When looking at the great quarterbacks – specifically, Joe Montana and Tom Brady – the tendency is to focus on the championships. Montana won all four of his Super Bowls, and some consider that 4-0 record as kind of a trump card (as if it’s somehow better than Brady’s 4-2).
But getting to Super Bowls has to count for something, doesn’t it? Finishing 2nd, after all, is better than not making it to the championship game (or maybe not even making the playoffs).
Each of these quarterbacks has won four Super Bowls. If we set those seasons aside, than Brady has been a lot more productive than Montana as a pro quarterback.
Here are the wins and losses for Brady when he didn’t win the Super Bowl …
| BRADY WHEN NOT A CHAMPION | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Record | Playoffs | |
| 2000 | 0-0 | ||
| 2002 | 9-7 | ||
| 2005 | 10-6 | 1-1 | divisional round |
| 2006 | 12-4 | 2-1 | AFC championship |
| 2007 | 16-0 | 2-1 | Super Bowl |
| 2008 | 1-0 | ||
| 2009 | 10-6 | 0-1 | wild card |
| 2010 | 14-2 | 0-1 | divisional round |
| 2011 | 13-3 | 2-1 | Super Bowl |
| 2012 | 12-4 | 1-1 | AFC championship |
| 2013 | 12-4 | 1-1 | AFC championship |
| Total | 109-36 | 9-8 | |
Here are the same numbers for Montana.
| MONTANA WHEN NOT A CHAMPION | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Record | Playoffs | |
| 1979 | 0-1 | ||
| 1980 | 2-5 | ||
| 1982 | 3-6 | ||
| 1983 | 10-6 | 1-1 | NFC championship |
| 1985 | 9-6 | 0-1 | wild card |
| 1986 | 6-2 | 0-1 | divisional round |
| 1987 | 10-1 | 0-1 | divisional round |
| 1990 | 14-1 | 1-1 | NFC championship |
| 1991 | 0-0 | ||
| 1992 | 0-0 | ||
| 1993 | 8-3 | 2-1 | AFC championship |
| 1994 | 9-5 | 0-1 | wild card |
| Total | 71-36 | 4-7 | |
The numbers aren’t even close. Brady has won 38 more regular-season games, with a far superior winning percentage (they’ve both lost the same number of games). Brady is 9-8 in the postseason, versus just 4-7 for Montana (again, non-championship years).
In additional to winning four Super Bowls, Brady has been to five other conference championship games, winning two of them. Montana made it to only three other conference championship games, and he lost all of them.
Montana fans might argue that he didn’t get as many opportunities, since injuries kept him out more often (he didn’t play at all in the 1991-92 seasons) but that’s part of the deal. Montana was a smaller, more fragile guy, and staying healthy is part of the deal.
On behalf of Brady, you can argue that he’s had to do it with more different teammates. In the salary cap era, New England has had to continuously churn its roster. Montana had a great corps around him (offense, defense and coaches) and it was easier for those teams to keep everyone in place.
On behalf of Montana, I think his degree of difficulty was probably a little higher. That is, there were a lot of other good teams in the NFC in the ‘80s – Giants, Bears and Washington. Note that Brady has been playing in a vacuum; he’s been in the same conference as Peyton Manning all along, and there have been a lot of good Baltimore and Pittsburgh teams. But I think those teams opposing San Francisco probably tended to be just a little better.
Ultimately, it’s probably best to rely on the time machine test. If you plugged in Tom Brady as a rookie with San Francisco in 1979, would they still have won those four titles? Could Bill Walsh have successfully worked with him? Probably. Similarly, if the Patriots had selected Joe Montana in 2000, would Bill Belichick have been able to use him and still win four rings? Durability is an issue, but they would have probably been fine as well.
In my eyes, there’s a top tier of quarterbacks, and Montana and Brady are definitely in it. I think Peyton Manning, Brett Favre and Drew Brees belong in that group as well. Johnny Unitas and Otto Graham maybe belong in the top class as well, but they played so long ago and the game has changed so much that they’re harder to judge.
There’s not much of a dropoff of the next group of quarterbacks. I would put John Elway, Dan Marino, Troy Aikman and Fran Tarkenton in that group. I can’t quite fit in Dan Fouts, Jim Kelly or Terry Bradshaw. Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger should wind up in the first or second tiers, but they need to play some more years.
—Ian Allan