What if Analytics Alone Could Finalize the Tom Brady and Peyton Manning Comparisons?

Now I don’t typically get too consumed by the continuous debate of which quarterback is better, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, however, I had to take a look at some of the details myself.  And, thanks to the analytics tools available on NFL.com it made my quick research
possible.

Although the conversation typically includes the full career of each player, I chose to look at this year’s NFL season, as a microcosm of their work.  My theory going into this is that Manning has, and really has always had, better weapons, making the comparison even possible.

With a quick analysis on NFL.com, I was able to look at the starting core offenses for both the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos. 

Player/Team Fantasy Cumulative Point Comparison (Heading into Week 11)

Key Insights

The analysis of fantasy points collected over the first 10 weeks of the season revealed a few key insights.  For this analysis, I looked at core offenses, or what I would consider core offense in fantasy football; Quarterback, Top Running Back, Top 3 Receivers, Tight End, and the, yes, the Kicker.

1. When looking at the Core Offenses, the Denver Broncos are a stronger team, yielding more Fantasy points, including Peyton Manning’s league leading 378 points.  With the records Manning has broken, these numbers are no surprise. 
2. Each team has a similar winning percentage.  Proving that each Quarterback knows how to win consistently…at least in the regular season, which should make for an entertaining end of season drive.
3. New England Patriots tend to spread their points across the full offense, going deeper into the Running Backs and Receiving Core.  Take, for example, WR3, where Julian Edelman is racking up more points than Wes Welker.

Conclusion

Individual statistics and fantasy points are great when comparing specific quantitative measurements of a player, however the greatest  quarterbacks are not judged by statistics alone.  A quote from another quarterback, Russell Wilson, stating, “I think to be a great quarterback, you have to have a great leadership, great attention to detail, and a relentless competitive nature,” might sum this up best.  It’s hard to argue with Wilson’s quote, so let me take it another step further, and look at a quote from an anonymous source stating, “Great leaders inspire greatness in
others.” 

Therefore, if great quarterbacks are great leaders and great leaders inspire greatness in others, one could see that Peyton Manning has utilized better weapons, whereby Brady has inspired greatness among more players making him a greater leader and therefore a greater quarterback. 

So I am a Patriots fan, and slightly biased as I looked at the statistics, but isn’t that why we are all fans.  Without our own interpretation of the data, our own go with our gut decisions, or lead with our heart approach, would we even believe in a single athlete, our team, or have anything to root for, at all.

The Fan-to-Brand experience has been dramatically improved with the tools available today, enabling us all to look at, seemingly, any dimension of the data, including player comparison with the SAP Player Comparison Tool.  This is what makes being a fan so exciting.

If nothing else, we know there is plenty of data to be analyzed, and many more games to be played, proving that this controversy can, and likely will, never really stop.

NFL.com/Fantasy experts have pre-selected several intriguing fantasy players for the 2014 season. For full, customizable access to the Player Comparison Tool with Insights from SAP, visit My Team or Players sections of your fantasy league.