Is Tom Brady the Greatest Quarterback of All Time?

We consider whether Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time

Depending on where you live, you probably have a strong opinion on where Tom Brady should be in the history books compared to other quarterbacks.

There are a lot of good arguments about why he is and why he is not the greatest quarterback of all-time.

In this article, we will explain five reasons why he is the best quarterback and 5 reasons why he may not be- starting with reasons that Tom Brady is the GOAT.

Reasons Tom Brady is the GOAT

1. He has won seven super bowls

While roughly half the super bowls Tom Brady has played in contain either him getting some lucky breaks, or controversial and potentially wrong calls- Tom Brady has hit it lucky with the Super Bowl seven times!

All of the super bowls have been extremely well played, and Brady has had to make clutch plays in almost all of them.

Some of them have been won by calling a running play, some have been by calling a run or merely setting up the kicker for a game-winning field goal.

In the three Superbowls that he has lost, one was due to a miraculous catch which set up the game-winning play against the New York Giants, coupled with a drop on a perfectly thrown pass late in the fourth Wes Welker that was dropped (the helmet catch game during the 2007 season).

Another Superbowl loss came down to a hail Mary pass that should have been caught and wasn’t (the other New York Giants loss).

The third one was lost against Philadelphia, and the Patriots didn’t start one of their key cornerbacks in Malcolm Butler.

Brady’s fastest wide receiver Brandin Crooks got knocked out during that Super Bowl game.

2. He has over 50 passing records

With all the winning he’s done and points he’s put up, Brady also includes many records among quarterbacks.

He garnered the highest number of touchdowns in a season when he had 50 during the 2007 season.

Check out a full list of his records here.

3. He didn’t have a deep threat for most of his career

This is one of the things that has always been striking about all of the records Brady holds.

Most years, Brady did it without a deep threat. The only two serious deep threats he had during his time with the Patriots was Randy Moss (2007-2010) and Brandin Crooks (2017).

During his other years, Brady had a lot of slot receivers he could zip the ball to in literally seconds.

4. Brady has fifty-three game-winning drives 

One thing you definitely can say about Brady is clutch!

If he plays the 2022 season, this is a record he will likely break as he is tied with Ben Roethlisburger and Drew Brees for the most number of game-winning drives in a career heading into 2022. This makes up 21.8 percent of his 243 career wins.

He’s had numerous memorable game-winning drives. Some of the more famous ones that come to mind are the Super Bowl winning drives against the Rams and the drive in the infamous Super Bowl comeback in overtime against the Atlanta Falcons.

5. Longevity

Not counting kickers, Brady has played the most consecutive seasons as a quarterback- and for the most part he has been able to keep himself extremely healthy, leading to a long career.

He has always had a rigorous training and recovery schedule to keep himself in tip top shape.

Now that we’ve covered five reasons why Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time, it’s time for the counter arguments!

Reasons Tom Brady is not the GOAT

1. His scandals/breaks in playoffs and the Super Bowl

I could write an entire article on this subject alone- so we will just go through each one briefly.

The tuck rule game

Now that Charles Woodson (the man who hit Brady causing the fumble) is retired, Brady finally came out and admitted that even he thought that play was a fumble and not an incomplete pass.

For those not familiar with the game, Woodson hit Brady as his arm was going forward (it was unsure whether it was or not) and the referee ruled it as an incomplete pass causing the Patriots to hold on to the ball and ultimately kick a game-winning field goal.

Spygates

The reason an ‘s’ is on the end is because this type of incident happened in multiple Super Bowls.

The Patriots were caught filming the Rams practice, potentially giving the Patriots an advantage over them.

Although one has to wonder how much of an advantage, as both of those Super Bowls were won in the last two minutes of the game.

Deflategate

In this one, the Patriots were accused of deflating footballs at halftime.

This was due to the decrease in ball pressure going into the second half and one of the ball boys infamously took the balls into the bathroom- causing the NFL to adjust their procedures with how game balls are handled.

Brady eventually did get suspended for four games due to this incident.

2. Supporting cast

While it is true that Brady hasn’t had many down-the-field threats, he has always had a large number of slot receivers and running backs he can throw to.

He has almost always had a superior defense and running game!

3. He can’t run

Brady was famously slow during his draft day, combined with his 40 time being only 5.3 seconds, a full second below what is generally considered elite at the NFL level.

It took him over a decade to even get to 1,000 yards rushing, something which he often likes to joke about once he did get there.

4. He lost three super bowls

This argument is important for those who like to compare him to Joe Montana, as he won all five of his Super Bowl trips and the majority, if not all, of his Super Bowl wins were close games. 

5. Brady is more of a game manager

It is no secret that, while Brady might not be the most athletic, he certainly has one of the highest football iq of this generation.

He knows how to read defenses at a much higher level than other quarterbacks- and some people feel that this outweighs his skill.