Starting with Rich Gannon of the Oakland Raiders in the “Tuck Rule” game 20 years ago Wednesday, Tom Brady has been opposed by 33 different starting quarterbacks in his playoff career. Matthew Stafford will make it 34 when the Bucs host the Rams on Sunday, which will be Brady’s 47th postseason game.
Of the 33 previous starting quarterbacks, identified thanks to the game logs on Pro Football Reference, 22 are retired, five (Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Alex Smith, Andrew Luck, Jared Goff) were selected first overall in the NFL draft with Stafford about to be the sixth. Two (Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner) are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and, sadly, one (Steve McNair) is deceased.
Here is a look at the starting quarterbacks Brady has opposed in the playoffs and the number of times he has faced each of them.
5 – Peyton Manning
Brady faced Manning three times when the latter was with Indianapolis and twice with Denver. Brady won the first two meetings before losing the last three. He threw five touchdown passes and four interceptions in the five matchups.
4 – Joe Flacco
Brady and the Patriots broke even in four playoff meeting with Flacco’s Ravens. One of the losses, 28-13, was in the 2012 AFC Championship. In the other, 33-14 in the 2010 wild card, Brady threw for 152 yards and was intercepted three times resulting in a rating of 49.1, the worst of his playoff career. (Flacco, amazingly, had a rating of 10.0 in that game. He attempted only 10 passes – four completions for 34 yards – while the Ravens ran the ball 52 times.)
3 – Phillip Rivers
Brady faced Rivers and the Chargers three times and won each time despite throwing three interceptions in each of the first two games. The third and final meeting, a 2018 wild card matchup, was 12 years after their previous playoff engagement.
2 – Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Andrew Luck, Patrick Mahomes
Two of Brady’s three Super Bowl defeats were against the Giants and Eli Manning. Combined, Brady threw three touchdown passes and one interception…..There were 12 years between the playoff games against the Steelers and Roethlisberger. In those games, Brady had a combined 128.4 rating…..Brady has faced the Colts five times in the playoffs with the last two against Luck. The Pats won both and by a combined 98-29….Brady defeated the Chiefs and Mahomes in the 2018 AFC Championship and in last year’s Super Bowl, when Brady recorded a 125.8 rating for his highest such mark in 10 Super Bowl appearances.
1 – Rich Gannon, Kordell Stewart, Kurt Warner, Steve McNair, Jake Delhomme, Donovan McNabb, Byron Leftwich, Jake Plummer, Chad Pennington, David Garrard, Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow, Matt Schaub, Russell Wilson, Alex Smith, Brock Osweiler, Matt Ryan, Marcus Mariota, Blake Bortles, Nick Foles, Jared Goff, Ryan Tannehill, Taylor Heinicke, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Jalen Hurts.
Brady and his current offensive coordinator, Byron Leftwich, met in the 2005 wild card. In New England’s 28-3 win over Jacksonville, Brady threw three TD passes and had a rating of 116.4. Leftwich threw for 179 yards, a pick and had a 61.1 rating….Brady’s move to the NFC last season resulted in his first playoff matchups with Brees (his last NFL game) and Rodgers, the latter in the NFC championship.….Brady has faced the Jaguars three times in the postseason and against three starting QBs: Leftwich, Garrard and Bortles. His career-best playoff rating of 141.1 was against Jacksonville in the 2007 wild card (opposed by Garrard) when he completed 26-of-28 passes for 262 yards and three TDs in a 31-20 win….Brady has also faced the Eagles (McNabb, Foles and Hurts) and Titans (McNair, Mariota, Tannehill) three times in the postseason without seeing the same starting QB.
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