Brady vs. Manning, who is #1? Rings and stats considered
Tale of the Tape.
By Jonas Joseph
Comment Contributor
One of the most talked about debates in not only football, but sports in general, is who is the better quarterback: Tom Brady or Peyton Manning.
Trying to advocate for one or the other is futile. It’s almost similar to economic ideologies. You’ll never see a socialist convince a capitalist that an equal distribution of of wealth is the key to an equal and content society.
This debate will rage on even after both quarterbacks have retired. Something us fans need to realize is that no matter who your personal favorite is, it does not affect the positive impact that both men have had on the game of football.
When people hear about the Brady vs. Manning debate, they instantly think about who has more rings, which does hold some weight to a certain extent. Both men men have won a combined total of four Super Bowls: Brady has three and Manning has one.
It is not that simple to insinuate that Brady is better than Manning, because Terry Bradshaw has four rings compared to Brady’s three. I am sure we can all agree that Brady is better than Bradshaw. Brady has an average quarterback rating of 95.0 compared to Bradshaw’s 70.0. Also, Brady has thrown for for twice as many yards in his career than Bradshaw: 50,851 to 27,989.
Pardon the digression from the main argument, an emphasis had to be placed on the point I had to make, which was: Super Bowl rings do hold a large amount of weight in a debate between who is a better player, but a player’s stats is vastly underrated. Most people forget that football is a team sport, and a quarterback can only control a football game to a certain extent.
When it comes to pure stats, Manning beats Brady by a nose hair, as painful as that was to say. Someone bring me some soap so I can wash my mouth out from the blasphemy that is about to spew out from my mouth.
Manning has 510 touchdown passes compared to Brady’s 372, and has the slight edge in completion percentage: 65.5% to Brady’s 63.4%. Manning also has 66,812 passing yards compared to Brady’s 50,854. Things do not get any better for the stats argument for Brady when it comes to TD passes per game: 2.07 for Manning to Brady’s 1.86. Peyton Manning also has more game winning drives than Brady: 51 to Brady’s 42.
Alright, I am done belittling Tom Terrific, I just had to make a point for Manning, who is easily written off as being one of the best quarterbacks to play the game by Patriots fans, such as myself. To be fair, Manning has been in the league for two more years than Brady, and has played 46 more games than Brady.
Not to mention, Manning has had the benefit of having better weapons than Brady and for far longer. Manning has played with the likes of Reggie Wayne, Marvin Harrison, and now Demaryius Thomas, Wes Welker, and Emmanuel Sanders, among others.
Brady has worked with far less talent and has been able to make receivers such as Welker, and Branch. For someone who has had better weapons for most of his career, it is surprising that Manning has only one Super Bowl victory to show for it.
It is also important to point out that the Denver Broncos offense was loaded when they played the Seattle Seahawks defense, which destroyed the “best offense in the league” as Welker prematurely stated during the 43-8 blowout loss.
In the end, its more applicable to state that Manning is the best regular season quarterback of all time, while Brady is the best post-season quarterback of all time. It also comes down to personal taste: you either like Coke (Manning) or Pepsi (Brady).
Regardless of my opinion, this will be a back and forth race between the two offensive juggernauts. At the end of the day both will go down as two of the best to ever touch a football, and both will certainly be First Ballot Hall of Famers.
