The numbers that defined 2010: 111.0 and 109.8

 

While no NFL season can be broken down simply into numbers, the 2010 NFL season could stand pretty easily on just two names: Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady.

Brady's dominance of the regular season and Rodgers' dominance of the postseason were on equal footing, and their passer ratings show it. Had one of Rodgers' passes in the Super Bowl gone just four yards further, they would both have finished at a nice tidy 111.0 during their particular time to shine.

As it stands, Rodgers finished at 109.8 and was the king of February – but who had the more impressive performance? Was it Brady's coldly perfect regular season, or Rodgers' red-hot postseason?

 

Having the hottest of playoff quarterbacks doesn't guarantee a Super Bowl ring, but as you can see from the last 20 Lombardi winners, having an ice-cold one is going to stand in the way.

• 2010 Rodgers 109.8 (1st among playoff quarterbacks)
• 2009 Brees 117.0 (3rd)
• 2008 Roethlisberger 91.8 (2nd)
• 2007 Eli Manning 95.7 (4th)
• 2006 Peyton Manning 70.5 (8th)
• 2005 Roethlisberger 101.7 (1st)
• 2004 Brady 109.4 (1st)
• 2003 Brady 84.5 (5th)
• 2002 B. Johnson 79.9 (6th)
• 2001 Brady 77.3  (6th)
• 2000 Dilfer 83.7 (3rd)
• 1999 Warner 100.0 (2nd)
• 1998 Elway 85.9 (3rd)
• 1997 Elway 83.9 (2nd)
• 1996 Favre 107.5 (1st)
• 1995 Aikman 106.1 (3rd)
• 1994 Young 117.2 (1st)
• 1993 Aikman 104.0 (2nd)
• 1992 Aikman 126.4 (1st)
• 1991 Rypien 91.2 (3rd)

Peyton Manning excluded, it's pretty clear that you'd better have a red-hot QB to win it all -- and in Manning's season, it's worth noting that not a single quarterback had a rating over 90.0, the only year of the 20 to see that happen.

 

Rodgers' rating was fourth-best among the 20 Super Bowl champions, not half-bad considering his Packers entered the playoffs as the last seed in the NFC.

Rodgers also dispatched the No. 5 scoring defense (Atlanta), No. 4 scoring defense (Chicago) and No. 1 scoring defense (Pittsburgh) on the way to glory.

BRADY

When you throw 335 straight passes without an interception and your team goes 14-2 in what was supposed to be a down year, well, it's time to take a bow. While his supporting cast didn't get enough credit for doing their jobs as well as Brady was asked to do his, it was regardless a transcendent effort and earned him all 50 MVP votes – an NFL first.

Still, while Brady's season was a cut above the rest, the gap down to Philip Rivers at No. 2 (101.8) was 9.2 rating points – a fair distance, but not as large as some we've seen over the last 20 years.

 

Here's a list of the top 10 passer rating seasons of the past 20 years, and where the performance stacked up that season in relation to the next guy.

• 1994 Steve Young, 112.8 (+22.1)
• 1999 Kurt Warner, 109.2 (+14.6)
• 2007 Tom Brady, 117.2 (+12.9)
• 2004 Peyton Manning, 121.1 (+10.2)
• 2010 Tom Brady, 110.0 (+9.2)
• 2008 Philip Rivers, 105.5 (+8.1)
• 1998 Randall Cunningham, 106.0 (+4.6)
• 2009 Drew Brees, 109.6 (+2.4)
• 2009 Brett Favre, 107.2 (-2.4)
• 2004 Daunte Culpepper, 110.9 (-10.2)

Brady was a fair piece ahead of the field, but it wasn't quite as dominant as some of the great passing seasons of the era. And passer rating as a whole was 82.2 this year, the highest it's ever been in the history of the league.

So, which performance was better?

 

Brady's 2010 was one of the best of the Super Bowl era. But considering the stakes involved, and the utter dominance that Rodgers showed while playing four straight away from Lambeau Field, Green Bay's young gun gets a slight edge.

 

It's hard not to notice Steve Young's 1994 season jumping off the page. Not only did he have the second-best playoff passer rating of any Super Bowl winner of the last 20 years, he was over 20 points better than Brett Favre in winning the regular-season passing crown.

After leading the NFL in scoring during the regular season, his 49ers that year faced three top-10 scoring defenses in the playoffs and hung an average of 43.7 points a game on them.

So basically, he was Brady in the regular season and then added Rodgers' playoff performance to the end of it.

 

SOMEONE GET THAT MONKEY OFF HIS BACK!

 

By Kerry Byrne