While the Philadelphia quarterback recently got the best of his Kansas City counterpart, he still has a long way to go.
While minding my own business last week, I ran across a social media graphic. Posted a couple of weeks after the Kansas City Chiefs’ 40-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, it was labeled “47 Games in and Hurts CRUSHES Brady. Path to GOATness.”
That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?
There’s just one problem: this comparison has been deliberately manipulated to make Hurts look better. It compares Brady’s second through fourth seasons (ending in 2003) to Hurts’ third through fifth seasons (ending in 2024).
But if we make this comparison the right way — comparing the two players’ first four seasons as starters (Brady only played in one game as a rookie, while Hurts started four games in his first season) — it tells a much different story.
Once again, Hurts compares very favorably to Brady. But a closer examination reveals two things.
The first is that the “Awards & Honors” section provided by Stathead is missing from the first graphic. That was probably a deliberate omission, too — because it reveals the most important reason Brady’s first four seasons as a starter were so special: he had collected three Super Bowl rings, compared to just one for Hurts.
The second is that a big chunk of the statistics where Hurts was way better than Brady are essentially the result of the Eagles’ signature tush push play. Of Hurts’ 52 rushing touchdowns during this time, 45 were in goal-to-go situations — and 35 of those were for two or fewer yards.
Still, even if we ignore the tush pushes, we can certainly say that Hurts was a better rusher than Brady was during their early seasons. But that isn’t a high bar to clear, is it? Even as a young player, Brady wasn’t much of a rusher. In the last four seasons, 46 NFL quarterbacks have had at least three rushing touchdowns — exceeding the two Brady registered in his first four seasons — while 45 have outgained Brady’s 2001-2004 rushing yards.
By now, you must be asking why we should care that some Eagles fan — caught up in the excitement of their team knocking off the mighty Chiefs on the precipice of a three-peat — ginned up a misleading statistical comparison between Hurts and Brady. Honestly… there were probably a few Chiefs fans who did something similar after Kansas City won Super Bowl LIV.
Here’s why: because it reminds us there is another quarterback who played just one game in his rookie season before rising to the top of the league. Let’s compare the first eight seasons for Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady, shall we?
There isn’t a single category in this comparison in which Mahomes does not at least tie the greatest quarterback of all time.
My work here is done.