(November 9, 2015 at 1:13 am)SteelCurtain Wrote: The New Englanders have clearly fully assimilated you into the hive mind, Tibs.
"Twommy is da bess qwatuhback evah played da game, bah nun!"
He is definitely top 5. For sure. On some days I'd put him top 3 all time. But one thing is indisputable, Peyton is better at reading defenses. He invented the art. Tom Brady is better than Peyton in a lot of ways, especially now, especially in big games. But nobody is more cerebral in dismantling defenses than Peyton.
Hey, I was a fan of Brady well before I moved out here, and the guy has more than earned his place at or near the top. He was ranked the 2nd best QB in 2014 by NFL players (behind Aaron Rodgers, who seems to have imploded in recent games), so you can put him in your personal top 5 or top 3 if you like, but it just doesn't do him justice.
Considering the guy has 4 Super Bowl wins out of 6 appearances (Peyton has 1 win out of 3 appearances), and the fact that 3 of those wins happened within his first 4 years as a starting QB. Then there's his perfect season, something no other QB has ever done since the 16 game season was implemented. Oh yeah, and not only did he manage to win last year's Super Bowl, but this season is so far one of the best, if not the best he's ever had. All that, and you still rank him in the "top five"?
Manning on the other hand, historically performs terribly in the post season. You can't fairly judge "best of all time" quarterbacks if you ignore the post season, because what the NFL season is ultimately all about is the Super Bowl. You could get a QB with ideal stats, wins in seasonal games, record yardage, etc. but if they fail to perform in the post season, people will always see something "missing". The best quarterbacks perform well in both seasonal games and the post season, something which Brady does.
If you want to compare Manning vs Brady stats, then by all means, but they don't show a pretty picture either. As of 6th November 2015, Manning has 537 touchdowns and 245 interceptions, which means for every touchdown he threw, he threw 0.456 interceptions. Brady has 412 touchdowns and 144 interceptions, meaning for every touchdown he threw, he threw 0.349 interceptions. That's a pretty big difference, and if Manning was as good as reading defenses as much as you say he is, why so many interceptions? Unless you can think of a better statistic which demonstrates Manning's superiority in defense reads? Brady also has a better win/loss record (.773 vs .699 for Manning) which again, you'd expect from a QB who can read defenses better.
Manning is a great player, don't get me wrong, and he may have invented the art of reading defenses, but Brady took it to another level.
