Denver columnists: Brady is not a top 10 quarterback
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| Photo from Cold Hard Facts |
Kiz: Peyton Manning or Tom Brady? Who you got? The debate has raged for more than a dozen years, and will continue to eternity and beyond. Long before Manning joined the Broncos, I thought he was better than Brady. Super Bowl victories are cooler than Brady's Uggs or his supermodel wife. But 513 TD passes tells me no pro quarterback has sustained greatness longer than Manning.
Hooch: Well, before I jump in to the specific, here's my measure of greatness: Take Manning and Brady in their prime, right now, regardless. Ask 100 current NFL coaches, coordinators and assistants who they'd rather have as their quarterback. I'm betting that the majority would take Peyton F. Manning. OK, now that I got it out of my system, let's talk about the 513 (and counting) versus the three (and, hopefully for Broncos Country, not "and counting"). I don't like it either, but in our world, NFL QB greatness is linked to the Super Bowl. It's frighteningly binary (with the exception of a Trent Dilfer or a Brad Johnson) — either a dude's a Super Bowl winner, and he's great, or he's a Super Bowl loser, and he can't achieve true greatness.
Kiz: Here's betting that Manning would trade at least 100 TD passes for another championship ring. But if football is the ultimate team game, then why has measuring the greatness of a quarterback become so tied to winning the Super Bowl? Brady was named the MVP of Super Bowl XXXVI. His stats? 145 yards passing and one TD. That's the definition of greatness?
Kiz: To watch the 38-year-old Manning stupefy a defensive back by dropping a seeing-eye pass in the hands of Demaryius Thomas only confirms what I've suspected for years: Manning is among the five greatest QBs to play the game. Yes, he is even better than Broncos legend John Elway. Brady might be the best-looking QB ever, but he's not among the top 10 QBs in NFL history.
Ok, where to start with this? Brady and Manning are both great quarterbacks and future Hall of Famers. Only a fool would deny that, but to say Brady is not top-10 is ridiculous.
Let's start with Brady's numbers: 4,392-6,920 (63.5 %) for 51,541 yards (good for 5th all-time), 381 touchdowns (good for 4th all time) according to Cold Hard Facts. He's also got 3 Super Bowls, 5 Super Bowl appearances, and an 18-7 postseason record. I will acknowledge that (especially in the case of Peyton Manning) Super Bowls aren't always a measure of greatness, so they're right on that case. And Peyton's been around longer than Brady,so I'm sure if Brady played the same amount as Peyton, the numbers would even out somewhat. According to Cold Hard Facts, Peyton Manning has played 46 more games (almost 3 seasons) and thrown almost 2,000 more passes than Brady. There's also the matter of indoors/outdoors, which Brady also has an edge in.
Here's the numbers, per Cold Hard Facts:
Brady in a dome: 67.4%, 8.64 YPA, 6.9% TD, 2.62% INT, 106.42 rating
Manning in a dome: 66.16%, 7.8 YPA, 6.1% TD, 2.4% INT, 99.72 rating
Brady outdoors: 63.15%, 7.35 YPA, 5.39% TD, 1.93% INT, 95.28 rating
Manning outdoors: 64.97%, 7.62 YPA, 5.66% TD, 2.63% INT, 95.83 rating
I could keep going on and on with the numbers, but this article is long enough. Peyton's got the gaudy numbers, but I'm sure if you surveyed 100 coaches about who they want on their team, it would be pretty evenly split between Brady and Manning - these columnists are wrong on that front. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are both top-10 quarterbacks, and the numbers are there to back it up. Just like my loyalty to the Patriots makes me partial towards Brady, I'm sure these columnists' loyalty to the Broncos makes them partial towards Peyton, but to say Brady isn't top-10 all time is nuts. The numbers don't lie, folks.
