We can play that game with Brady's first 3 SB wins, which were all decided by narrow margins.
He's in the conversation for sure.
Is the conversation still ongoing? I honestly thought it was settled at this point.
My issue with him being considered the GOAT lies in Belichick and the Patriots. Football is the ultimate team sport and nobody is productive alone. Brady has played for the greatest coach of all time on well managed and well structured teams for his whole career. Look at the years where New England's defense wasn't as good or their offense was a bit more one dimensional. While they still made the playoffs, they consistently came up short. Put a guy like Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers on New England's roster and you'll probably see similar results. IMO, Peyton (who I think is the GOAT) should get more credit for being the only starting QB to win a Super Bowl with two different teams than Brady who once again played for the best coach ever for his entire career.
Good post.
Brady certainly has a great argument for being the best QB ever, but here is my issue with that: he has been voted the All-Pro First Team QB twice. Twice. That means that, for all of his postseason success, he was only considered the best QB in the league by voters twice in his 15 NFL seasons to date (excluding 2008). Meanwhile, Peyton Manning was All-Pro First Team SEVEN times, which means he was considered the best QB in the league in nearly half of his years (7 out of 16).
As much as some like to do it, we cannot dismiss the regular season like it means nothing and that the postseason means everything. Manning played 293 games, 266 of which were in the regular season, but we are supposed to act like 91% of his career doesn't really matter? Hogwash.
And if titles mean everything, then Brady, Montana and Bradshaw are the best of the Super Bowl era, right?
Note: I am not saying the postseason means nothing, just that it shouldn't mean everything.
As big a dick as I think Dan Marino is, he unfairly gets left out of GOAT QB conversations simply because he never won a Super Bowl, even though he was blowing every QB out of the water for much of his career (he was putting up obscene numbers back when passing numbers weren't even close overall to what they are now).