Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady: A Look Inside the Numbers

Also working against Manning was the fact that he started playing on a team who's defense ranked 29th in 1998 where as the Patriots defense ranked sixth in 2001. Bottom line, Peyton did not get the same backing as Brady did coming into his career and despite that, he was more productive.

But the story does not end there.

I realize that there are many people out there who feel it is unfair to compare players who have played longer with players who have played less. I'm judging this comparison on who is the greater quarterback as of today.

I think a good example would be that I feel LaDainian Tomlinson to be "greater" than Adrian Peterson. Tomlinson has been far more productive for so many more years. Peterson would have to play another six seasons at his pace to be in the same discussion as Tomlinson. However, if your talking about who has played better this season, the winner would be Peterson.

Same is the case here with Manning and Brady. Peyton has played longer, but in doing so he has already left his mark of production, where as Brady still needs to do so. Something has to be said for being productive over a long period of time.

By that same token, Tom Brady has done far more statistically than Philip Rivers. Will Rivers reach that level after another few years? Maybe. But until he does, we must recognize that Brady has done more.

So, I will now look at the career statistics of both Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

Peyton Manning: 3,839-of-5,960 for 45,628 yards, 333 TD passes, 165 INT's, 309 rushing attempts, 717 rushing yards, 17 rushing TD's, 52 fumbles (17 lost), and was sacked 205 times.

Tom Brady: 2,301-for-3,653 for 26,446 yards, 197 TD passes, 86 INT's, 276 rushing attempts, 533 rushing yards, 5 rushing TD's, 65 fumbles (29 lost), and was sacked 203 times.

Tom Brady is 19,182 yards, 136 passing TD's, and 12 rushing TD's behind Manning at this point in time. Since he has played about four seasons less than Manning, this is what he'd need to average over his next four seasons in order to just equal Peyton's production.

4,796 yards, 34 touchdown passes, and 3 rushing touchdowns per year.

That's 1,018 yards, 6 touchdown passes, and 2.3 rushing touchdowns more per year than his current career averages. But since his career averages are quite high, that would be a nearly impossible feat to accomplish.

He certainly is on good pace to better Peyton's interception mark, but he's already fumbled 13 more times in seven seasons, than Peyton has in 11.

So to be fair, I've decided to look at sets of circumstances both players have been playing in during their careers, to shed some light on the statistics presented above.

In Brady's favor, he has played outdoors during his career, which many consider to be more difficult than throwing from the comfy confines of a dome in at least half of the games each year. I'd argue that a team such as the Patriots has a very powerful advantage playing in such elements, but that does not mean it is as easy to throw there as in a dome.

Another thing that I always thought was in Manning's favor, has actually helped Tom Brady more than it has Manning. With running backs like Marshall Faulk, Edgerrin James, and Joseph Addai playing with Peyton, I always simply assumed that Peyton had a better running game in place to balance the pass. But if you take a closer look, that is not the case.

From 1998-2008, the Colts as a team have averaged 1,684 rushing yards per year.

From 2001-2007, the Patriots as a team have averaged 1,767 rushing yards per year.

How can this be? Well, the Colts have usually focused on giving their star back the majority of the carries. Rarely have they had a backup running back with considerable talent (Dominic Rhodes being the exception).

The Patriots, on the other hand, focus more on spreading their carries around. This has kept their running backs more energized and with such a plethora of talented backs, they have managed to average more rushing yards as a team than the Colts.

What this means is that Tom Brady has actually had more support on the ground than Peyton Manning, believe it or not.

The next factor to look at would have to be the backing both players got on the other side of the ball. As stated before, Peyton began his career playing with a defense ranked 29th in the league and Brady began his career playing with a defense ranked sixth in the league.

Between 1998 and 2008, the Colts defense has ranked an average of 16th overall. Only four times in 11 seasons were they ranked in the top 10. That's only playing with a top 10 defense 36 percent of the time.

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