The Brady debate against Rodgers

<p class = "canvas-atom-text-canvas Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "When you say that someone is the most In the history of their sport, what you probably want to say is that they are the best of their generation, changes in the rules / strategy / size of the league / pool of players / equipment / etc .. make the real comparison between Mike Trout and Ted Williams or Michael Jordan difficult. "Bill Russell – Even Jordan vs. LeBron James, the best sports argument of the decade, is more thorny than his fighters would like to admit: it's been "only" 20 years since MJ broke Bryon Russell's ankle, but Jordan's NBA would be unrecognizable to James and vice versa.

It's with this reserve of paragraph length that I say it's not controversial to call Tom Brady the greatest player in NFL history. We will never know how Brady could have managed in the world of Johnny Unitas or Joe Montana. What we do know is that he dominated his era as no one has done in 99 years of football in the NFL. No quarterback has started more than Super Bowl winners.

Brady carved a figure in Mount Rushmore, a football field at the crossroads of two eras. Titles 1 to 3 have arrived in the final days of the race / stop the NFL race. In Brady's first six seasons, he has only ridden 3,800 yards once and has never thrown more than 28 touchdowns. 3,800 yards would have been 11th in the league in 2017.

But while passers-by and bearers of less than 60% had become rarities instead of being commonplace, Brady was revived at the age of Peyton Mannings and Drew Breeses. The arrival of Randy Moss in 2007 was the major enthusiasm of Brady 2.0. Since then, Brady has won his three most valuable player awards, holding the season one touch record for six years and exceeding 4,000 yards in 8 of his 9 complete campaigns. ("Full" in this case excludes the damage to Brady in 2008 and the abbreviated suspension in 2016.)

Which brings us to Brady's opponent this week in the Sunday Night Football: Aaron Rodgers (Packers at Patriots, Sunday at 8:20 pm ET; watch on NBC and the NBC Sports app). While Brady's career has long been marked by the Brady / Manning debate, Brady / Rodgers has generated far less chatter. It's partly because they played face to face once. Rodgers was a replacement in 2006 and injured in 2010. When the two men finally faced each other in 2014, the Rodgers Packers narrowly won at Lambeau Field. "Data-reactid =" 11 "> When you say that someone is the greatest player in the history of what you probably want to say is that they are the best of their generation. Changes in the rules / strategy / size of the league / pool of players / equipment / etc. make the real comparison between Mike Trout and Ted Williams, or Michael Jordan with Bill Russell, Jordan versus LeBron difficult James, the quintessential sporting argument of the decade, is more thorny than his fighters would like to admit: it's been "only" 20 years since MJ broke Bryon Russell's ankle, but Jordan's NBA would be unrecognizable for James and vice versa.

It's with this reserve of paragraph length that I say it's not controversial to call Tom Brady the greatest player in NFL history. We will never know how Brady could have managed in the world of Johnny Unitas or Joe Montana. What we do know is that he dominated his era as no one has done in 99 years of football in the NFL. No quarterback has started more than Super Bowl winners.

Brady carved a figure in Mount Rushmore, a football field at the crossroads of two eras. Titles 1 to 3 have arrived in the final days of the race / stop the NFL race. In Brady's first six seasons, he has only ridden 3,800 yards once and has never thrown more than 28 touchdowns. 3,800 yards would have been 11th in the league in 2017.

But while passers-by and bearers of less than 60% had become rarities instead of being commonplace, Brady was revived at the age of Peyton Mannings and Drew Breeses. The arrival of Randy Moss in 2007 was the major enthusiasm of Brady 2.0. Since then, Brady has won his three most valuable player awards, holding the season one touch record for six years and exceeding 4,000 yards in 8 of his 9 complete campaigns. ("Full" in this case excludes the damage to Brady in 2008 and the abbreviated suspension in 2016.)

Which brings us to Brady's opponent this week in the Sunday Night Football: Aaron Rodgers (Packers at Patriots, Sunday at 8:20 pm ET; watch on NBC and the NBC Sports app). While Brady's career has long been marked by the Brady / Manning debate, Brady / Rodgers has generated far less chatter. It's partly because they played face to face once. Rodgers was a replacement in 2006 and injured in 2010. When the two men finally faced each other in 2014, the Rodgers Packgers narrowly won at Lambeau Field.

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Once again, in the midst of the tangled reality of comparisons between eras, I think that "Tom Brady" is the most satisfying answer to the imperfect question of "the best player of all time". "data-reactid =" 17 ">Once again, in the midst of the tangled reality of comparisons between eras, I think that "Tom Brady" is the most satisfying answer to the imperfect question of "the best player of all time".

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "So I'm going to ask something different: Is Brady the best quarterback since the arrival of Aaron Rodgers? It's where it gets gnarled. If your only criteria are the championships, Brady beat Rodgers. The Patriots have competed in four Super Bowls since Rodgers started in 2008, winning two wins. Rodgers' Packers played only one league game, beating the Steelers in 2010-11. "data-reactid =" 19 ">So I'm going to ask something different: Is Brady the best quarterback since the arrival of Aaron Rodgers? It's where it gets gnarled. If your only criteria are the championships, Brady beat Rodgers. The Patriots have competed in four Super Bowls since Rodgers started in 2008, winning two wins. Rodgers' Packers played only one league game, beating the Steelers in 2010-11.

Box scores are where Rodgers states his case. We are going to throw 2008 because Rodgers was a rookie and Brady was put away with a torn ACL. Since 2009, Rodgers has advanced an argument based on numbers that no other quarterback can match. By limiting the list to 16 callers who have made at least 100 departures since 2009, Rodgers has published really staggering statistics. Drew Brees leads the overall scores, but the Rodgers touchdown percentage of 6.5 is 0.6 on the others. Russell Wilson is second at 5.9. Brady is fourth with 5.6. This is despite the fact that Rodgers' 1.42 intercept percentage is the lowest in the group. As a result, Rodgers not only touched the number of ground touchdowns at a faster pace than his peers, but was also eliminated the least. Combining prolific production with such balloon security is unprecedented.

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Since 2009, Rodgers is also leading the pack with 105.2 points. Brady's 100.7 is third. Yards by attempt? Rodgers leads to 7.94. Brady's 7.69 is sixth. Rodgers has the third highest completion percentage at 65.14, Brady's 64.75 is sixth. Brady has the advantage in yards per game at 283.2 compared to 273.8 for Rodgers, although neither was close to 309.9 led by Brees. As a reminder, this is one of the quarterbacks to make at least 100 starts since 2009, the second season of Rodgers instead of Brett Favre and the first full year of Brady with Rodgers as a competitor. In graph form: "data-reactid =" 23 ">Since 2009, Rodgers is also leading the pack with 105.2 points. Brady's 100.7 is third. Yards by attempt? Rodgers leads to 7.94. Brady's 7.69 is sixth. Rodgers has the third highest completion percentage at 65.14, Brady's 64.75 is sixth. Brady has the advantage in yards per game at 283.2 compared to 273.8 for Rodgers, although neither was close to 309.9 led by Brees. As a reminder, this is one of the quarterbacks to make at least 100 starts since 2009, the second season of Rodgers instead of Brett Favre and the first full year of Brady with Rodgers as a competitor. In graph form:

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