When debating the value of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, people often
point to two seasons: New England Patriots’ 2008 season after Brady tore his ACL
and the Indianapolis Colts’ 2011 season after Manning’s four neck surgeries.
This is such a misused argument because people don’t refer to the situations.
Lets dig in!
First of all, Manning and Brady are two of the greatest quarterbacks to
ever play. Which one is better than the other is a debate for another day but I
personally have an extreme high level of respect for both. Now let’s examine:
People say that Manning is more valuable because without him, his team
went 2-14 and without Brady his team went 11-5. Thing is, it goes further than
that.
In the 2010 season, Manning’s last season in Indy, he took the Colts to
a 10-6 record and one–and-done in the playoffs in the Wild Card round to the
Mark Sanchez led Jets. In the 2011 season the Colts went 2-14. A lot of that
did have to do with Manning’s absence but also the front office and other parts
of the football team are responsible. First off, the front office. After news
broke Manning would be out for the season the Colts front office turned to a very
old journeyman quarterback in Kerry Collins who had no time to develop a
rapport with the receivers or learn the system. That is just not a very smart
move. Then there is the Colts defense. Out of the 16 games, 13 times they
allowed more than 20 points including an astonishing 62 points to Drew Brees on
Sunday Night Football. Overall, the defense allowed 26.9 points per game. From Manning’s 2010 season to the
embarrassing 2011 drubbing, the Colts had an 8 game drop-off due in part to
Manning’s absence, poor front office and horrendous defense.
On the flip side the New England Patriots went 16-0 the previous season
in 2007 with Tom Brady at the helm and had a lot of carryover into the 2008
season. Randy Moss still in his prime, Wes Welker, and a lot of that record-breaking
offense returned. The biggest factor that as different is that besides the
Patriots front office panicking, they stuck with the backup quarterback they
had in Matt Cassel, who was grooming under Brady and learning from him for
three years so he had a rapport with his receivers and knew the system. Aside
from that, the Patriots defense still had their core and leaders in Rodney
Harrison and Tedy Bruschi and that group only surrendered 19.3 points per game.
Therefore, that made Cassel’s job a lot easier. Even with all of that, the
Patriots did not win their division. But Cassel did have the beneficiary of
familiarity of the system and an excellent cast, a smart front office, and an
exceptional coach in Bill Belichick. However he could not pull off the key wins Brady probably would have. Overall, the Patriots drop-off was a 5
game drop-off, not too far away from the 8 games Indy suffered.
Another way to see this is that the 2012 Kansas City Chiefs were 2-14,
the same as the Colts in 2011. However in 2013 through 9 games, they are 9-0
and most likely will total more than the 10 wins that the Colts had in 2010
with Manning. This is after they found their franchise quarterback in Alex
Smith, so does that make Smith a better quarterback than Manning because he
took his 2-14 further than Manning did? ABSOLUTELY NOT. This just shows that
with Kansas City’s strong defense and masterful coaching from Andy Reid, things
are just falling together.
This argument is not a Brady vs. Manning argument. I just wanted
everybody to think more about the situations regarding the teams when you bring
up which quarterback is more valuable to his team. Truth is, neither the Colts
nor the Patriots would have tasted the success they did through the decade
without #12 and #18.
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