Interesting SB observation

#SB appearances by QB 2003-2018 seasons

AFC
Brady: 8
Manning: 4
Roethlisberger: 3
Flacco:1

NFC
Eli Manning: 2
Wilson: 2
Delhomme
McNabb
HasselBeck
Grossman
Warner
Brees
Rodgers
Kaepernick
Newton
Ryan
Foles
Goff

So 14 QBs represented the NFC, while only 4 represented the AFC. No NFC QB made it more than twice. Even so called "elite QBs like Brees and Rodgers.

Is this because NFC QBs are not as good? Or because the AFC has done a better job surrounding their elite QBs with talent need to win SBs?

NFC has usually been a gauntlet to get through where the AFC has been dominated by the Patriots

Manning and Brady are the best players on that list, of course. But that's really mostly a story of the Patriots dominance.

Brady & The Patriots are the outlier ... Manning to a much lesser extent is one too ...

The rest is exactly what the NFL wanted to do when they instituted the salary cap - bring parity to the league ... they succeeded ...

If it wasn't for the perfect storm of the Patriots Coach & QB, the AFC would look similar...

Also, if Jimmy G wins in two weeks, he will have three Super Bowl rings, which would be tied for fourth all time with Aikman.

TB_Helmet said:

Also, if Jimmy G wins in two weeks, he will have three Super Bowl rings, which would be tied for fourth all time with Aikman.

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Yeah. I was thinking of starting a thread on whether Jimmy G's rings with the Patriots count. On the con side he wasn't the starting QB. On the Pro side Mannings ring from 2015 counts so...

Besides Tom and Peyton being amazing players, I don't see any logical, structural or causal reasons why the NFC would be different than the AFC in terms of producing a plurality or diversity of starting players.

TB_Helmet said:

Also, if Jimmy G wins in two weeks, he will have three Super Bowl rings, which would be tied for fourth all time with Aikman.

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He would tie Steve Young.

Brady wouldve been in a lot more if pats made it every year

Nehalem said:

#SB appearances by QB 2003-2018 seasons

AFC
Brady: 8
Manning: 4
Roethlisberger: 3
Flacco:1

NFC
Eli Manning: 2
Wilson: 2
Delhomme
McNabb
HasselBeck
Grossman
Warner
Brees
Rodgers
Kaepernick
Newton
Ryan
Foles
Goff

So 14 QBs represented the NFC, while only 4 represented the AFC. No NFC QB made it more than twice. Even so called "elite QBs like Brees and Rodgers.

Is this because NFC QBs are not as good? Or because the AFC has done a better job surrounding their elite QBs with talent need to win SBs?

Click to expand...

Brady

It has more to do with the teams. the pats ,steelers, colts, and broncos built some strong teams during their windows that remained competitive for a # of years. Brady And the pats is the outlier in everything, but Manning and Ben are not worlds better than Rodgers and Brees. I think the 4 are pretty even with maybe ben on a slightly lower tier.

ArchAngel007 said:

NFC has usually been a gauntlet to get through where the AFC has been dominated by the Patriots

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If you look at the two conferences in the past couple of decades, the best teams, particularly in terms of sustained quality, have tended to be in the AFC, not the NFC (Patriots/Colts/Steelers/Ravens/Chargers at the start of the run). That's changed a little bit in recent years, as Peyton retired, Luck was injured and retired, and the NFC had a few teams that had pretty good personnel moves. But, still, the talk about the NFC being a gauntlet and the AFC being easier, stems in large part from the fact that the team being talked about (the Patriots) have been the best team in the league, and they basically don't get counted as part of the AFC, since the commenting is about them.

ArchAngel007 said:

NFC has usually been a gauntlet to get through where the AFC has been dominated by the Patriots

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The AFC has won the season series over the NFC 17 of the last 24 seasons and holds a large edge overall. This season the AFC made a great run after being down early by 10 and only ended up losing the season series 33-31.

The only place the NFC has a lead is in SB's won, and that lead is only 1 (27-26) in spite of a crazy 13 straight wins by the NFC from 84-96.

The idea that the NFC is stronger is a myth.

Pape said:

Brady & The Patriots are the outlier ... Manning to a much lesser extent is one too ...

The rest is exactly what the NFL wanted to do when they instituted the salary cap - bring parity to the league ... they succeeded ...

If it wasn't for the perfect storm of the Patriots Coach & QB, the AFC would look similar...

Click to expand...

Goodell tried to handicap the stronger teams to create parity but it failed. After all, he's a former Jete.

In Goody's 14 years this is the breakdown of the playoff teams for those 14 years;
NE - 13
GB - 10
Sea - 10
Bal - 9
Ind - 9
KC - 8
NO - 8
Pitt - 8
Phi - 8

47 of the AFC's 84 spots went to 5 teams.
36 of the NFC's 84 spots went to 4 teams

On the other end of the spectrum, these are the 14 year playoff totals for the teams that Goody is trying to help;
Cle - 0
Oak - 1
TB - 1
Buf - 2
Jac - 2
Mia - 2
Rams - 2
NJ - 3
Chi - 3
Det - 3
Was - 3

10 of the AFC's 84 spots went to 6 teams.
12 of the NFC's 84 spots went to 5 teams.

