Getty Image
42-year-old New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is in the midst of his 20th season in the NFL. 22-year-old Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray is in the middle of his very first. And the old saying, “Everything old is new again,” seems to apply to these two signal callers, at least heading into this past Sunday’s slate of games.
After 11 games, Murray, who was on a bye on Sunday, had a passing stat line wildy similar to future Hall of Famer Brady, with almost identical completion percentages, passing yards, touchdown passes, interceptions and QB rating.
This is insane.
Tom Brady: 64% completion, 2,752 Yards, 14 TD, 5 INT, 90.1 Rating
Kyler Murray: 65% completion, 2,703 Yards, 14 TD, 5 INT, 91.2 Rating.
Rookie of the year.
— Zona (@AZSportsZone) November 24, 2019
The eerie similarities between the two star quarterbacks’ stat lines begs the question: “Are they the same because Murray is just that good or is it because Brady has (finally) begun to regress after 20 years in the league?”
Brady’s 90.1 QB rating would be his lowest in a season since 2013 and you have to go all the way back to 2008 to find another year where it was lower.
That being said, 90.1 is not bad. In fact, it’s better than his first three years as the starter for New England – three years in which he won two Super Bowls and two Super Bowl MVP awards.
With those numbers in mind, Murray looks pretty good in this comparison. Should he keep up his current pace, Murray will throw for 20 touchdowns against 7 interceptions.
7 interceptions thrown as a rookie starting quarterback in the NFL would be ridiculous. In Brady’s first three seasons as a starter he threw 12, 14, and 12 interceptions. Those numbers came out to interception percentages of 2.9, 2.3, and 2.3. Murray’s current interception percentage is just 1.3.
Brady has since played one more game than Murray, Sunday night’s win over the Cowboys, but his stats actually took a little hit with his QB rating dropping to 88.5 thanks to going just 17 for 37 (46%) passing on the night. So actually, after 11 games apiece, Murray’s stats are better than Brady’s while playing for a significantly worse team.
Throw in Murray’s 418 yards and three touchdowns running the ball, with two fumbles, versus Brady’s minus-1 yard, three touchdowns, and four fumbles, and it would appear, at least so far, that the 2019 number one overall pick is actually just that damn good.