5 Best Quarterbacks in New York Giants History
The New York Giants are New Jersey's preeminent NFL franchise, and while the Jets joined them in East Rutherford in 1984, most remember MetLife Stadium as formerly Giants Stadium.
They are also the more successful New Jersey franchise, with two iconic Super Bowl wins in 2008 and 2012, both as underdogs against Tom Brady's Patriots, in addition to their 1987 and 1991 Super Bowl rings in the Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor era.
On each successful Giants team, there was a great quarterback to go along with it. Here's our attempt at ranking the five best Giants quarterbacks in franchise history.
5. Jeff Hostetler (1985-1991)
Hostetler wasn't really known for his on-paper stats as much as his peers on this list, but rather his franchise-saving, career-defining performance in place of the injured Simms from Week 15 of 1990 to Super Bowl XXV in 1991.
Hostetler, who worked his way to the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame after a record-breaking performance as a Mountaineer, was always a backup or third-string quarterback behind Simms and Jeff Rutledge.
When destiny called, however, Hostetler answered, just a week after making the private decision to retire at the end of the 1991 season. When Simms broke his ankle in Week 15, Hostetler led the Giants to two more wins to secure a first-round bye, then led the Giants to a 31-3 win over the Bears in the NFC divisional playoff and battled through a knee injury to engineer a comeback against the 49ers.
In Super Bowl XXV, the career backup threw for 222 yards and a touchdown in what was later ranked the 30th-best quarterback performance in Super Bowl history by ESPN.
4. Y.A. Tittle (1961-1964)
Tittle's Giants tenure was short compared to his peers, but none the worse. Yelberton Abraham Tittle, better known as Y.A., came to New York from LSU and immediately made an impact.
Unfortunately, an NFL championship was the one thing Tittle left New York without accomplishing, as the Giants lost three straight NFL championship games with Tittle behind center from 1961 to 1963. His 1963 season, however, was an all-time great one, and his 36 touchdowns are still a single-season record for the Giants.
While the Giants went 2-10-1 in 1964, Tittle was the subject of an iconic photo that season, one where he knelt, bloodied and without his helmet after a hard hit, an enduring image that illustrated the brutal reality of the game of football.
Today in 1964, New York Giants' Y.A. Tittle on the field after taking a hit during a game; giving us this iconic photo. #TodayInSportspic.twitter.com/s0nBXj4xkX
— TodayInSports (@TodayInSportsCo) September 20, 2018
3. Charlie Conerly (1948-1961)
The career of "Chuckin' Charlie" preceded the AFL-NFL merger, but some elder Giants fans might still remember the excellence of the Ole Miss grad, particularly in his rookie season.
Conerly threw for 2,175 passing yards and 22 touchdowns, each good for second-best in the NFL. The peak of his pre-merger career, however, came in 1956 when he led the Giants to a blowout 47-7 win over the Chicago Bears in the NFL championship at Yankee Stadium.
In addition to being a decorated World War II veteran, Conerly also started for the Giants in the "Greatest Game Ever Played," the 1958 sudden-death NFL championship game against Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts.
2. Phil Simms (1979-1993)
Simms put his footprint all over the legacy of the Giants franchise and overcame tremendous media scrutiny as a 1979 first-round pick out of Morehead State to become an all-time great.
Simms spent each of his 15 seasons in New York, and led the Giants to their first Super Bowl win, at Super Bowl XXI in 1987. He threw for 268 yards and three touchdowns on an unbelievable 88% completion rate. His all-time performance set records for accuracy and passer rating (150.9) as he ran away with Super Bowl MVP.
It's not out of the question that Simms would have led the Giants to the 1991 Super Bowl had he not broke his foot, and while Hostetler carried them to the finish line, it was Simms that put them in that position to begin with.
1. Eli Manning (2004-2019)
Manning is not only the most decorated quarterback in Giants history, but he's also the author of the franchise's two most iconic moments and the franchise's all-time iron-man.
Making a franchise-record 248 starts (regular and postseason) over 15 years, Manning finished his career with a franchise record 57,023 passing yards and 366 passing touchdowns. His career-defining moments, though, were also franchise-defining, as he led the Giants to two underdog runs in the 2007 and 2011 playoffs, triumphing over some all-time great Patriots teams.
In 2007, Manning shepherded the Giants to a magical win over the previously-undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, helped enormously by David Tyree's iconic "Helmet Catch" which Manning set up by escaping a collapsed pocket in the final minute. Following the catch, Manning found Plaxico Burress for a lobbed touchdown to put the Giants up by three with 36 seconds to go, in an all-time comeback that won him Super Bowl MVP.
Manning did it again to his old foe in 2011, winning Super Bowl MVP in a 21-17 win over Brady once more, throwing for 290 yards, including a game-winning 88-yard drive in the final minutes to deliver cruel deja vu to the NFL's indomitable GOAT.
While the latter half of his career is marked by some arguable inconsistency, Manning was always a class act and an all-time representative of New York in a challenging market, and his No. 10 was proudly retired by the Giants after he stepped away from the game.
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This story was originally published June 21, 2026 at 2:19 PM.