Listen, i’m not saying his time isn’t coming to an end at the elite level. But one poor season in 23 years does not call for some of the revisionism occurring here lately. Arguably, the defences he’s still producing (2022, 2021, 2020) have kept the Patriots from rebuilding properly. It isn’t easy in this league to escape from 8-8 hell without a franchise QB.
“Brady made him”. You can use whatever stat you want here, but let’s use the most basic one. Points allowed per game. Of course there are influences here. Time of possession, special teams, ability to generate turnovers. But at its most basic level this is what determines the result of a game.
Brady had 20 seasons as a Patriot. He had a top 10 defence in 17 of them. In 3 super bowl victories, the Patriots played 3 of the top 15 offences in NFL history. 01 Rams, 16 Falcons and 18 Rams. 17 points, 22 points(pick six), 3 points. Even throw the record breaking 04 Colts in there, 3 pts. If we change to PTS per drive, he still has 15 top 10 defences!
Manning had 4, Rodgers had 3, Brees had 2. All three had great ball security and time of possession.
Is Brady the GOAT, yes. His consistency in clutch moments puts him ahead of the likes of Peyton and Rodgers. Did he make Bill the greatest defensive mind in history, no!
Brady record when scoring 20+in the playoffs: 32-4. Rodgers is 12-9 in this statistic for a direct comparison.
Average finish in points per drive among notable QBs
Brady: 9th
Rivers: 15th
Peyton: 18th
Rodgers: 18th
Brees: 20th
Mahomes: 20th
And we are trying to pretend Bill didn’t give Brady a significant advantage over his peers? Another 2 super bowls as a DC.
Revisionist history goes hand in hand with recency bias. Bill is not having much success right now, so he was actually carried by Brady, despite all of the evidence that says otherwise. Russell Wilson looks like a shell of himself, so he was always a problem and really not that good in Seattle, even though he played like a top 5 quarterback for several years. I remember when Manning was washed and playing very poorly in his final seasons, there were people questioning how good he actually was prior, citing his poor playoff performances in the past. The haters always find a way to come out of the woodwork, especially when its most convenient.
A silver lining I've noticed, however, is as more time passes, the recency bias starts to wear off a bit and people start to look at things more clearly. Now Manning is revered highly, as he should be. Romo as another example was a punching bag during much of his time in Dallas, but is now looked at a lot more positively. When all is said and done and more time passes, Bill will be just as highly respected as he deserves to be