Tom Brady is the NFL’s greatest ever Quarterback

JUST who is the NFL’s greatest QB is an item of hot debate, but when you crunch the stats, there’s only one answer.

Tom Brady in action for the New England Patriots.

Tom Brady will play in his seventh Super Bowl two Monday’s from now in Houston, a record for any quarterback. He’ll be going for his fifth ring, which would be an NFL best.

Given Brady’s playoff dominance, declaring him the greatest playoff quarterback ever seems like an easy call, right? Consider the following stats:

1. Tom Brady has more playoff wins in his career (24) than all but six NFL franchises do in their existence. The second-highest QB on the wins list is Joe Montana, who has 16. That’s a gap of eight games. Only 13 other quarterbacks have even started that many playoff games. And if you add up the playoff wins of Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers, Cam Newton, Andrew Luck, Tony Romo and Carson Palmer, you still won’t get past Brady’s 24.

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2. Brady has also played more playoff games (34, including the Super Bowl) than any quarterback. Peyton Manning is next on the list with 27.

3. He has more playoff passes than Montana and Troy Aikman combined. He has more yards than John Elway and Drew Brees, combined. He has more passing touchdowns than Peyton Manning and Steve Young combined. On the flip, Brady does have the NFL record for playoff interceptions. But in what’s clearly a cosmic certainty that might ensure Brady never again throws a playoff INT, those 30 postseason picks tie him for No. 1 with Brett Favre. The Golden Boy only has the 13th-best QB rating however, putting him behind Alex Smith, Mark Sanchez, Ken Anderson, Tony Romo and Joe Thiesmann, among others.

4. Brady is fifth in all-time playoff winning percentage (among QBs who started more than 10 games). Bart Starr, Jim Plunkett, Terry Bradshaw and Troy Aikman have all done better. But Brady has fewer losses in his 33 starts (9) than Dan Marino had in 18 starts (10), Brett Favre had in 24 starts (11) and Peyton Manning had in 27 starts (13). Plunkett going 8-2 is nice, but it’s no 24-9. The only records that really compare are Bradshaw’s 14-5 and Aikman’s 11-4. But again is 14 wins in 19 starts better than 24 wins in 33? I don’t think so.

Tom Brady is a winner.

5. In 44 per cent of his years as starting quarterback, Brady has played in the Super Bowl (seven of 15 years). Among QBs with multiple Super Bowl starts, Russell Wilson is closest, with two Super Bowls in five seasons. Among quarterbacks with a career’s worth of experience, Bradshaw’s four starts in 13 years as a starter (30.8 per cent) is next closest.

6. I don’t know why, but I think this one impresses me most of all: Brady has played in 14 postseasons. Only twice have the Pats been one-and-done. Winning four championships is a sign of greatness and stability, but winning games in 12 of 14 playoff appearances shows a remarkable level of consistency that the NFL has never seen. Peyton Manning played in 15 NFL playoffs. He was out in his opening round in nine of those. NINE TIMES.

Brady is the playoff king.

7. In his 33 playoff games Brady has ...

... 11 games with 300-plus passing yards.

... 9 games with 3 or more touchdown passes.

... 29 games with a touchdown pass.

... 12 games with a QB rating of 100 or more.

... 6 games with more interceptions than touchdown passes.

With the exception of the QB rating stat, these Brady playoff numbers/milestones are pretty much in line with his career marks, suggesting he’s as effective in the postseason as he is during the regular season.

8. Regular season vs. postseason:

Record: 183-54 (. 772) vs. 24-9 (. 727)

Completion rate: 63.76% vs. 62.39%

Yards per game: 259 vs. 261

Passing TDs per game: 1.82 vs. 2.12

Interceptions per game: 0.641 vs. 0.909

QB rating: 97.2 vs. 88.7

Brady is a cut above as a QB.

By these metics, Brady has been considerably better in the regular season, but that doesn’t account for the fact that playoff opponents are inherently better than the average regular-season opponent. Racking up 6 TDs against the winless Titans isn’t the same as throwing for 6 TDs against the Colts in the AFC Championship game.

9. So it’s an easy answer: Brady is the best to ever play in the playoffs. You play the most, you win the most, you lead in all major statistical categories. Getting G.O.A.T. status hardly seems controversial. Playoff achievements are only a sliver of importance in deciding the all-time G.O.A.T., however. Football isn’t like golf or tennis, where you can reliably measure the individual by how many major tournaments he’s won. It’s not even like basketball, where one player has outsizes influence on the fortunes of a team.

Football statheads will tell you quarterback wins are almost as meaningless as pitcher wins in baseball. There are so many dependent factors — teammates, defence, coaching, opponents, PSI — that Brady, even playing the most important position in team sports, can only do so much. The hater will say New England is 14-6 without Brady, with those games started by players with no prior NFL experience. If Belichick can go 11-5 with Matt Cassel, does that devalue Tom Brady in any way?

How could it? Matt Cassel hasn’t won four Super Bowls, gone 24-9 in the playoffs and won four titles with a fifth possibly on the way. But the same way Brady can’t be penalised for playing for the greatest coach in history, his all-time reputation shouldn’t rest on it either.

Stats do the talking for the Patriots’ leader.

10. So who’s the best ever? If you had to pick one player to play one game, would it be Brady (knowing you can’t bring Belichick or Josh McDaniels or Charlie Weis with him)? Peyton? Favre? Marino? Unitas? It’s one of the never-ending debate that makes sports so fun. Numbers and statistical abundance are enough to make Tom Brady the playoff G.O.A.T. but his place in quarterbacking history will be defined by so much more. For my money, give me Peyton any day; maybe Unitas, Marino, Montana and Elway, too. Brady is up there, though, and those rings certainly count for something, just not everything.

Originally published as Tom Brady is the NFL’s greatest ever Quarterback