Questions of Peyton Manning's "legacy" aside, it should be clear who the greatest playoff quarterback of all-time is--and it isn't Joe Montana

There has been a lot of “talk” about Peyton Manning’s “legacy” being tarnished by his playoff performances. And it is a fair argument to make, given that he is regarded by many as the pinnacle of what a quarterback aspires to be.  Some commentators insist that Manning’s 11-12 playoff record—and having the most playoff losses of any starting quarterback—has no effect at all on how he should be viewed, given his seemingly consistent high-level of play during the regular season. 

But you cannot keep these two aspects of his career separate. You would expect the super elite to perform better when it most counts. Of course it would be hypocritical not to point out that outside the Packers’ 2010 Super Bowl run as the 6^th seed, Aaron Rodgers has a 1-4 playoff record, with two of those losses at home, while Fran Tarkenton was 0-3 and Jim Kelly 0-4 in the Super Bowl. But Rodgers has received a pass because he rarely had all of his “weapons” healthy for the playoffs, and Tarkenton and Kelly are simply either too far in the past to recall, or not regarded to be in the same “class” as Manning. 

But since Manning occupies such an elevated position in the opinion of almost all the “experts,” much to the nausea of many, it is only fair that the question of “legacy” be brought up. Consider the following stats (pass completions, attempts, yards, TDs, INTs, and rating) with Super Bowl record in parenthesis:

 

Terry Bradshaw: (4-0) 49-84 932 9 4 112.8

Joe Montana (4-0) 83-122 1142 11 0 127.8

Tom Brady (3-2) 127-197 1311 8 3 90.7

Peyton Manning (1-2) 90-132 860 3 4  81.0

Bradshaw isn’t by any stretch a “great” quarterback, but one thing that stands out about his Super Bowl performances is his ability to convert the “big play.” His 11.10 yards-per-pass is best of any quarterback with at least 2 Super Bowl games, and his almost one touchdown pass per five completions also testifies that when a pass play was required, Bradshaw made them count. That is what a big game quarterback does.

Montana’s mastery of the pass-happy West Coast offense is clear in his regular season stats, but even more so in the playoffs, and the Super Bowl.  His TD to INT ratio only speaks to the fact that he was cold-blooded when the stakes were the highest. There is no question that no one approached Montana when it came to not only performing as an elite quarterback during the regular season (quite different than, say, Troy Aikman), but elevated his game to a whole different level in the post season.

Brady is a strange case. Consider the fact that his five Super Bowls were decided by a total of just 16 points; one or two plays could have made the difference between winning and  losing. Brady’s stats were in fact remarkably pedestrian; his low yards-per-completion and attempts, and only 8 touchdown passes in 197 attempts testifies to the fact that other factors besides his own performance played into the results of his three victories, and in the losses he simply did not elevate his game as might be expected. Coaching, more than quarterback play, was likely the difference in victory.

As for Manning, he was by far the least productive despite averaging 30 completions per game; he clearly did less with more. It is as if he played “scared,” throwing a lot of  “safe” passes—and then when required to make the “big play,” he did not get the job done. He was fortunate to escape with his one ring after a clearly pedestrian 25 of 38, 247 yards, I TD, 1 INT  and 81.8 rated performance against a good Chicago Bears defense. Overall, while Montana threw for 45 touchdowns in 23 playoff games, Manning’s 37 in the same number of games with over 100 additional pass attempts also testifies to his failure to bring his “A” game—let alone his “B” game—come playoff time.

When judging Manning’s “legacy,” this cannot but be taken into account when judging a quarterback as the “greatest” of “all-time.” In my mind, Montana still has the best claim to that mantle--in the Super Bowl era. But consider the following stats:

130 completions in 213 attempts, 1735 yards, 15 TDs, 3 INTs and 104..8 rating. 

That was Bart Starr, winning nine of ten playoff games and five NFL championships--and nearly winning a sixth in 1960, save for time running out and a game-saving tackle by the Eagles' Chuck Bednarik. In those days, this kind of efficiency was virtually unheard of, so much so that Starr still has the highest QB rating in the playoffs of any quarterback, just ahead of Aaron Rodgers and Kurt Warner (believe it or not, Mark Sanchez has the sixth highest playoff QB rating). A gentleman off the field, on the field Starr played with that killer instinct that had one sole purpose in mind--to destroy you no matter what. He numbers may not have been "flashy," but as demonstrated in the Ice Bowl, his leadership at critical times was beyond compare. There is no doubt in my mind who truly deserves pride-of-place as the greatest quarterback in playoff history.