National Football League

Brady or Manning: Bart Scott says one was more feared

Published Jun. 20, 2022 10:19 p.m. ET

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Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are seen as the two premier quarterbacks of their generation.

Brady is generally treated as the superior  of the two, and that's chiefly due to his unmatched winning résumé, decorated with more Lombardi trophies (seven) than any NFL franchise.

But according to former NFL linebacker Bart Scott, Manning was the more feared matchup for opposing defenses.

"I’d much rather go against Tom Brady every day of the week than go against Peyton Manning," Scott said on ESPN radio this week. "I believe that’s how everybody feels.

"Tom Brady was more about Bill Belichick, the entire team, the execution, them having a game plan."

Scott faced both quarterbacks a total of 19 times, meeting Manning five times in the regular season and three times in the postseason. He met Brady 10 times in the regular season and once in the playoffs.

Manning eliminated Scott's teams twice in the postseason — once in 2006 and again in 2009. Scott's 2010 Jets the beat both Manning and Brady on the way to the AFC title game.

"The only thing that was foul was when he said it was more about Bill Belichick than Tom Brady," Emmanuel Acho said Monday on "Speak For Yourself." "Tom Brady has proven that he is a bigger driving factor to success than Belichick.

"Peyton Manning is scarier, far and away. I've sat in defensive meeting rooms. This isn't even a subjective conversation. Based upon sitting in defensive meeting rooms with several defensive coordinators on several defensive teams, Peyton was significantly scarier."

Bart Scott: Defenses rather face Tom Brady than Peyton Manning

Tom Brady is a seven-time Super Bowl champion but former Pro Bowl linebacker Bart Scott said quote: 'I'd much rather go against Tom Brady everyday of the week than go against Peyton Manning.'

For Acho, both QBs had significant a way with the football, but Manning's was starkly different.

"Peyton Manning would make you wrong. Tom Brady would just wait for you to be wrong, and there's a difference. … If somebody makes you wrong, you can never be right, but Tom Brady has to wait on you to become wrong. 

"When you played against Peyton, it was as if you were never right."

Marcellus Wiley agreed.

"This conversation sounds hyperbolic when you read it on the headlines, but if you dive deep into it, you realize it's not hyperbolic at all," Wiley said. "This is just the pulse of the nation. … Let me give you an example.

"We're playing Peyton on Monday Night Football, and he's yelling, ‘Rifle!’ the whole first half, which means run right. Second half, he yells out, ‘Rifle!’ and we're looking like, ‘Where's Marvin Harrison?' Touchdown. Peyton Manning would give you bait. His head was a calculator on that field. He would go out and compute things. Don't let this team success masquerade the fact that if you had to go against one, you feared one more. And it was obviously Peyton Manning."

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National Football League

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Marcellus Wiley

Emmanuel Acho