IOW, I don't think Goodell can spell parity, let alone accomplish it.

1960Pats said:

Goodell tried to handicap the stronger teams to create parity but it failed. After all, he's a former Jete.

In Goody's 14 years this is the breakdown of the playoff teams for those 14 years;
NE - 13
GB - 10
Sea - 10
Bal - 9
Ind - 9
KC - 8
NO - 8
Pitt - 8
Phi - 8

47 of the AFC's 84 spots went to 5 teams.
36 of the NFC's 84 spots went to 4 teams

On the other end of the spectrum, these are the 14 year playoff totals for the teams that Goody is trying to help;
Cle - 0
Oak - 1
TB - 1
Buf - 2
Jac - 2
Mia - 2
Rams - 2
NJ - 3
Chi - 3
Det - 3
Was - 3

10 of the AFC's 84 spots went to 6 teams.
12 of the NFC's 84 spots went to 5 teams.

IOW, I don't think Goodell can spell parity, let alone accomplish it.

Click to expand...

parity has been achieved ... what it doesn't account for is incompetence, which is what the majority of those teams suffer from

1960Pats said:

Goodell tried to handicap the stronger teams to create parity but it failed. After all, he's a former Jete.

In Goody's 14 years this is the breakdown of the playoff teams for those 14 years;
NE - 13
GB - 10
Sea - 10
Bal - 9
Ind - 9
KC - 8
NO - 8
Pitt - 8
Phi - 8

47 of the AFC's 84 spots went to 5 teams.
36 of the NFC's 84 spots went to 4 teams

On the other end of the spectrum, these are the 14 year playoff totals for the teams that Goody is trying to help;
Cle - 0
Oak - 1
TB - 1
Buf - 2
Jac - 2
Mia - 2
Rams - 2
NJ - 3
Chi - 3
Det - 3
Was - 3

10 of the AFC's 84 spots went to 6 teams.
12 of the NFC's 84 spots went to 5 teams.

IOW, I don't think Goodell can spell parity, let alone accomplish it.

Click to expand...

The QB/Elite defense = playoffs correlation is very strong.

Deus Irae said:

The QB/Elite defense = playoffs correlation is very strong.

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Yeah, I don't know why a lack of parity is surprising. Quarterback is one of the few positions where year-to-year play is generally pretty stable, absent some extenuating circumstance (generally injury) and there are only a handful of elite QBs in the league and they don't tend to move around for obvious reasons; and there's some degree of correlation to the quality of a team and the presence of an elite QB (they make players better, stable long-term QB contracts actually become good deals the last few years of the contract if the QB's play remains at a high level, frees up picks for other positions, etc.)

The Patriots' run really is the outlier here, that they managed to consistently win single-game elimination "series" in which random chance plays a big role in a season's outcome and make it to the Super Bowl so often.

1960Pats said:

Goodell tried to handicap the stronger teams to create parity but it failed. After all, he's a former Jete.

In Goody's 14 years this is the breakdown of the playoff teams for those 14 years;
NE - 13
GB - 10
Sea - 10
Bal - 9
Ind - 9
KC - 8
NO - 8
Pitt - 8
Phi - 8

47 of the AFC's 84 spots went to 5 teams.
36 of the NFC's 84 spots went to 4 teams

On the other end of the spectrum, these are the 14 year playoff totals for the teams that Goody is trying to help;
Cle - 0
Oak - 1
TB - 1
Buf - 2
Jac - 2
Mia - 2
Rams - 2
NJ - 3
Chi - 3
Det - 3
Was - 3

10 of the AFC's 84 spots went to 6 teams.
12 of the NFC's 84 spots went to 5 teams.

IOW, I don't think Goodell can spell parity, let alone accomplish it.

Click to expand...

I’d be interested to see these numbers for other leagues. NFL might not have perfect parity but it’s a relative term.

On WEEI they were discussing the lack of Injuries to QBs in SBs and wondering how likely that is to continue. They were sort of wondering out loud how likely you can have 54 games without a QB getting injured.
I looked it up and the only two instances I could find were Unitas in SB V (they were lucky to have a great backup in Morrall) and Bradshaw getting knocked out of SB X when they were up by two scores with four minutes to go.

Two scrambling QBs...hmm...

TB_Helmet said:

Also, if Jimmy G wins in two weeks, he will have three Super Bowl rings, which would be tied for fourth all time with Aikman.

Click to expand...

I was just thinking about posting on this, though obviously there would need to be a huge asterisk. Still, if the 49ers win a couple more, I could see it becoming a theme that he might "catch" Brady.