Now who's better? Manning or Brady?

[KGs Knee]

In all seriousness though, I've always looked at the discussion as such.  Manning is the more physically talented QB, but Brady is right there with him.  And although Manning is a supreme student of the game, Brady is just a little more there between the ears.

Really, it's a toss-up to me.  Brady gets the edge (at this point, convincingly) due to post-season accomplishments.

[byennie]

If Brady can play another 3-4 seasons while Peyton plays 1 or 2 (or none), there will be no argument because Brady will close the gap on statistical marks.

Brady already leads in QB rating, but roughly trails in TDs (400 to 300) and yards (55k to 40k). He throws fewer INTs and about the same yards per attempt. In today's game, 15k yards and 100 TDs is only about 3 seasons of work!

Which leads me to the next point. Brees and then Rodgers are going to blow away the regular season numbers anyway. SO, in another 10 years when neither Brady nor Manning are the all-time stat leaders, the Super Bowls will be what stands out. Advantage, Brady.

[Eja117]

If Eli wins this Super Bowl he definitely becomes the better Manning.....two wins against Brady vs a win against...Rex Grossman, and a loss to Brees

[birdwatcher]

I'm not sure now is a great time to be extolling the greatness of Tom Brady, considering he played about as bad as he could have with his team still winning the game.

He got outplayed quite handily by Joe Flacco, for Pete's sake.

I'm confident that there's no coach-QB combo in the league right now, and perhaps not anywhere else in the history of the NFL, that is better than Bellichick-Brady.

Yeah he got outplayed statistically, but how would Flacco fair against a defense like the Ravens? The Pats D made some plays when they had to and had a couple outstanding individual  performances, but if Brady had to play against a D of our calibur, it would have been like playing Denver again.
Let me be clear, Flacco having a good game against this year's Pats defense is not impressive. This team gave up the second most passing yards in the league, he SHOULD have had a good game. And obviously the plan was to contain Rice, and they certainly did that.

[Rondo2287]

Brady has had his struggles recently but is still one of the best in the business.  I will say thought that the bomb he through after the spikes incompletion was probably one of the worst decisions of his career.

Im not sure if Manning would make that mistake.  I don't think he would have.

[Cman]

So which Manning are we talking about?   

I'm guessing you're not trying to say Eli.  Because, in two weeks when Eli beats Brady yet again.  Then What?   


Yes, I'm a Giants fan.  And, no, I'm not here to start trouble.

But the two of them don't play each other, they play the defenses.

I find the Manning v. Brady debates are weird.
Are we talking right now, or over the course of history? Or at their primes?

Peyton Manning < Tom Brady right now. No question. Peyton might not ever play again.
 
At their peak, Manning>Brady.

When all is said and done, both will be Hall of Fame, and will have impressive lists of accomplishments attached to their names. Fans will debate which of the accomplishments prove that one is better than the other, but such analysis will always be subject to bias.

Clearly in the important category - SB wins - Brady comes out on top. But again, I'm biased.

As for Eli, he is clearly an elite QB, one of the top 5 in the league. He is also youner than Brady, and will continue to have success for many more years. Just hopefully no more success this year....

[Marcus13]

Manning.  Lol at Brady being the best QB in the league again because Lee Evans dropped a ball and Baltimore has a terrible kicker

[Rondo2287]

Manning.  Lol at Brady being the best QB in the league again because Lee Evans dropped a ball and Baltimore has a terrible kicker

Did you LOL at him last year when he was the unanimous MVP when Manning was still playing? 

[Chelm]

Maybe just to double check we should post a Dan Marino vs Joe Montana poll.

Seriously. Has this ever happened before in sports where one guy did way more winning than his rival, but people continued to suggest they might be equal?

Are there people out there that still think Patrick Ewing is about equal to MJ?

How many more Super Bowls does Tom Brady need to get to, or win, before this is done?

Are there people out there that still think Barry Sanders is about equal to Emmitt Smith?

