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Tom Brady vs Peyton Manning: A Look Inside the Rivalry

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Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are two NFL players who’ve been compared relentlessly. It’s the rivalry of all rivalries involving two of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.

While spectators may consider this as a one-sided rivalry since Brady is still active while Manning has already retired, the Brady-Manning rivalry is an all-time great. 

Brady-Manning rivalry

The two quarterbacks have faced each other for 17 matches, meeting for every season from 2001 to 2015 except 2002, 2008, 2011, and 2015. 

In the last three, New England Patriots and Indiana Colts had a match, but Brady missed the 2008 game. Manning also missed the 2011 game due to a neck injury and again in 2015 during the regular season. However, they met during the AFC Championship game.

Brady is leading the head-to-head with 11-6, 8-4 against the Colts and 3-2 against Denver Broncos where Manning played from 2011 to 2015. The two wins were both an AFC Championship game (2013 and 2015).

Brady led the Foxborough series with 8-2. Manning, on the other hand, led the Indianapolis/Denver series with 4-3.

The playoffs were a different story. Brady and Manning met five times at the playoffs with Manning dominating with 3-2. Four games were at the AFC Championship; Manning won three of those with both Broncos (two) and Colts (one).

Overall, the two players’ career records are at 124-64 for Manning and 99-30 for Brady.

To this day, Manning has played two more seasons compared with that of Brady’s. However, the latter, at 42 years old, is committed to playing football until he reaches 45. 

Brady and Manning as valuable players

Brady owns both the regular and postseasons with 269 and 40 games played, respectively. However, Manning’s postseason performance cannot be deliberately ignored for statistics purposes especially.

For instance, Manning has a higher completion rate (65.3%) than Brady (64%) during the regular season. They tied at 63.2% during the postseason despite Brady having 1,005 completions compared with Manning’s 649. 

Also, Manning has 71,940 yards with that of Brady’s 70,514. Manning’s yards per game stat is at 270.5 while Brady only has 262.1.

In the postseason, Brady has 11,179 yards, and Manning only has 7,339. Brady’s yards per game stat is at 279.5. Manning still managed to have 271.8 yards per game, though.

The culmination of all these is, of course, the most valuable player (MVP) trophy. Manning has five MVP awards while Brady only has three.

For the Super Bowl, Brady has six wins, and Manning only has two. Brady also has four Super Bowl MVPs compared with Manning’s single MVP win. 

While Manning may be a league of his own when it comes to the number, Brady has a higher winning percentage. 

This is where the problem lies because the longer a football player plays, in this case, Brady, the more difficult it is to maintain the winning percentage.

Brady plays for a great team, but whether the Patriots will keep on winning is not known. Will Brady top over Manning’s regular-season MVPs in his last three years as a Patriot? This surely is a matter we have yet to see.

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