The Blue Board

Tom Brady also runs an offense that calls for a lot of bubble screens. He gets a good chunk of yardage on these. Yes, he can throw down field consistently and acccurately but what Manning does is unheard of in the history of the NFL. He is the ultimate student of the game constantly watching game tape and it shows on the field while pointing out defenders and aubibling in and out of plays. Tom Moore may be the offensive coordinator on paper but he pretty much just puts in his input with Manning coming up with the offensive gameplan.

Manning is also well on his way to owning most of the passing records.

Most Passing Yards
3rd with 54,828 behind Marino and Farve.
Brady is currently 19th with 34,744

Most Passing TDs
Manning is 3rd with 399 behind Marino and Favre
Brady is 10th with 261.

Most Completions
Manning is 3rd behind Marino and Farve with 4,682.
Brady is 15th behind Brees and McNabb with 2,996.

Now Manning is 35 with 14 years experience while Brady is 33 with 12 years experience with his first year sitting out so of course Manning should be ahead of him in all these categories but if you go by average per season you get (I gave Brady 11 years experience due to him sitting his first year

Manning 334 completions 28.5 TDs and 3916 yards for his career
Brady 272 completions 24 TDs and 3158 yards for his career

Now you can argue that Brady lost an entire season do to injury. That brings up 2 points

1. His average season then looks like (only 10 years exp) 300 completions 26 TDs and 3474 yards. Manning still tops him in all of this
2. Brady isnt as durable as Manning. Manning is 2nd on the consecutive starts record with 227.

Now let me go ahead and argue your next point of championships. Yes, Brady may not have all the stats Manning has but he has 4 championships and Manning has 1. But Manning has not had the luxury of having great defenses.

The Pats D are constantly one of the better units in the NFL while the Colts D struggles against the run and Manning has to constantly bail them out.

This is why Manning is better than Brady

/debate

love both QB's and would take either one but i do thing that Manning is #1 with Brady a close #2

Good point. A quarterback is more than who is a better passer. Its knowing the offense and putting your team in position to win. I still take Manning though

Fair enough .. still think Manning is the best for several reasons non of which is important : both are great and i would take either one and be happy

And of course you're going to stick up for Brady, he played at Michigan.

I disagree its complete horseshit. I mean thats how much respect the man has earned. Thats awesome. Ray is the Baltimore Ravens. He is the cornerstone to the best defense in 25 years of professional football.. And the man still wins games and plays at an amazing level.

Is he the 5th best player in the league? Probably not. But he means as much to his team as anyone in the league except Manning.

Ray is what football is all about. I have no problems with #5.

Where did I state they were dumb? The players dont get to play every team so they rely on the media as well. Your point of "Well they play in the league and know who the best on the field was" well the Pats only played 13 different teams last year so only 13 teams must know what they are talking about. Most of the players just see the highlights we do and since he received MVP last year well thats why he got their vote at 1.

Again, its only a few players competing against Brady week in and week out. 13 teams played Brady. Less than half of the NFL

Would like to say "your welcome" but no downvote from me.

Best safety in the league, so we'll just have to agree to disagree.

The point of the thread is to debate the list so for you saying that what the players say goes is pointless. I came with my reasoning's and arguments as to why Brady is behind Manning and the only counter you can give me is that the players voted it so thats the way it should be.

If you really want to be technical it was the Chargers and Nick Saban for making that happen. So they should be above Drew Brees.

Chargers for letting Brees go and Saban for not signing him with the Dolphins. So

I "like" Manning more than I do Brady....but Brady is the more clutch player. I've seen Manning play well below "norm" [against Florida] in big games when in college and he's done much of the same during his NFL career in the playoffs.

Again, I like Manning more....but IF I need to win a big game I'm giving the ball to Brady.

"Switch Manning and Brady. New England [Patriots] showed they could make it the playoffs without Brady."

They did? When?

The year Brady was injured, the Patriots didn't make the playoffs with Matt Cassel who is now the starting QB of the Chiefs.

-----

Also, I'm always amused by 2 arguments for why Manning is better than Brady.

1. "Brady had the benefit of better defense."

Yes, he did. But most people don't realize that the Colt's 2006 defense was surprisingly and uncharacteristically good. In fact, it was the Colts defense that provided Manning with a large cushion for error. Without the Colts defense playing so well, Manning doesn't even make it out of the 1st round playoff game in 2006. This defense showed up for Manning again during the Super Bowl.

2. "Brady owes his success to Vinateri."

Oh really?

When the Colts played @ Baltimore for their first game in the playoffs, the Colts won 15-6 thanks to 5 FGs made by...you guessed it...Vinateri.

Moreover, after the game Manning told the network reporter something to the effect of, "If someone would've told me before the game that all we would make tonight was 5 FGs, I would've guaranteed a Colts loss."