Tom Brady arguably is the greatest quarterback in NFL history, but does that mean he’s currently the best quarterback playing in 2018?
A lot of people would say yes, especially after Brady won the 2017 MVP and threw for a Super Bowl record 505 yards in the New England Patriots’ loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII.
But Chris Simms isn’t most people.
The former NFL quarterback turned Bleacher Report analyst went on “The Dan Le Batard Show” on Wednesday and revealed his current NFL QB rankings list.
Spoiler alert: Brady wasn’t No. 1.
In a shocking turn of events, Simms had Brady check in at No. 4 on the list behind Russell Wilson, Carson Wentz and Aaron Rodgers.
He explained his rationale after Le Batard called it “blasphemy.”
“Certainly, I understand that he is arguably the greatest quarterback of all time, he’s certainly in the top three without a doubt,” Simms said. “Am I going to sit here and say at the age of 40 that he’s the best quarterback in football or maybe better than the guys that are ahead of him, which we’ll see how they’re ranked? No, I am not.
“Again, awesome precision passer, still a big-time arm. But come on, this is the New England Patriots. I think you could put a lot of quarterbacks onto that football team and they would have a lot of success. And that’s not taking anything away, again, from Tom Brady and what his physical attributes are. Because they are special. I mean, the fact that he still has a 100 mph fastball at the age of 40 is extremely impressive.
“So people think I hate on Tom Brady. No. I’m just being realistic,” Simms continued. “At this point in his career, I don’t think he can do some of the things the other guys can do at their age, in their prime. And if you put him in their positions, with some of the team, and system, and players they have around them, I’d go, ‘ooh, it’s not going to look pretty.'”
So to summarize, Brady is great but wouldn’t be as great if he had less around him than he does now or had to play in a different system. Interesting.
Wilson, Wentz and Rodgers certainly are three of the NFL’s best QBs, but only one of them (Rodgers) can make a claim to the league’s best passer over Brady even at age 40.
