It's the question that leads to some heated debates. It's a question, that after hours of debating, seemingly goes unanswered.
It's also a very tricky question to answer, especially with both quarterbacks playing at an extremely high level in the twilight of their respective careers. On Sunday, they go head-to-head for the 16th time, with Tom Brady leading the series 10-5. Let's take a look at who has a better legacy thus far:
First of all, I want to make sure it's clear what the question is that I'm about to address: Who's legacy is better at this point, as of October 30, 2014. My definition of legacy is the following: What is the impact you had while playing and how will people look back on your career?
With that being said, to determine who's career has been better, I'm going to use the help of Peyton Manning's former coach and Hall of Fame teammate: Tony Dungy (currently with NBC as an analyst) and Marshall Faulk (currently with NFL Network as an analyst).
Tony Dungy was on the Dan Patrick show just three weeks ago and when asked about who's career he would want right now, he said, "I'd definitely want Tom Brady's career...Right now I'd definitely say Brady's in the lead"
Last year, in the midst of Peyton Manning's best season as a pro, Marshall Faulk was asked the question of who was better all-time. He replied, "As much as I love Peyton Manning and what he can do, I'm riding with Tom Brady." Many analysts around him were shocked he wasn't going with the homer pick in Peyton but he said he's just doing his job being an analyst.
These are two individuals with close ties to Peyton Manning and are now two of his biggest fans in the media. Yet providing an objective take, they both took Brady.
Contrary to many Tom Brady supporters, I don't believe the reason Brady is ahead of Manning is his Super Bowl rings. It certainly helps him, but that doesn't catapult him over. And Manning supporters always want to bring up Manning's supremacy in statistics, which I don't consider fair either, because it ignores many factors (i.e. playing in a dome for 11 years vs. Boston). The way to determine the legacy is a combination of everything. From supporting cast, regular season, postseason, super bowls, and stats. Factor in all of those things, and you get your answer. Let's take a look
Regular Season winning success
Tom Brady has been dominant in the regular season, and followed that with a stellar postseason. In the regular season, Tom Brady has never in his career posted less than nine wins in a season, and that only happened once in 2002. Aside from that, Brady has had double digit wins in every season, including an undefeated regular season in 2007.Manning has been just as impressive as Brady in regards to winning in the regular season. Unlike Brady though, Manning has had two seasons where his team posted losing records, his first as a rookie in 1998 when the team went 3-13, and the second in 2001 when he lead his team to 6-10. Aside from those two early hiccups, every season has been double digits for Manning.
Stats
When comparing career stats by the numbers between the two quarterbacks, it is actually pretty surprising how close it actually is, because it seems like Peyton Manning runs away with the numbers.But for Manning's career, he averages 271.7 yards per game versus Tom Brady's 254.8 yards per game. Those numbers come with Manning's attempts per game average being at 35.2 versus Tom Brady being at 34. With Tom Brady's 7.5 yards per attempt, if you add another attempt to match Manning's, Brady would be just 10 yards shy of Manning per game.
Peyton Manning's career touchdown percentage is at 5.7%, with Brady checking in at a 5.5% career touchdown percentage. Though Manning has the slightest edge over Brady in that, Brady has the edge with interceptions. Tom Brady has a career interception average of 2.0% while Manning is at 2.6%.
Peyton Manning's career quarterback rating stands at a 97.9 right now, while Brady is at a 96.4.
Both quarterbacks also have a plethora of astounding records, far too many to individually list each record Brady and Manning hold. A few significant ones include Manning holding the single season record for touchdown passes with 55, breaking Tom Brady's previous record of 50. Tom Brady holds the record for the highest winning percentage ever for any starting quarterback in NFL history, in which Peyton Manning checks in at third place behind Brady and Joe Montana.
Peyton Manning also has an NFL record FIVE regular season Most Valuable Player awards, to Tom Brady's two.
Tom Brady is the only player in NFL history to be a unanimous decision for MVP (2010), a season in which he set a record for pass attempts without an interception (335).
Again, each quarterback has plenty of records and statistics but in the big picture, Manning and Brady are fairly close in those categories.
*Note: Peyton Manning has the record for most touchdowns in a career and is second in passing yards all-time. However, when considering those marks, it is important to take into account that Tom Brady has played 46 fewer games than Manning as Manning started out from week 1 in 1998 and Tom Brady started his career in week 3 (against Manning) in 2001. If Brady's averages were to be added to his current career totals for 46 games, Brady would be a very close to Manning in career touchdowns (about 40 less) and passing yards (about 4,000 less).
