You make a whole lot of good points, points which I cannot answer.
If Brady ends up winning five Super Bowls or more then would you think that he is the greatest of all time?
Thanks!
I think four for four is more impressive. If getting there was the yardstick the Bills would be in the running for greatest team of all time, having done the near impossible in making four straight SBs. And I believe that records and ratings were much harder to come by in Joe's day. Also, if they hadn't traded Montana to keep a younger and great but impatient Steve Young (which given the lateness of the hour for Joe made sense) there's no real reason not to believe Joe would be 5-0 in SBs.
And I missed one earlier. Two for the four SB rings Joe has were earned without Rice. He won two more with Rice, then Young won one with Young.
Two rings more than answers the "How instrumental was Rice to Montana's success" question. He won as many without him. Now how many times did Brady go to the SB without Vinatieri and win? And again, the greatest qb of all time doesn't take the most potent offense of its day into the SB and lose. Twice.
In 2007 he'd thrown for 50 tds against 8 ints with a 117 qb rating. Only three teams held opponents to lower scores that year than the Pats, so it wasn't just a terrific offense. And that undefeated team's offense scored 589 pts that year. Second place? Dallas, with 455.
I don't know that Montana ever operated with that differential. And Brady lost.
In 2012 Brady took the best offense and a top ten defense into round two with the Giants. The Giants had scored 392 pts and given up 400 that year. The Pats had scored 513 and given up 342 pts. Brady's team went home with another loss.
That said, he put on one of the best performances I've seen in that win against Seattle. His team was lucky, but Brady was special that day. He's special more days than not.
Brady's great play over time (and counting) merits putting him in the conversation and a special status, but it's Joe and then the rest the way it's Jim Brown (with a nod to Barry Sanders) and then the rest.