Name: All The Ways That Tom Brady Is Football’s GOAT
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All The Ways That Tom Brady Is Football’s GOAT

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After Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, we in the pantheon of all-time quarterbacks. Ultimately, we concluded that he was, at worst, the QB co- alongside Peyton Manning (in the regular season) and Joe Montana (in the playoffs).That was in February 2015. All Brady has done since then is 31,050 more yards and 219 more touchdowns, and win 83 more games — 70 and 13 — along the way to and … including both of the last two in by his Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the Kansas City Chiefs. Those six seasons alone would be better than almost any other quarterback’s entire career, but for Brady they represent less than a third of his total resume.As the NFL’s all-time leader in , , and , Brady has long since erased any doubt that at football’s most important position. All we can do now is rattle off the many different dimensions by which Brady is, in fact, the best ever. For instance, he is the career leader in total QB value over replacement (based on our representing the number of yards a QB generated relative to an undrafted backup), beating Manning and Drew Brees. He’s also the career playoff leader, topping Montana:All GamesPlayoffs OnlyQuarterbackYearsValueQuarterbackYearsValueBrady2000-2025,218Brady2001-203,432Manning1998-1523,979Montana1981-942,313Brees2001-2023,326Manning1999-152,273Favre1991-1020,611Bradshaw1972-821,840Marino1983-9919,404Favre1993-091,645Rodgers2005-2015,972Rodgers2009-201,621Elway1983-9815,647Young1987-981,567Roethlisberger2004-2015,643Elway1983-981,546Montana1979-9415,465Brees2004-201,461Young1985-9914,502Warner1999-091,430And we’re just scratching the surface of the entire scope of Brady’s GOAT stats. As part of that second leaderboard, he is the king of Super Bowls in particular. Among all-time QBs in the big game’s history, nobody has produced more value over replacement in a Super Bowl career than Brady:Adjusted Stats*QuarterbackYearsGamesYPGANY/AValueBest PerformanceBrady2001-2010325.07.9883.10168 (2003)Montana1981-894326.912.1613.20213 (1989)Bradshaw1974-794340.413.9484.80193 (1978)Staubach1971-784274.49.7428.70180 (1978)Warner1999-083448.110.1399.00183 (2008)Elway1986-985241.46.6280.80116 (1986)Manning2006-154278.86.8270.00106 (2009)Aikman1992-953249.59.7238.70152 (1992)Tarkenton1973-763280.45.7199.70131 (1973)Roethlisberger2005-103234.66.1191.20112 (2010)Some of that owes to sheer volume, since Brady has (ten!) Super Bowls, spanning 20 seasons. A few others on the list — namely Montana, Terry Bradshaw and Kurt Warner — have had better per-game or per-play Super Bowl performances than Brady after we adjust for schedule and era. But in addition to the career record, Brady owns the seventh-best title-game performance ever — for his eye-popping numbers — and three of the 11 best ever. In other words, Brady hasn’t been a mere Super Bowl “,” even though he might also be the only player in history you could even accuse of being such a thing.Speaking of adjusting for the dreaded “compilers,” let’s say we want to modify each QB’s total career value by mixing in his peak performance as well, in the manner of (which averages together a player’s career value with the total from his best seven seasons). Brady also comes out as the best ever in that regard — since his peak value was only marginally behind Manning’s tally from their respective top seven seasons:ValueQuarterbackYearsCareer TotalPeak 7 YearsJAWS1Tom Brady2000-2025,21811,51618,3672Peyton Manning1998-1523,97912,40618,1923Drew Brees2001-2023,32610,93317,1294Brett Favre1991-1020,6119,95015,2815Dan Marino1983-9919,40410,80615,1056Aaron Rodgers2005-2015,97210,53513,2537Joe Montana1979-9415,46510,50012,9828Steve Young1985-9914,50211,16912,8359John Elway1983-9815,6478,75112,19910Fran Tarkenton1966-7814,4259,13211,778In terms of literal peak value — who was the absolute best in their very best season? — Brady also has that covered. His , which saw him set a new single-season record for touchdown passes (aided by the ) and lead one of the in football history, ranks as the most valuable quarterbacking