I went with Brady, but I really only considered Super Bowl era QBs. Otherwise I might have gone with Otto Graham, who had the most incredible level of success of any QB.
I considered Montana the greatest for a long time, but a few years ago I decided Brady had overtaken him. To make it to the Super Bowl in half of your seasons, winning 5; to get to the AFC Championship game in 12 of 16 seasons; to win the division in 15 of 16 seasons; to have the records Brady already owns, and those he is close to getting; I had to change my mind and consider Brady the best ever of the Super Bowl era.
Now Otto Graham played 10 seasons of professional football and went to the title game in all 10, winning 7. He even won a pro basketball championship in his one year playing that sport. No other QB has had that sort of success. However, that was such a different time, it's hard to compare. When Graham played in the AAFC, it only had 8 teams. When Graham joined the NFL in 1950, I believe there were only 13 teams. The rules were different, the game was played differently.
Montana is the greatest Super Bowl quarterback ever. 4-0, never threw a pick in the big game, 3 time MVP, I put him ahead of Brady there, although it's very close. But for the overall career, Brady is the SB era GOAT.
Montana only went to the Super Bowl 4 Times. You are rewarding him for not making it to more super bowls. Or you are punishing Brady for making it to more super bowls. Don’t forget joe got knocked out of the playoffs before the Super Bowl every year he played except 4 seasons
So if Brady never made it to the Super Bowl the years he lost you’d be sitting here saying Brady is perfect 5 and 0 in his super bowl appearances. Well I’d rather be 5 and 1.
No, I'm not judging that based solely on how many Super Bowls a player played in, but how they performed in those Super Bowls. Montana had a great game-winning drive against the Bengals in a close game. He also had 4 TDs against Miami in a dominant win, and 5 TDs against Denver in a blowout win. Montana never threw a pick in 4 Super Bowls. Montana never lost in 4 Super Bowls. Montana never had fewer than 2 TDs in a Super Bowl. Montana's lowest QB rating for a Super Bowl is 100, his highest is 147.6.
Brady only had 1 TD in the first loss to the Giants. Brady threw picks in 4 of his 8 Super Bowls, and had that huge fumble in the Eagles game (Montana never lost a fumble or threw a pick). Brady never had a blow-out or dominant win.
Brady's winning % in the Super Bowl is only .500. Brady's lowest QB rating for a Super Bowl is 82.5. His lowest rating in a Super Bowl he won is 86.2. Brady's highest rating is 115.4.
When you look at how they performed in Super Bowls, Montana was better than Brady. If Montana had played in 4 more Super Bowls, perhaps it would have evened out some, but going by the body of work available, Montana was consistently excellent in the big game.