In basketball where one person can have such an incredible impact on the team, championships mean a lot more to a player's legacy than they do in football.

[PosImpos]

Manning.  Lol at Brady being the best QB in the league again because Lee Evans dropped a ball and Baltimore has a terrible kicker

this sort of insightful response is why i think the timing on this post is off.

[Eja117]

Maybe just to double check we should post a Dan Marino vs Joe Montana poll.

Seriously. Has this ever happened before in sports where one guy did way more winning than his rival, but people continued to suggest they might be equal?

Are there people out there that still think Patrick Ewing is about equal to MJ?

How many more Super Bowls does Tom Brady need to get to, or win, before this is done?

Are there people out there that still think Barry Sanders is about equal to Emmitt Smith?

In basketball where one person can have such an incredible impact on the team, championships mean a lot more to a player's legacy than they do in football.

the impact a running back has on an NFL team is nill compared to a QB.

I think I heard on tv once that after a HOF QB the next most likely thing a team has that wins a Super Bowl is actually a HOF linebacker

[Fan from VT]

So I am a Pats fan, which means I would love or Brady to be the clearcut best ever.

I don't know if you can easily make that claim though. It's hard because football is just not an individual sport, despite media/fan attempts to make it that, and any attempts to make it such are doomed to fail. Not only is a qb on the field for less than half of a game (defense and special teams) but on offense, though he is the most important player, there are still 10 others on the field at the same time.

So people can say that manning would never have thrown that INT bomb in the pats-ravens game, but on the other hand Manning has never had the lousy WRs at creating separation that Brady has had for the bulk of his career. Except for 3 years or so of Moss, Brady's receivers have been unable to create any ounce of separation on their own, and their patterns are generally short and based on design and timing. Very difficult. Manning can do this too, of course, but he also was known for if he had any more than 4-5 seconds, Harrison and Wayne would just be wide wide open for a bomb.

On the flipside, people can say Brady won 3 superbowls, but really the Pats did. Back when they won, their defense was very very good and they had an incredible kicker. Better than the colts' respective units. If Manning has that defense, he probably has a few more superbowls.

To switch again, people talk about stats and Manning over Brady. Couple points. First, for the first half of Brady's career, he was saddled with extraordinarily average pieces on offense. Just not an emphasis of how they built their team. Never the case with Manning, who was always stacked on the offensive side.

Of course both teams were great at keeping their O-lines intact and at a high level compared to many other teams.

How do you possibly quantify those things into a head to head comparison in a game that has 50+ on each roster? It's an impossible media construction.

[Cman]

Manning.  Lol at Brady being the best QB in the league again because Lee Evans dropped a ball and Baltimore has a terrible kicker

Did you LOL at him last year when he was the unanimous MVP when Manning was still playing? 

And did you hear the resounding "CLICK" from my mouse when I gave Rondo2287 a well-deserved TP for that retort?

[Fan from VT]

I will say this:

If Brady was named "Manning," drafted overall #1, and had the exact same career as Bray to this point: 3 superbowls, lots of yards, 300 tds, etc., and Manning was named "Brady" and came out of nowhere, and had Peyton's career: tons of yards, 400 tds, 1 superbowl...Both would be hall of famers, but I think Brady would probably be considered better. Momentum counts for a lot, and media guys never like to let go of #1 status.

[Eja117]

I will say this:

If Brady was named "Manning," drafted overall #1, and had the exact same career as Bray to this point: 3 superbowls, lots of yards, 300 tds, etc., and Manning was named "Brady" and came out of nowhere, and had Peyton's career: tons of yards, 400 tds, 1 superbowl...Both would be hall of famers, but I think Brady would probably be considered better. Momentum counts for a lot, and media guys never like to let go of #1 status.

The Mannings had better start having kids cause Tom already has two boys. In 20 years this can heat up again. Already looking forward to Barry Sanders Jr. and John Elway's boy and the Montana boys are sorta disappointing.