murksiderock
Superstar
I hear you. I didn't hear much placing Brees over Peyton hypothesizing, but I hear you. One more Super Bowl win wouldn't have elevated him over Manning who we saw them in real time overlap careers for 15 years...
What I have been hearing for several years is this strong push to throw Rodgers over everybody and thats outta bounds. Similarly to what I just said about Brees, if Rodgers gets to or wins the Super Bowl this year, he is closer to Manning but not better yet. I really don't get this whole "best thrower of the football" shyt with Rodgers thats been on for a whole decade, I never have. I was saving this for another thread but its relevant in the context of this one, and its identical to the push of Mahomes as the greatest ever after only 3-4 years...
When I'm comparing All-Timers in any sport, I start from the same place: did they play with each other, meaning in the same era? Manning and Rodgers overlapped careers for 8 years (2008 to 2015). 8 years isnt a small sample size, and its easy for folks to forget shyt with time, but literally the only years you can say Rodgers was better than Manning was 2011 (Manning out all year, certainly the consensus going into '11 wasnt that Rodgers was better); 2015 (Manning completely, entirely washed in his last year); and maybe 2014, Manning was an MVP candidate neck and neck with Rodgers until the cliff hit him in Wk12 or 13. So take away the injury year, they overlapped 7 years and Rodgers was the better player for the last two years....so right off the bat, while both playing at the same time as each other, Manning was better almost the whole way...
Then you look at what they both did in the time they played without each other, thats '98 to '07 Manning compared to '16 to present Rodgers. Its not even comparable, the same way this thread has revealed posters have forgotten about how great Brees was at his peak and prime, they've forgotten about Manning, which is mind-boggling to me. Manning was the most innovative player to play the position ever, literally calling his own plays on the field. People who wanna shyt on him reference his immobility but forego mention of his footwork, which was impeccable. His pre-snap reads and ability to adjust to defenses throughout games is legendary, people weren't doing what Manning was doing...
The final point is what Rodgers and Manning have in common, is both play to a lesser level in big games. Rodgers has a chance to somewhat dampen this narrative but winning Sunday would still only give him the same NFCCG record as Favre---->a losing one. And winning the Lombardi would still only be two Super Bowl appearances and victories. This is Manning, struggled in big playoff games, two Super Bowl appearances in 13 years...
Rodgers Stans love saying how QB W/L isn't a stat but they've been judging QBs off this since way before Rodgers, and certainly when you're always bad in the championship games its convenient to talk about how the record, which will be 1-4 if he loses, doesn't matter. It isnt like he plays well in these games, he's consistently terrible. That is identical to Manning...
That said, Rodgers is pulling closer to Manning than Brees after the year he's had this year, my only point in bringing Rodgers up is he wasn't always greater than Brees and there still isn't a tremendous gap between the two (yet). I can't see Brees getting the post-career Nash bump because the level you'd be bumping him to is Brady/Montana/Manning/Elway level, and I don't think anyone will put him quite there...
He did underachieve considering the numbers he put up. Guys put up lesser numbers but were stronger in the clutch, guys played with lesser offensive talent but won more games on a more consistent basis, etc. The gaps of missing postseasons (2002-03, 2007-08, 2014-16) hurts him in relation to his peers too...
Saints had a Super Bowl caliber team after the '09 championship for about 3-4 years, and had another the last 3-4 years. It certainly isn't all on him but yes, I 100% agree, he has some accountability in only getting to one Super Bowl in 20 years, considering the teams he had...
The other part is the Saints did leave him with crapshoots on D other times, and the Bountygate suspensions really hit them when they had some momentum...
Post your Top 10, because most media outlets have him at 5-6 and damn near everyone has him Top 10 by consensus. You big tripping lol...
