Sunday NFL Thoughts: Jets release player drafted to block Vince Wilfork, Tom Brady’s message to Richard Sherman

1. MMQB’s Peter King dropped an interesting stat on Twitter this weekend:

Since turning 37 before the 2014 season, New England Patriots QB Tom Brady has thrown 97 regular season touchdowns and 20 postseason touchdowns, to go with 18 regular season interceptions and 9 postseason interceptions.

Brady’s 117 touchdowns versus 27 interceptions and +90 touchdown-to-interception differential (TD:I) over three years is incredible. To put this +90 TD:I into context, just 17 players in NFL history (regular and postseason) have a career TD:I of +90 or better, with Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson joining the club this season at +91. Brady has a career TD:I of +336, which is the best in NFL history.

Here’s the full list:

1. Tom Brady (+336)
2. Peyton Manning (+303)
3. Drew Brees (+263)
4. Aaron Rodgers (+251)
5. Brett Favre (+186)
6. Dan Marino (+176)
7. Philip Rivers (+160)
8. Joe Montana (+158)
9. Ben Roethlisberger (+143)
t-10. Matt Ryan (+137)
t-10. Tony Romo (+137)
12. Steve Young (+132)
13. Donovan McNabb (+124)
14. Eli Manning (+114)
15. Carson Palmer (+103)
16. Kurt Warner (+97)
17. Russell Wilson (+91)

Players like Joe Flacco (+80), Matthew Stafford (+80), and Alex Smith (+76) are candidates to join the group next season.

2. Is Donovan McNabb the most underappreciated quarterback of the past 20 years? From 2000 to 2009, McNabb led the Philadelphia Eagles to eight playoff trips in ten seasons. He brought them to five conference championship games and one Super Bowl. He had a below average completion rate (59.0%), but he avoided throwing interceptions better than anyone not-named Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady.

Outside of one and a half seasons with Terrell Owens and his final two years in Philly with DeSean Jackson, McNabb’s leading receivers were Chad Lewis, James Thrash, Todd Pinkston, Reggie Brown, and Kevin Curtis, as head coach Andy Reid left his receiving core a veritable boneyard. Some might argue that McNabb had a talented receiver out of the backfield in Brian Westbrook, but that’s akin to arguing that Brady had great receiving talent because of Kevin Faulk.

Add in the fact that McNabb was a dangerous runner (3rd most rushing yards for a quarterback over the past 20 years), and you have a pretty great resume of a player overcoming weak receiving weapons and leading a team to a lot of success.

I’m not going to argue that McNabb should be in the Hall of Fame; I don’t think he should because he was only a top 5 quarterback in a given season once in his entire career (2004, lost in the Super Bowl to the Patriots).

But when looking at the top quarterbacks of the past 20 years, there’s Brady, then there’s Peyton Manning, Brees, Rodgers, and Favre in whatever order you want. Behind them is Roethlisberger, Warner, and Eli Manning. These are all players either in or destined for the Hall of Fame.

But when constructing the Hall of Very Good, McNabb should be in that next group with Tony Romo and Philip Rivers.

3. The New York Jets released longtime center Nick Mangold and, no, I don’t think he’d come to the Patriots. The team really likes C David Andrews and adding Mangold would just hinder his development. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mangold did the Logan Mankins and spent a pair of seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before retiring.

We should give some credit to Mangold for battling the Patriots for 11 seasons. Eric Mangini, in his then-rookie season as a head coach, drafted Mangold with the 29th overall pick of the 2006 NFL Draft out of Ohio State.

“We drafted to try to beat the Patriots, because if you can’t beat them you can’t win the division,” Mangini explained after he was fired. “The reason we drafted Nick Mangold was because we needed a center to hold up against the nose guard, which is the driving force in a 3-4 defense, especially for an inside running game. We drafted Mangold to battle Patriots nose tackle Vince Wilfork.”

Former Patriots NT Vince Wilfork called Mangold the toughest center in the league, so the Jets accomplished that aspect of their mission. They’re still working on trying to win the division.

4. The NFL released a schedule of head coach and team executive meetings at the 2017 Combine. Only three teams aren’t represented. Can you guess which ones?

The Patriots, Saints, and Washington do not have a coach or team executive available for the media. Special props to Bengals head Marvin Lewis for wasting Friday morning for the Bengals beat writers.

5. Do you remember when the New York Giants illegally used walkie talkies this past season? The team was fined $200,000 and their fourth round pick was moved to the end of the round, after the compensatory picks. Now that the compensatory picks have been assigned, we can fully examine the Giants penalty.

The Giants were docked 10 draft positions in the fourth round. Enough has been written on the randomness of the penalties issued by the league and how specific teams (usually residing in New York, with a stadium in New Jersey) receive preferential treatment.

But this is the biggest finger wag of a penalty that would have resulted in a loss of multiple first round picks for the Patriots.

6. Seattle Seahawks CB Richard Sherman released a photo of his jersey collection that he has received as gifts from fellow players. He has a jersey from Tom Brady and you can kind of read the message.

“R.S. I’m still...you are the best!”

I’m assuming Brady wrote “I’m still mad, bro!” because he has a great sense of humor. What do you think Brady wrote?