Supporting Cast
Each player has had different advantages in supporting cast through the years. Peyton Manning has had an offensive arsenal that has been unmatched. He walked into the league with Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk taking handoffs from him and Future Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison catching his first NFL pass for a touchdown. After Faulk left, Manning gained Edgerrin James, who was 1st team All-Pro in 1999 and was the NFL rushing champion in 1999 and 2000. Through his career in Indianapolis, Manning had Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, and Dallas Clark, all consistently great. Peyton Manning definitely elevated the play of all of them, but Clark went on to being a productive player for Joe Flacco in Baltimore and Reggie Wayne is still making plays for Andrew Luck in Indy. When Manning switched over to the Denver Broncos, he embraced the arguably greatest arsenal off all time. He had/has Demaryius Thomas, who was the number one receiver for Tim Tebow and was making plays. He had Eric Decker, who was productive for Denver before and is now a number one receiver for the New York Jets. When Manning lost Decker, the Broncos gave him and upgrade in Emmanuel Sanders, who was a top receiving option is Pittsburgh before. As if all of that wasn't enough, Manning also has had Tom Brady's favorite target Wes Welker at his disposal for the past two years. In Indianapolis, Manning always had a stellar offensive line, but in Denver, he has had arguably the top pass protecting offensive line in the entire league.
With Tom Brady, he was winning super bowls early with the likes of David Patten, who was a journeyman receiver for SEVEN different teams. He also was throwing to Troy Brown, who has one Pro Bowl under his belt, as a special teamer. Brady had Deion Branch for three years before he left for Seattle after his Super Bowl MVP and was irrelevant up in the northwest until he came back to New England. His starting tight end was Jermaine Wiggins, who was more of a blocking tight end and really didn't strike fear in the hearts of too many defensive coordinators. In 2006, Brady was throwing to a cast that featured Reche Caldwell as his primary target and Troy Brown, Jabar Gaffney, and Doug Gabriel rounded out the rest. After 2006, Brady's arsenal vastly improved with the addition of Randy Moss and Wes Welker, and with those weapons, Brady showed he is fully capable of putting up the numbers if given the weapons as he threw for a then-NFL record 50 touchdowns. Brady only had Moss for two seasons, 2007 and 2009 as Moss was traded away in the 3rd week of 2010. That was the year Brady changed from a vertical offense to working the middle of the field with Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Starting in late 2011, Gronkowski's injuries started piling up and Brady took the Patriots to the Super Bowl that year with Gronk being not fully healthy. In 2012, Gronkowski only played the first 11 games before breaking his arm. 2013 was probably the most frustrating season for Tom Brady, in regards to his arsenal. To start the season he lost 84.1% of his receptions from the previous season with Gronkowski not coming back till week 6, Welker going to Denver, Hernandez going to jail, Danny Woodhead going to San Diego, and Brandon Llyod walking away. Defensively, the Patriots lost leaders like Vince Wilfork and Jerod Mayo within the first five weeks of the season, yet Brady carried them to the AFC Championship game throwing to Julian Edelman (a quarterback in college), where he fell short to Peyton Manning. In 2014, Brady faced a new challenge, losing his top offensive lineman Logan Mankins the week before the season and had a terrible offensive line for the start of the season. His receivers feature Edelman, Gronkowski, and Brandon LaFell, who has been buried on the Carolina Panthers depth chart up until this point.
The advantage Brady did have early in his career over Manning was much better defenses during his Super Bowl years. However Brady is also the only quarterback to take the 31st ranked defense to the Super Bowl in 2011, the lowest ranked defense to ever reach the grand stage. Also, Brady's stellar defenses are also a big reason why his stats are slightly edged out by Manning, because Brady played a ball control offense while Manning was forced to air it out. Another very key thing to keep in mind while comparing stats is that Manning played in a dome from 1998-2009, which is a lot easier conditions to throw the ball in compared to the northern inclement weather Brady starts to face in Boston from October till the end of the season. Also, ever since Brady has dealt with mediocre defenses since 2007, he has averaged 36 touchdowns a year compared to his 26 he was averaging early in his career when he had good defenses. In 2014, Manning is now playing with his all-time great offensive arsenal to go along a defense that is top 5 in the league.
So, Brady early on had the defense, while Manning had the offense so they were pretty equal. But lately, Brady hasn't had the defense and also has no where near Manning's offensive arsenal. So judging the bigger picture of the whole career, Manning has been blessed with the better cast.
