Peyton Manning isn’t the first quarterback to suddenly be considered great in the playoffs after a rough patch. Turns out Bradshaw and Montanta had their bad days too.
When people say Montana is the greatest QB of all time, it’s what he did in seasons 10-12 that really put him in that category. Because prior to that, he was a QB with 2 rings already, but also three straight playoff failures and question marks over his future with the 49ers. He washed all of that away with a run of excellent play in the postseason that no QB has ever matched. That was seasons 10-12. Bradshaw’s were 9 & 10. What’s the point there? That you cannot truly measure a “good playoff QB” or “bad playoff QB” until you have a finished product. People throw the choker/clutch labels out there way too fast. Like John Elway proved, by winning titles in his 15th & 16th seasons, you almost have to give a quality QB the full length of his career to demonstrate whether or not he is championship caliber. Of course it takes a ton of help and usually some luck to win a title in any season.
Quickly here, if you want my definition of a good playoff QB, you can’t judge it by just by his number of rings, or just by stats, or just by record. There are many factors to consider. First give me a guy that plays well enough in the regular season to get his team into the tournament every year so they have a chance to catch a break or two and go all the way. Then when you get there, just play well enough to give the team a chance to win more often than not. What more can you ask for? Playing well in the playoffs is no different than doing the things you need to do well in the regular season: converting 3rd downs to sustain drives, getting more TDs in the red zone instead of FGs, and ball security.
Halfway to those 4 rings Bradshaw and Montana each have, there were a lot of bumps in the road. Their performances were up and down. They played on great teams which allowed them to still have early success. It was not until much later in their careers where they peaked individually and that is when the other half of those titles were won. That is when they started racking up great performance after great performance, which is what they are remembered best for.
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