Rodgers vs Brady
Statistically it is pretty much a dead heat since 2007 in the regular season. I'd give Rodgers a slight edge but really it is splitting hairs.
Wow. I just looked up the numbers. It really is pretty damn close.
I used 2010 as the the starting point since, well, that was the breakout year for Rodgers as an elite QB with the SB win, and for Brady it was a full season of elite play (unlike 2009), post-injury.
Tom Brady Stats | Pro-Football-Reference.com
Aaron Rodgers Stats | Pro-Football-Reference.com
Even at first glance, the basic stats are pretty even...
Rodgers will give you a few more passing TDs with a higher YPA and Cmp% too, but, he also gets sacked 10 more times over the course of a single season. It makes sense too, since he's so quick to scramble on passing plays. So, with this in mind, when you look a little deeper into the stats, his negative sacks yards/attempts don't show up in traditional YPA or comp %, but if you look at the adjusted stats on the far right, Rodger's Y/C ("Yards per Catch") and his NY/A ("Net Yards" which includes sack yards lost) lowers his yardage numbers and completion % to be almost identical to Brady's in Y/C (12.1 vs 12.0) and dead-even in NY/A (7.02 for both). I also added the # of sacks to the pass attempts, and doing so really narrows the gap in comp % to Rodgers at 61.2 vs. 61.1 for Brady. It really is remarkably close.
Brady still has fewer TDs (3 fewer per/yr) -- despite more pass attempts (46 per yr); which explains Brady's lower QB rating by 5.1. More pass attempts gives Brady more total pass yards (but I already discussed the adjusted YPA being so close). Though, despite more attempts, Brady still keeps his total INTs almost as low as Rodgers, at an ever-so-slightly lower rate (.1), too. Again, another remarkably close stat.
So, at first glance, Brady's higher total pass attempts might make one think his team is less likely to hand-off the ball. But (to no-one's surprise, I suspect) it's the opposite way around; New England runs the ball more, and scores more rushing TDs. But, the surprising part is that the Patriots running game really hasn't been as better than Green Bay's as one might think over the course of time. But New England has still been more committed to it; especially near the goal-line as it seems.
So, I'm guessing the +6.4 gap in NE's rushing TDs are the biggest reason why Brady has 3 fewer passing TDs per year.
Also, both QBs are near-equal with their own rushing TDs; Brady with 17, Rodgers with 16, since 2010; so 2 per yr. Again, another really close stat.