Aside from the field, Brady has had the advantage over Manning when it comes to the sideline. Brady has played his entire career with one coach, Bill Belichick. Manning played with Jim Mora, Tony Dungy, Jim Caldwell and now John Fox. Though Belichick is considered one of the greatest ever, it isn't a monumental advantage. The biggest advantage for Brady is the consistency. But when it comes to coaching, Belichick was 36-44 before Brady. He truly tasted success with Brady so an argument could be made on who makes the other better, but that's for another day. What can't be denied is that Belichick is an all-time great and Brady has played with him his entire career, so on consistency alone, it is an advantage for Brady that Manning didn't have.
Playoffs
Here is where Brady's legacy starts to pull away from Manning. Winning is definitely a team effort, but it is undeniable that the quarterback position has a large part in the outcome of a football game. As the legendary Bill Parcells said, "Quarterbacks, like coaches, are judged by their jewelry." The problem with Manning's postseason narrative is that unlike the regular season success, supporting casts, or stats, it isn't even remotely close to Tom Brady's. It is actually nearly the opposite.Tom Brady has played three less seasons than Manning, yet Tom Brady has played in three more playoff games than him. Brady is 18-8 in the playoffs, giving him the most wins of any starting quarterback in NFL history. Peyton Manning has a losing record, 11-12, which gives the most losses by any quarterback in NFL history.
Peyton Manning has been one-and-done EIGHT times in his career. Tom Brady on the flip side has been one-and-done just twice and been in EIGHT conference championship games.
The playoffs are where the competition reaches the highest points, and Manning has put up some real stinkers, such as his 41-0 loss to the Jets in 2002 and his four interceptions agains the Patriots in 2003. Manning has also put on clinics, such as his game against Kansas City in 2003 divisional round, but the bad far outweighs the good for him in the bigger picture. For Brady, he has a couple of stinkers, such as a 33-14 loss to Baltimore in 2009, but his good, such as six touchdowns against Denver in 2011 and a perfect game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2007, outweighs the bad. In this category, Brady has a huge edge.
Super Bowls
The Super Bowl category also largely favors Brady over Peyton Manning.Brady has won three Super Bowls to Manning's one.
Brady's Super Bowl record is 3-2 to Manning being 1-2.
Brady is a two-time Super Bowl MVP to Manning's one.
Brady has two career interceptions in his five Super Bowl games. Manning has two interceptions returned for touchdowns in his three career games, and four interceptions total.
When you think of the first Super Bowl Tom Brady lost, the primary thing most people point to is the lucky helmet catch. In his second loss, a lot of people point to the Wes Welker drop. Brady is not brought up as the main culprit in either.
With Peyton Manning's two losses, the first one everybody points to Peyton Manning. Down by seven and driving, Manning threw an interception returned for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter. In his second Super Bowl, Manning's record breaking offense didn't put up a point against Seattle until the third quarter and ended up scoring a grand total of EIGHT points.
Even in the lone Super Bowl Manning won, through that postseason, he threw more interceptions (7) than touchdowns (3). In the Super Bowl, he went up against an inept Rex Grossman, who aided Manning in throwing as many touchdowns to the Colts as Manning did (1).
Conclusion
Brady and Manning are pretty equal when it comes to regular season success.
Statistically, Manning edges out Brady by a little bit.
Manning also has had the better supporting cast for the totality of his career. Early on Brady had the defense, while Manning had the offense. More recently, Brady hasn't had that much of a defense and his offense hasn't been surrounded by those kind of weapons either.
The playoffs and Super Bowl are not even close. Brady dominates in those two categories. He has been historically good, while Manning has almost been historically bad.
So in conclusion, Brady gets the edge in legacy so far. Again, that's in legacy. This is NOT an analysis which player plays the quarterback position at a higher level or is more accurate, etc. It is judging the entire picture. So as Tony Dungy said, Brady has had the better career so far. But another quote from Dungy in that same interview that is very important is, "your career is not over, until it's over." With that being said, Manning still has time to change this narrative, and is seemingly on the fast track to doing that. In fact, I was one to say that had Manning beat Seattle in the Super Bowl last year, he would have had a stronger legacy than Brady and his one less Super Bowl would be made up by his strong other areas. That win would have gave him a winning record in the playoffs and super bowls. However, it didn't happen.
Therefore, at this point, Tom Brady reigns over Peyton Manning as the quarterback with the stronger legacy and better career.
The 16th battle of the War of 1812 will take place Sunday November 2nd, 2014 at 3:25 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment