Tom Brady is about to complete another monster season for the New England Patriots, as he has led the team to the playoffs once more, winning the AFC East for the 15th time this season, their ninth divisional title in a row.

Although he is arguably slowing down a little bit, the 40-year-old is still on pace to be one of the favourites to win the NFL MVP award this season, which surprisingly he has only won twice before. Over the duration of 14 games, he has 67.1 of his passing attempts for 4,163 yards, 28 touchdowns, and only seven interceptions.

Brady is the main reason why the Patriots are the number one seed in the AFC, and why the team is once again one of the favourites to win the Super Bowl this season. He's already a five-time Super Bowl champion, so it's not surprising to believe that he's being picked by some to do it again.

He's in his 18th season in the NFL at the age of 40, yet he's playing almost as good as he was when he was 30. This is why, along with all of his accomplishments, that many people regard the Patriots quarterback as the greatest of all time.

However, there are those that see other players above him in the pecking order when it comes to the GOAT, so is he really the GOAT?

In truth, there's only one other player in NFL history that comes close to the achievements of Brady, and that is the quarterback he idolized growing up in  San Mateo, California. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana.

At the age of four, Brady attended the 1981 NFC Championship against the Dallas Cowboys, in which Montana threw The Catch to Dwight Clark in the back of the endzone for a touchdown that sent the 49ers to the Super Bowl against the Cincinnati Bengals.

They ended up winning that Super Bowl and it was the first of four Super Bowls that the 49ers legend would win in his career. The Patriots quarterback, however, has five Super Bowls to his name, with the most recent coming last season against the Atlanta Falcons when he led his time to a 25-point comeback, the largest comeback in Super Bowl history, winning 34–28 in overtime. 

Brady also has more Super Bowl MVP awards than Montana, winning four to Montana's three. He surpassed Montana in Super Bowl wins and Super Bowl MVP awards last season after defeating the Falcons.

Brady holds multiple playoff quarterback records and is in the top five in nearly every career regular-season passing category. This is when Brady and Montana truly separate as quarterbacks, but you do have to remember that the 49ers icon only played 16 seasons while the Patriots star is in his 18th year.

So far in his NFL career, Brady has completed 5,590 of his 8,740 passing attempts for a completion percentage of 64%, throwing for 65,745 yards, 484 touchdowns, and 159 interceptions, giving him a passer rating of 97.6.

Montana, on the other hand, completed 3,409 of his 5,391 passing attempts for a completion percentage of 63.2%, throwing for 40,551 yards, 273 touchdowns, and 139 interceptions, giving him a passer rating of 92.3.

Brady may have been given more passing attempts, but he was much more effective with the ball in his hands. The Patriots star has thrown a touchdown on average in every 18 passing attempts, while the 49ers threw a touchdown in almost 20 passing attempts.

Brady also on average throws an interception once in every 55 passing attempts, while for Montana, it's in every 39 passing attempts.

Although you're more than welcome to come to your own conclusions, it's hard to avoid the facts shown above that clearly indicate that Brady has definitely surpassed Montana and should be considered the greatest of all time.

Brady has said that he has a lot of football left to play in his career, meaning that he is extremely likely to improve his position in every quarterback category possible. If he keeps on playing for another five or so seasons like he wants to, he will almost certainly hold every regular-season passing record, every postseason passing record, and every Super Bowl passing record there is.

In a couple of seasons time, many NFL fans might see Brady as the undisputed greatest of all time if they don't already see him as the GOAT today.