For me personally, I don't think Peyton would have captured that elusive "Greatest quarterback of all-time" title even with a win on Sunday, but I do think he would have moved past Brady, despite a 5-10 record head-to-head vs. the Patriots quarterback. Both before and after the game, I've had Montana at 1, followed by Brady, Manning, John Elway, and Dan Marino rounding out my top 5. But the results of Super Bowl XLVIII have made it downright impossible for me to consider moving Manning past Brady. For now.
A bigger point here, I think, is that neither Brady nor Manning have helped themselves in recent years as far as gaining steam towards surpassing Montana. Tom Brady hasn't won a Super Bowl in nine years. Peyton Manning in seven. Each player has lost two Super Bowls during that time span, botching numerous other chances in earlier post-season rounds. But there's little question that if anyone can overtake the former 49ers great, it's one of the Brady-Manning duo. I took as in-depth a look as I could inside these three signal-callers. Draw your own conclusions.
Joe Montana never lost a Super Bowl (4-0), and is 16-7 overall in the playoffs. In his seven losses, his average margin of defeat was a staggering 14.9 points per game. Montana's teams went one-and-done in the post-season four times.
Tom Brady is 3-2 in Super Bowls, with the two losses coming by a combined 7 points. He's 18-8 overall in the playoffs, with the eight losses coming by an average of 9.5 points. Brady's only gone one-and-done twice.
Peyton Manning is 1-2 in Super Bowls, with the two losses coming by a combined 49 points. He's 11-12 overall in the post-season, and both his 12 losses and eight one-and-dones are the most of all-time.
In terms of regular season numbers, yes, Peyton Manning is the greatest regular season quarterback ever. But that's not to say Brady or Montana are akin to Trent Dilfer, Jim Plunkett,
Brady has still won two MVP awards to Peyton’s five. Peyton has 64,964 passing yards, and will pass Brett Favre (71,838) if he plays two more seasons. Tom Brady is currently 7th (49,149) but will pass Warren Moon (49,325) and John Elway (51,475) next season, unless Belichick decides to cut Gronkowski, not re-sign Edleman, and trade Aaron Dobson for a 2019 3rd round pick. Drew Brees, for what it’s worth, is currently 5th with 51,081 and could easily pass Elway in Week 1 next year. Dan Marino is third by a safe distance, at 61,361. (Montana is in 12th place, one spot behind Kerry Collins, so again, it's unfair to use yards as a gauge for him).
Manning has 491 touchdown passes, just 17 behind Brett Favre for the record of 508. He could have that record by the third quarter of Week 1 next year. Brady checks in at 5th with 359, while Montana's held up respectably well in 11th place with 274.
Does timing of winning championships effect the legacy of players? For example, is Brady judged differently because his 3 Super Bowls were won so long ago? Throw in the fact that he's just 8-8 in the playoffs since his last championship win, it's definitely a possibility. Let’s say for argument’s sake that instead of beating the Rams in 2001, the Patriots beat the Giants in 2007. Let’s also say that Peyton lost to the Bears in 2006, but beat the Saints in 2009. Are their legacies in any way different because their most recent respective wins are, well...more recent?
Brett Favre’s legacy probably doesn’t shine as much as it could based on winning a Super Bowl in 1996, getting back the following year, and never going again through retiring after 2010. John Elway might be remembered more positively for his later-career moments, winning back-to-back Super Bowls on his way out. But what if he got over the hump earlier in his career, and lost those back-to-back games to the Packers and Falcons?
Ultimately, this comes down to how much weight you personally put on regular season statistics and post-season performances. You can say luck plays a role, that if David Tyree doesn't come down with Eli's last ditch effort in Super Bowl XLII, this isn't even a conversation. But what if Mike Vanderjagt doesn't miss a 46-yard field goal against the Steelers in the 2005 playoffs, or Rahim Moore doesn't stumble while covering Jacoby Jones in the 2012 playoffs? It goes both ways.
I'd say that after Sunday's latest meltdown by Peyton, he and Brady are closer than ever in their ranking all-time. Fortunately, this story isn't finished playing out just yet. It's not impossible to think each quarterback has another 4-5 years left. Since both the Patriots and Broncos won their respective divisions, the two teams are guaranteed to play a game in the regular season in 2014.
Until then and beyond, Joe Montana rests atop the pantheon.
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