Rodgers is a great QB, and if people want to put him #1 at the list, I understand that.
I just don't agree.
Rodgers is too much of a front-runner for my liking. When things are going well, he's on fire. But when the going gets tough, Rodgers doesn't seem to do much to change that fact.
FiveThirtyEight pointed out that Rodgers has never led his team to a comeback win from 9+ down in the second half. 0-21 at the time of the writing. Reading one Packers fan article "debating" this point, he mentioned that analysis included 4 games that Rodgers didn't start, and didn't include his 3 play-off games (0-3). Make those changes and Rodgers is only 0-20. Way to debunk that.
Not all of that is the QB's fault mind you. There was that 51-45 loss to the Cardinals in the play-offs where I could have thrown for at least 2 TDs against the Packers D. But you would think over the course of 20ish games, it would happen at least once. The article showed Peyton as a comparison, who was 14-35 in 49 games. It's hard to win games trailing by 2-possessions in the second half, but Manning wins over 1/4 of them, which is pretty impressive.
And what was interesting was the breakdown of INT percentage. Rodgers doesn't deviate much regardless of score. Manning's INT rate almost doubles when trailing by 9+. That would make many fans laugh at Manning but to borrow from old friend Herm Edwards, YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME. Manning is forcing the issue, and I'd rather have a QB force the issue when down big and sometimes pull it off than have a safe QB who plays the same way and always loses when we are down.
So yes, Rodgers may have a statistical edge in some areas, especially INTs (although nobody seems to care about the overinflated balls that might be tougher for DBs to catch, but I digress). However, considering we could not have won our 4th Super Bowl without Brady overcoming a 9+ deficit in the second half in 2 of our 3 play-off games (which actually included 2 comebacks down 9+ in the same game against the Ravens), a feat Rodgers has not done even once, I will gladly take our guy over anyone else. Rodgers fans can keep their statistical edge; I'd rather have the Lombardi Trophy.
As BB says, there's no QB I'd rather have than Tom Brady.