NFC Quarterback Breakdown – Brett Favre vs. Drew Brees

If you were going to make a list of the remaining NFL quarterbacks in the playoffs, Peyton Manning would be at the top and Mark Sanchez would be at the bottom. The problem would be placing Favre above Brees or vice versa. The NFC Championship game will pit the quarterbacks with the two best regular season ratings against one another, and both have formidable offensive prowess. But who’s got the edge?

Analyzing the Losses

Drew Brees lost two games at the tail end of the season. Against Dallas he completed 29-for-45 for 298 yards and a touchdown but gave up three turnovers overall. The following week while the Saints’ lead over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was fading fast, Brees finished the game with just 32-of-37 completed for 258 yards and a touchdown. What does that tell you? Simply that when the Saints have lost momentum, Brees can’t get it back. In fact, if the Saints lose all of their offensive swagger in a game, Brees is practically helpless.

Brett Favre had four losses and those games are much more difficult to digest. Here’s the breakdown:

Week 7

PIT

334 Yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 1 FMBL

76.6

17-27

 

Week 13

ARI

275 Yards, 2 TD, 2 INT

79.4

17-30

 

Week 15

CAR

224 Yards, 0 TD, 1 INT

73.7

7-26

 

Week 16

CHI

316 Yards, 2 TD, 1 FMBL

148.7

25-31 (OT)

 

It’s a scary sight when you measure it out. In four losses this season, Brett Favre had just a 2:3 touchdown-to-turnover ratio. That can’t make you feel too good, especially considering that New Orleans had 39 takeaways this season in the form of 26 interceptions and 13 fumbles recovered.

Favre and Brees both had bad games, and players of their caliber are allowed to have bad games. The fact remains, however, that Brees did not do enough to will the Saints back from comebacks or losing situations the same way that Favre did this season. The Saints are a team that predicates itself on protecting leads and playing with a train load of momentum.

Edge: Favre – he’s been far more productive in losses than Brees, especially with his will to win that Bears overtime loss that is put more on the defense of the Vikings.

Credentials

This is an unfair argument because Favre has ten years on Brees as a pro. Yet Favre’s resume is astounding regardless of how you cut it. He has 11 Pro Bowl selections, 3 MVP awards, 5 NFC Player of the Year awards, 2 NFC Championships and was a super Bowl Champion in 1997 when he dismantled the Patriots.

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The best the Brees has in comparison is 4 Pro Bowl selections and an NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award from 2008. Yep. Just no fair at all. Yet, Brees is becoming the benchmark for greatness in the NFL joining Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in an echelon that few enjoy. Brees isn’t an award monger, but he’s a stat generating machine. In the last four years as a New Orleans Saint, he’s averaged 4,574.5 yards, 30.5 touchdowns and 14.25 interceptions.

Measure that against Brett’s last four years and you get these averages for No.4: 3,928.5 yards, 25.25 touchdowns, 15.5 interceptions.

So what do you get out of those numbers? A guy who is historically acknowledged as one of the game’s greatest, and a 31 year old quarterback who puts up numbers, albeit better numbers than the other guy. It’s unfair to weigh a 19-year career filled with milestones against a 9-year career seriously devoid of them. However, if you rate them by statistical output alone, Brees has the edge. Take in to account that both guys played in pass-heavy offenses, including Favre when he played for the Jets, a team that should’ve run the ball way more than they did.

Edge: Brees – He’s been more reliable as a passer than any other quarterback in the past four seasons. Sure he doesn’t have the Super Bowls that Roethlisberger, Brady and Manning have…but neither does Favre.

Risk It All, Baby

No quarterback in the past decade has proven that he’s willing to take more risks than a frat boy on the weekend who forgot his condoms in his bed side table. Favre is a noted gun slinger, and that has cost him as many games as he’s won by this notion, but if your team is behind in a game, there is no other quarterback who will force a pass more than Favre. Manning will surgically decimate a team, and Brady can expose weaknesses in the secondary (when he has his receivers at full strength) but Favre’s willingness to ante up his stacks when the game is on the line is a proven commodity. In a game that has a betting TOTAL of 53.0 points, there’s nobody you’d rather have chasing the scoreboard than a reckless Brett Favre.

Edge: Favre

Leadership Ability

What this comes down to in the end is the leadership ability of each quarterback. When you watch the Saints in pre-game, the one leading the charge is Drew Brees. He’s noted as the emotional leader of the Saints, which makes it even more curious that he can’t rally his troops when they’re staring at a loss. He was swarmed by Dallas’s defense and stalled against the Bucs.

Favre is also an emotional leader, as seen in this video HERE but it’s his in-game heroics that make him the runaway candidate in this category. Favre has gotten it done time and again in the post season and in the regular NFL betting season. His naturally calm demeanor can squash fears in jitters in the locker room during pre-game and half-time and his unruly confidence has pushed him to be one of the greatest the game has ever known.

This isn’t a knock at Brees’ ability to lead, but as his past playoff performances have proven, he’s never been able to take a team on his shoulders and carry them over the hump. Brees is just 1-2 SU in the playoffs, despite playing for loaded Saints and Chargers team during his career.

Edge: Favre

Final Verdict: Brett Favre – With the Vikings as +160 underdogs on the road, the Vikings’ betting enthusiasts have reason to believe in their bandwagon hopes this weekend. If this game was between Favre and Brees, I’d take the gunslinger over the stat monster any day in the post season.

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