He has been on some amazing teams filled with all above average players. When did Brady break all these records? When he got some really good receivers. Of all those records he broke, most were other peoples and not some great record he set earlier.
The problem with this is that you can say this about virtually all quarterbacks that hold or held significant passing records. Nobody just BREAKS A RECORD. It's always this great situation where a quality quarterback meets quality receivers within a well-run offense.
What's significant about Brady is that he has ALWAYS been a top-notch quarterback, even when his supporting offensive cast was pretty dreadful. Before Maroney, Welker, and Moss showed up, Brady endured this revolving door of only marginal talent beyond the offensive line and one very good year of Corey Dillon. Apart from Troy Brown, who really only had one outstanding year, Tom Brady really has not had a go-to guy, or any one dependable star player to rely on within the passing game. He ended up using guys like Deion Branch, David Givens, David Patten, etc who actually weren't quality players beyond what Tom Brady managed to get out of them. Seeing how generally useless they were without Tom Brady is testament to that. The running backs and receivers of the 2003 Patriots team were PARTICULARLY AWFUL, and it's pretty hard to imagine them winning the superbowl with such a wretched team.
So yeah, it's clear that the records came from an unusually good supporting cast, but Brady's career is based on MANY seasons where it truly was the Tom Brady show.
Do you think Brady is better than Peyton? Peyton only has a .500 winning percentage in the playoffs and yet he's regarded as a very quarterback too. Peyton doesn't have nearly as good a team.
I don't think Brady is better. I
know Brady is better.
The major reason why Manning's playoff record is only .500 is because the guy was infamous for choking in big games. You go down his playoff career and you'll see a lot of pretty sad performances where his inability to get anything done was the reason why the team failed to do anything in the playoffs. Games like this are literally non-existent for Brady, and he's played quite a few more playoff games than Manning has. Apart from today, Brady has never really had a disaster game in the playoffs. Even his two previous losses were pretty solid performances.
Plus, don't act like Peyton Manning was doing this all by himself, or he had some dreadful team behind him. Peyton has ALWAYS had Marvin Harrison. He had Edgerrin James for the better part of 7 years, and Joseph Addai for two. Reggie Wayne ended up becoming a quality pro-bowl receiver. They call Dallas Clark a tight end, but the guy moves like a wide receiver. These guys were clearly better with Peyton Manning, but each of these guys are unquestionably talented football players that would be good on any NFL team. My point is that there was always this really solid, established supporting cast around Peyton Manning. Maybe the team as a whole wasn't quite as good, but there have always been a definitively higher standard of offensive players around Peyton Manning, and until this year, there really wasn't much question of that.
Yet,
Peyton Manning Career Passer Rating: 94.7
Tom Brady Career Passer Rating: 92.9
I really don't see where Peyton Manning has the edge in any facet of his game over Tom Brady. Doesn't have the numbers edge, doesn't have the playoff success, and has always had at least two fucking incredible offensive players to directly boost his stats. Manning is lucky he squeezed by the Patriots last year and beat the MIGHTY BEARS, or you wouldn't even be able to say his name in the same sentence as Brady.
I won't make dumb speculation about if Peyton were on the Patriots or something like that but I do think Brady's record could be challenged by Peyton with a few of the teams holes fixed and a superstar receiver.
When you have a reciever that accumulates 146 catches, and 1722 yards in a season, you have a superstar. Period.
Beyond that, I honestly don't see how A BETTER DEFENSE would have helped Peyton Manning, which is all you can really say because the Colts have had the most explosive offense in the NFL for years.
Look at Manning's playoff record, particularly his early playoff appearances. Manning has been a part of some fantastic playoff games, but he's also been a part of some genuinely pathetic fuckups that were honestly HIS FAULT. Keep in mind that he had great go-to receivers at this time, as well as great running backs to rely on. Most of these years, he had an offensive line that most thought was on-par with that of New England, if not better. Brady always had a great line, but he has stayed fuckup free for YEARS without consistently superior offensive talent.
If the difference between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady were just HIS TEAM, which you have asserted here, then Peyton Manning wouldn't have fucked up so damn much with a SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER OFFENSE.
I'm not trying to sell him short, but there is this Myth that he's the reason the patriots are so good.
Yes he is not
the only reason, but Tom Brady is unquestionably one of the most consistent playoff athletes in the history of professional sports.
The numbers don't lie. The only other player I've seen with playoff numbers like that was Joe Montana, and he was a guy who got to play with Jerry Rice for a really long time.
Brady has been on some fantastic teams, but just being on a fantastic team isn't enough. There are always fantastic teams. One of the major reasons why the Patriots are THE team is because Tom Brady has this absolutely unreal sense of composure and the ability to get things done on the football field, regardless of the circumstances or the opponent. Nobody's perfect, but he's really close.
I hate saying this because Tom Brady makes me absolutely sick. The man is fucking unreal, and if the remainder of his career is only half as good as the first half of it, Tom Brady will go down as the best quarterback that ever lived.
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