Tom Brady: 10 Reasons He Will Be Remembered As the Best QB Ever
Tom Brady unanimously won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award earlier today, the second of his career. He had earlier won the Offensive Player of the Year Award, and led the Patriots to a league-best 14-2 record. Brady is now one of a handful of quarterbacks to win the award more than once, joining a list of players generally considered to be the greatest in the game.
At 33, Brady seems to be in his prime, having two amazing seasons in 2007 and 2010. While he failed to win the Super Bowl those times, those cannot be put on Brady. He does have three Super Bowl wins of his own, and has been searching for his fourth.
Whether he gets that fourth or not, the legacy Brady has already carved for himself has him on the fast track to being the greatest quarterback of all time. While it's difficult to pinpoint one quarterback to actually consider the greatest, here are 10 reasons why it will be Brady.
10. Postseason Victories
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Postseason victories are not the best thing to look at for a good quarterback. After all, there are more postseason games and more teams then there used to be. Still, Tom Brady had 10 in a row to start off his career, a record which still stands.
In all, he has 14 postseason wins compared to five losses, and has proven that he'll bring his best game when it matters. You also cannot discount the three Super Bowl wins, which cemented his legacy as an all-time great.
9. QB Rating
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QB Rating may not be perfect, but it is a very good measure of how good a quarterback is. Brady's current rating is 95.2, slightly ahead of Peyton Manning and fifth all-time. The three active players above him—Aaron Rodgers, Tony Romo and Philip Rivers—still have many years left in their careers, so it's far too early to tell how great they'll be
Steve Young is the only retired player with a better rating than Brady, and actually proves that Brady is not done just yet. Young's best seasons came in his mid-30s, where Brady is getting to now. He still has time to surpass Young on this list.
8. MVP Awards
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Brady has won two MVP Awards. The other quarterbacks on this list are: Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Brett Favre, Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning. There's no question that Tom Brady belongs in a list with these greats.
Also, Brady's two wins were nearly unanimous; the only vote that didn't go to Brady came in 2007, when one of the 50 votes went to Brett Favre.
7. Passing Efficiency
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Tom Brady has proven himself to be one of the most efficient passers in the league. Granted, many active players have a high completion percentage and aren't necessarily great. Heck, Chad Pennington is the all-time leader with 66% of his passes completed.
Combine this with his low interception mark, however, and the stats show his greatness. In 2010, he had 36 touchdowns but only four interceptions, shattering the record of most passes thrown without a pick.
6. Won Without Much Talent
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Most of the greatest quarterbacks have fellow Hall of Famers they can point to who helped them out. Joe Montana and Steve Young had Jerry Rice, Peyton Manning had Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, Johnny Unitas had Raymond Berry and Terry Bradshaw had Lynn Swann and John Stallworth.
Who did Brady have? When he won the Super Bowl in 2001, he did it with Troy Brown and Antowain Smith. In 2003 his main target was Deion Branch, in 2004 it was David Givens, and in 2006 it was Reche Caldwell. Brown had a nice career in New England, but the other three were ineffective when they joined other teams.
5. Brady-Manning Matchups
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Each era has their big quarterback rivalries, and the Brady-Manning rivalry of the 2000s may have been the best. When the matchups between Brady and Manning are looked at, it's clear who was the superior quarterback.
To start, Brady has a 2-1 advantage in postseason meetings. In 16 career games against the Patriots, Manning is 6-10 and threw 23 interceptions in those games. In 12 games against Indianapolis, Brady is 8-4, and his performances are much better than Manning's.
The winner of this rivalry would arguably be the best QB right now, and Brady has the edge there.
4. TD Record
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If you want to see dominance in a season, there are two records to look at: most yards and most touchdown passes. Dan Marino's record of 5,084 yards in a season has not yet been broken, but his 48 touchdown performance was bested by Brady in 2007, who threw for 50.
I mentioned earlier that he won without much talent. Look what happened when he finally got playmakers at the wide receiver position; he set a touchdown pass record. He could have broken the passing yards record too had it not been for a weak performance late in the season against the New York Jets.
3. Still Has Plenty Of Time Left
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Peyton Manning showed with his performance this season that he has hit his peak, and his career is now on the downturn. Brett Favre showed that he is clearly done after a poor 2010. Tom Brady, meanwhile, had another outstanding season and is showing that he has plenty left in the tank.
Brady could easily have another five years left, and ironically is playing better than he did when he won the Super Bowls. If the Patriots can get a better defense in the next couple of years, he can easily lead the Patriots to another Super Bowl or two.
2. Game-Winning Drives
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Over his career, Tom Brady has orchestrated 32 game-winning drives, many of which were comebacks in the fourth quarter.seven of them came during the 2003 season, when Brady earned his second Super Bowl title and showed that he was a force in the league.
The most notable of the 32 are three game-winning drives which just happened to be in the Super Bowl. Yes, Adam Vinatieri made the kicks, but Brady got the team close enough so that it could happen.
1. He Makes Everyone Around Him Better
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Perhaps the other slides can be disputed in some form or another. That's the beauty of trying to decide the best, there's too many factors for one player to be the obvious selection. Having said that, if there's one thing that is indisputable, it's that Tom Brady not only makes his teammates better, but can make otherwise average players great.
What happened to Deion Branch, David Givens, Reche Caldwell and David Patten after they played for another team? They were completely ineffective, yet every player who joined the Patriots became great. Wes Welker in particular went from a solid number two option into an elite receiver under Brady.
The fact that tom Brady can take these receivers no other team wants and turn them into great talents proves that he will go down as the greatest quarterback of all time when it's all said and done.
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