Throwing a football can age like fine wine — at least that’s the case for a couple of quarterbacks, according to Tom Brady.
In the most recent edition of #AskTom, Brady was asked which quarterback throws the prettiest ball in the NFL. He actually responded with a pair of quarterbacks, and they’re both veterans.
“One is Aaron Rodgers and the other is Matthew Stafford,” Brady replied.
And not only did Brady say that the two decorated quarterbacks throw the prettiest passes in the league today, but he also went on to say that the way Rodgers and Stafford throw the ball might be among the best in NFL history.
“Both those guys spin the ball as well as anybody that’s ever played,” Brady said. “They have silky-smooth deliveries. They’re so accurate, and it’s just effortless when it comes out of their hands.”
This actually isn’t the first instance where Brady has compared Rodgers to all-time passers. In April 2025, he said that Rodgers and Dan Marino instantly came to mind when he was asked which quarterback has the most talented arm in NFL history.
Rodgers’ résumé speaks for itself, as his four MVPs are the second-most in NFL history. At 42, Rodgers is still putting up respectable numbers and occasionally dropping dimes. He’s thrown for 1,487 yards, 12 touchdowns and five interceptions this season, helping the Pittsburgh Steelers get out to a 4-2 start.
Stafford, meanwhile, threw some pretty balls last season en route to winning his first MVP, doing so at age 37. Now 38, Stafford has continued to make some impressive throws this year. He leads the league in passing entering Week 7 (1,794 yards) as he continues to spark the Los Angeles Rams’ offense.
As Rodgers and Stafford continue to drop dimes, Brady thinks the two quarterbacks have an innate talent for throwing the ball.
“I think there’s really natural passers from the time you’re born, and you see that all the way through baseball leagues, and then Pop Warner football,” Brady said. “Then, you get to college, and you really start to refine it, because you’re practicing so much. By the time you get to the pros, those fundamentals are pretty hardwired into what you do. You can make minor modifications, but both those guys were natural passers the day they came into the NFL.”
Rodgers might have some of the most impressive passes in NFL history. His 61-yard Hail Mary to help the Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions in 2015 has been debated as the best Hail Mary in NFL history. On that play, which has since been dubbed the “Miracle in Motown,” Rodgers scrambled around the backfield before unleashing a pass from the Packers’ 35-yard line. His pass traveled a few yards into the end zone, where Richard Rogers came down with the game-winning grab.
That wasn’t the only Hail Mary that Rodgers completed that season. In fact, he completed two Hail Mary passes in the Packers’ playoff loss to the Arizona Cardinals. The first was a fourth-and-20 completion to Jeff Janis, where Rodgers threw the ball nearly 60 yards in the air to help Green Bay go from deep in its own territory to Arizona’s side of the field. A couple of plays later, Rodgers eluded the Cardinals’ pass rush and found Janis on a Hail Mary pass for a touchdown that had nearly 60 air yards.
Those Hail Mary throws might not even be the most impressive of Rodgers’ career, either. A year later, Rodgers threw a ball on a tightrope for a 36-yard completion to Jared Cook to help set the Packers up to kick the game-winning field goal against the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round of the playoffs. That might be too bland a way of describing that pass, though, as Rodgers scrambled to his left before squeezing the throw by a Cowboys defender and to Cook, who perfectly kept himself aligned with the sideline.
Years before those throws, Rodgers made an impressive throw on the game’s biggest stage. He completed a 21-yard touchdown pass to Greg Jennings for a touchdown in the Packers’ Super Bowl XLV win over the Steelers. On that pass, Rodgers threaded the needle by perfectly placing a ball between Steelers safeties Ryan Clark and Troy Polamalu. The ball went just past a diving Clark, while Polamalu was just too late to make a play and knock Rodgers’ pass away.
If Rodgers is the King of Hail Mary throws, then Stafford might be the equivalent of no-look passes. Stafford has made several highlight no-look throws over the years, including on the biggest drive of his career.
When the Rams needed to score a touchdown in the final minutes of Super Bowl LVI, Stafford deceived the Cincinnati Bengals’ defense when he looked toward the sideline as he fired a pass over the middle to Cooper Kupp for a 22-yard gain.
Stafford has continued to make big plays on no-look passes as he ages. Just last season, he faked out the Seattle Seahawks’ defense when he looked toward the flat as he threw a touchdown pass to Puka Nacua on a slant.
The most iconic pass of Stafford’s career might have come when he was with the Lions, though. It actually occurred in his rookie season. Stafford separated his non-throwing shoulder on the penultimate play from scrimmage in the Lions’ win over the Cleveland Browns in 2009, with a pass interference giving Detroit the ball at the 1-yard line on the ensuing play. Stafford stayed on the field for the next play, throwing a tight spiral over the middle to Brandon Pettigrew for a touchdown that helped serve as the game-winning score.
Which Pass Does Tom Brady Think Is The Toughest?
In a follow-up question, Brady was asked which throw is tougher to make: a go route or pass over the middle. Brady combined the two and said that throwing a deep post was the toughest throw for him to make during his career.
“I thought a deep go route down the sideline was a little easier because, A, you were only dealing with one defender, the cornerback usually, and B, that receiver was always on the same path,” Brady said. “He was always running directly down the field. So you could gauge his speed, and then try to put the perfect arc in place, drop it right into the bucket and let your receiver catch it.
“When you’re running a post, you’re running also horizontally across the field. I always felt that was much harder to judge, and a lot of times, you’re involving either the middle-of-the-field safety and the corner, which is kind of a two-on-one ball and was always a little tricky. I probably threw more go-balls for touchdowns than post for touchdowns over the course of my career.”
While there isn’t an exact number that shows how well Brady did at throwing passes to receivers on post routes during his career, there are some numbers that suggest he didn’t do as well throwing deep and over the middle of the field. Brady threw for more touchdowns and a higher passer rating on throws of 20-plus yards outside the numbers as opposed to 20-plus-yard throws between the numbers in 10 of his 16 final seasons, per Pro Football Focus.
