Missouri — Trent Green
High School: Vianney (Kirkwood)
Career Yards: 28,475
Career Rating: 86.0

Montana — Brock Osweiler
High School: Flathead (Kalispell)
Career Yards: 7,418
Career Rating: 78.0
Super Bowls: 1



Nebraska — Sam Vacanti
High School: Omaha Tech
Career Yards: 2,338
Career Rating: 43.5

Nevada — David Humm
High School: Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas)
Career Yards: 753
Career Rating: 46.3
Super Bowls: 2

New Hampshire — Greg Landry
High School: Nashua
Career Yards: 16,052
Career Rating: 72.9

New Jersey — Joe Flacco
High School: Audubon
Career Yards: 40,931
Career Rating: 84.1
Super Bowls: 1

New Mexico — Jim Everett
High School: Eldorado (Albuquerque)
Career Yards: 34,837
Career Rating: 78.6

New York — Sid Luckman
High School: Erasmus Hall (Brooklyn)
Career Yards: 14,686
Career Rating: 75.0
NFL Championship: 4



North Carolina — Sonny Jurgensen
High School: New Hanover (Wilmington)
Career Yards: 32,224
Career Rating: 82.6
NFL Championship: 1

North Dakota — Carson Wentz
High School: Century (Bismarck)
Career Yards: 16,811
Career Rating: 89.2

Ohio — Ben Roethlisberger
High School: Findlay
Career Yards: 60,348
Career Rating: 94.0
Super Bowls: 2

Oklahoma — Troy Aikman
High School: Henryetta
Career Yards: 32,942
Career Rating: 81.6
Super Bowls: 3

Oregon — Neil Lomax
High School: Lake Oswego
Career Yards: 22,771
Career Rating: 82.7

Pennsylvania — Joe Montana
High School: Ringgold (Monongahela)
Career Yards: 40,551
Career Rating: 92.3
Super Bowls: 4

Rhode Island — Don Panciera
High School: La Salle Academy (Providence, R.I.)
Career Yards: 1,350
Career Rating: 36.0



South Carolina — Mason Rudolph
High School: Northwestern (Rock Hill)
Career Yards: 2,089
Career Rating: 82.7

South Dakota — Neil Graff
High School: Lincoln (Sioux Falls)
Career Yards: 288
Career Rating: 58.3

Tennessee — Chad Pennington
High School: Webb (Knoxville)
Career Yards: 17,823
Career Rating: 90.1

Texas — Drew Brees
High School: Westlake (Austin)
Career Yards: 80,358
Career Rating: 98.7
Super Bowls: 1

Utah — Jim McMahon
High School: Roy
Career Yards: 18,148
Career Rating: 78.2
Super Bowls: 1

Virginia — Russell Wilson
High School: Collegiate (Richmond)
Career Yards: 33,946
Career Rating: 101.7
Super Bowls: 1



Washington — Mark Rypien
High School: Shadle Park (Spokane)
Career Yards: 18,473
Career Rating: 78.9
Super Bowls: 1

Wisconsin — Tony Romo
High School: Burlington
Career Yards: 34,183
Career Rating: 97.1