LogFAQs > #978778470

Joe Montana
Peyton Manning
Dan Marino
Drew Brees

Tough call between Brees and Elway, but I went with Brees because I think the guy was severely underrated due to being on a small-market team. Also considered Rodgers, Unitas, and Mahomes.

KamikazePotato posted...

My knowledge of NFL stuff is limited, but I think you'd have to twist through like a dozen logic loopholes not to include Tom Brady

Didn't consider Brady because the guy was a checkdown merchant who never won anything without a Top 8 defense. He was the most marketable QB in NFL history, no doubt, but not the best. He wasn't even considered an elite QB until years after his teams won three Super Bowls. Only when the guy had elite weapons like Moss, Welker, and Gronk, was he deemed elite.

Some other things to remember:

• Year after year, he enjoyed 5+ easy wins in the laughable AFC East
• Matt Cassel, who never started a single game in college at QB, won 11 games after stepping in for an injured Brady in 2008
• Jimmy G and Jacoby Brissett went 3-1 during Brady's 4-game suspension in 2016.
• Brady's Gronk-era stats show a significant dropoff when Gronk was injured. You can also look at Brady's three years in Tampa and see that the Bucs had two strong seasons when Gronk played, but had a losing season after Gronk retired.
• The 2023 Bucs won more games (and a playoff game) with Baker Mayfield than the 2022 Bucs won with Brady
• Brady couldn't win the biggest game of his career, the 2007 Super Bowl

And I haven't even touched on the astounding number of conveniently timed penalties that he's benefited from in important games (ask any Steelers fan, they know) or the baffling playcalls by opposing coaches that enabled Brady to win big games (Seahawks throwing on the 1 yard line, Falcons throwing while up 8 in FG range).

And since he was the most marketable player in NFL history, you typically weren't allowed to hit him because the league didn't want its favorite product getting injured (Check the flopping meme of Brady against the Jets or the 2022 "roughing the passer" call against the Falcons for examples).

Brady was a good QB who was smart with the football and led a number of clutch drives throughout career. I will give him that. But he also benefited from a Hall of Fame coach, elite defenses, elite playmakers, elite offensive lines, weak divisional opponents, and many shady penalties in critical moments. Is he a Hall of Fame QB? Absolutely. Is he Top 4 all-time? Hell no.