Former NFL quarterback and current NBC analyst Chris Simms moved Tom Brady up two spots year-over-year in his much-discussed quarterback rankings, but after the three-time MVP led the NFL in both passing yards (5,316) and touchdowns (43) a season ago, that's unlikely to satisfy many.
Simms -- who spent just over a year working for the New England Patriots as a coaching assistant back in 2013 -- says he now thinks that Brady is indeed the "GOAT." But he believes that entering his age-45 season, Brady is the No. 8 quarterback in the league, which he knows many won't view as high enough.
In terms of why Brady moved up two spots on his countdown from No. 10 a year ago, Simms lauded Brady's willingness to be more aggressive as he's gotten comfortable playing in the "no-risk-it-no-biscuit" offense of Bruce Arians and Byron Leftwich.
"...Last year [2020], I think early in the year, he was like a little bit playing the politics ... I mean like he wasn't going to make any dicey decisions because it might get blamed on me. I think what happened as they got hot at the end of the 2020 season, they won the Super Bowl and now we have guys like Arians and Leftwich always prodding him and poking him 'C'mon, push it down the field ... hang in there ... make the big play ... we drew this up, you liked the play all week, do it'. I think the pressure of 'Wait, I'm on a new team, it worked, I won the Super Bowl', it kind of let him go like 'I'm taking my best cuts here during this football game.' And the thing I love about Brady compared to even maybe years in New England is to the politics point, he goes down swinging now."
Simms also said that Brady's "effect on the team" -- which certainly is hard to quantify -- is "maybe as big as anybody in football."
But while Simms believes Brady can do "more with more" at this stage of his career, he's perhaps not as able to to do "more with less" as some of the other top-tier quarterbacks in the NFL.
"I would argue that the guys that we have here in front of him, you could put them on lesser teams ... and when you play games where you're a little overmatched ... those guys are gonna be able to still make it happen a little more than Tom Brady. And as you saw with some of the games where they lost this year [2021] or the year before [2020], it really comes down to one thing with him. His only flaw is pressure around him ... people around him.
"...When he's comfortable and gotten in a rhythm and been protected early, he will stand there and take some shots. And size is a skill. He can make plays that Lamar Jackson or Kyler Murray ... when they're in the pocket and people are around them ... Brady can still make unbelievable throws down the field, where I'd go those guys can't do that to his capacity, because they just don't have the size, the levers, the hand he does, all of that.
"But the issue now in comparison to maybe some of these guys we're gonna talk about [coming up], is that when it starts hairy from the start of the game -- New Orleans both times this year ... the Rams game in the playoffs -- it's hairy for a while. And he might never settle in. And he might never make a good throw. And then it starts to make his decisions bad too. And I know, all quarterbacks are going to be affected by pressure. But I'm telling you, the guys that are in front of him are less affected and can still do more in some of those situations than Brady. And that's why I think he's eight and there are seven ahead of him."
Simms revealed Wednesday that Russell Wilson is No. 7 on the countdown, while Matthew Stafford is No. 6. We can then deduce that, in some order, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow make up his top five.
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