With Sunday night's matchup between Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers looming, there's a lot of talk this week about which quarterback is the best playing right now. They find their teams in very different situations, with the Patriots at 6-2 in the driver's seat of the AFC East (as usual) and the Packers at 3-3-1 as they try to climb to the top of an up-and-down NFC North.
However, despite both of these quarterbacks' laser focus in preparing for the next game, Brady has taken notice of the greatness of Rodgers.
Brady talked to Boston's "Kirk and Callahan" to say that Rodgers is "inspiring" to watch, adding that "even a lot of his incompletions are impressive."
In classic Brady fashion, he declined to speak on the greatest of all time, instead saying he's played plenty of greats such as "[Aaron] Rodgers, [Drew] Brees, Peyton [Manning], [Ben] Roethlisberger, [Cam] Newton and [Brett] Favre." There's a disturbing lack of Eli Manning on that list, but Brady must have just forgotten.
Looking at it through the lens of this season, Brady has completed 67.5 percent of his passes for 2,200 yards, 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Rodgers, meanwhile, has completed 61.3 percent of his passes for 2,283 yards, 13 touchdowns and just one pick.
Both are playing at an extraordinary level, with Brady's interception number being just a bit higher than we're used to in recent years. Nevertheless, he's having a good year and the Patriots look as tough as ever. Sunday should be interesting. Rodgers bested Brady in their only other matchup in 2014, throwing for 368 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
