Tom Brady's Answer To Peyton

No quarterback supremacy question can be completely answered without mentioning New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Owing to the fact he has won two more Super Bowl titles than Peyton Manning, Brady poses the only obstacle to Manning being crowned in the public's eye as the best quarterback in this era.

Like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady is a very consistent performer game in and game out and someone his teammates know they can count to perform well in a large percentage of their games. However, while Brady rivals Manning when it comes to consistency, he poses no threat to Manning's overall quarterback throne. For their careers, Manning has put up statistically significant numbers in both completion percentage (63.9% to 62.0%), yards per pass attempt (7.7 to 7.1), and yards per pass completion (12.0 to 11.4).

Where Brady holds the true advantage is in his consistency in the post-season. He only has a standard deviation of .058 for his completion percentage, which is only 41.1% of Manning's post-seasn completion percentage standard deviation of .141. In addition, Brady is the more consistent quarterback in yards per pass attempt, with a standard deviation of 1.5, 46.9% of Manning's 3.2.

Yet, Brady does not have significantly better cumulative passing stats than Peyton Manning in the playoffs when it comes to completion percentage, yards per pass attempt, or yards per pass completion.

When everything is taken into consideration, it is immensely difficult to assemble an objective, rational, and convincing argument for why Tom Brady is the better overall quarterback.