campaign of the Super Bowl era according to QB value over replacement:Adjusted Stats*QuarterbackYearTeamYPGTDIntANY/AValue1Brady2007NE338.57379.572,2782Marino1984MIA364.664159.672,1383Manning2013DEN336.067118.762,0474Young1994SF261.64998.882,0055Manning2003IND331.857109.111,9566Brees2011NO363.956148.261,9547Young1992SF275.43979.311,9338Manning2006IND312.149118.421,8889Young1993SF302.544168.761,84910Brady2011NE344.052138.461,847And as my colleague Ty Schalter pointed out in our , each chronological half of Brady’s career has been Hall of Fame-worthy . Both the early-career and late-career versions of Brady made at least six Pro Bowls, one All-Pro first team and five Super Bowls, with three wins coming in the first half of his career and four wins in the second. If we split Brady into two separate careers, the first half would rank 17th in total value over replacement since 1966, and the second half would rank 12th.In other words, Brady’s career is hiding not one but two of the top 20 quarterbacks in modern history inside of it! That’s also true if we split his career up by even- and odd-numbered seasons — “Even-Year Brady” would be the 17th-most valuable QB of the Super Bowl era, while “Odd-Year Brady” would rank 12th:Split ChronologicallySplit Even/OddQuarterbackValueQuarterbackValue1Peyton Manning23,979Peyton Manning23,9792Drew Brees23,326Drew Brees23,3263Brett Favre20,611Brett Favre20,6114Dan Marino19,404Dan Marino19,4045Aaron Rodgers15,972Aaron Rodgers15,9726John Elway15,647John Elway15,6477Ben Roethlisberger15,643Ben Roethlisberger15,6438Joe Montana15,465Joe Montana15,4659Steve Young14,502Steve Young14,50210Fran Tarkenton14,425Fran Tarkenton14,42511Philip Rivers14,348Philip Rivers14,34812Brady — 2nd half13,420Brady — odd years13,41213Warren Moon13,393Warren Moon13,39314Matt Ryan13,367Matt Ryan13,36715Dan Fouts13,236Dan Fouts13,23616Ken Anderson12,173Ken Anderson12,17317Brady — 1st half11,798Brady — even years11,80618Eli Manning11,480Eli Manning11,48019Donovan McNabb11,404Donovan McNabb11,40420Terry Bradshaw11,029Terry Bradshaw11,029Of course, Brady wouldn’t be in the position to make those lists twice without we once thought was unavoidable for older quarterbacks. Before he came along, few QBs had ever even been functional after turning 40, much less great. And none was a starter at all by 43, Brady’s current age. Yet Brady has ignored all of that history, setting new single-season QB value records for quarterbacks at ages 40, 41, 42 and 43. In fact, with an , he was better at 43 than he’d been at either age 41 or 42:Age 40Age 41QuarterbackYearValueQuarterbackYearValueTom Brady20171,434Tom Brady20181,296Brett Favre20091,306Warren Moon19971,032Drew Brees2019950Drew Brees2020835Sonny Jurgensen1974517Vinny Testaverde2004684Vinny Testaverde2003477Doug Flutie2003394Age 42Age 43QuarterbackYearValueQuarterbackYearValueTom Brady2019855Tom Brady20201,372Warren Moon1998325George Blanda1970233Doug Flutie2004134Vinny Testaverde200614Vinny Testaverde200564Warren Moon19991George Blanda196916Doug Flutie2005-4Maybe the scariest thing of all is that Brady isn’t done yet. “I’m coming back,” when asked about his future plans on Sunday. “You better believe it.” With the Bucs at bringing back most of their championship core for a repeat bid, Brady should get the chance to add even more to his history-defying numbers … not that he needs it in order to become the GOAT — a ship that sailed a long time ago.Neil Paine is a senior writer for FiveThirtyEight.Filed underYou are now subscribed!Email AddressSign me up

After Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, we in the pantheon of all-time quarterbacks. Ultimately, we concluded that he was, at worst, the QB co- alongside Peyton Manning (in the regular season) and Joe Montana (in the playoffs).That was in February 2015. All Brady has done since then is 31,050 more yards and 219 more touchdowns, and win 83 more games — 70 and 13 — along the way to and … including both of the last two in by his Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the Kansas City Chiefs. Those six seasons alone would be better than almost any other quarterback’s entire career,...

All The Ways That Tom Brady Is Football’s GOAT

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