With seven Super Bowl rings to his name, Tom Brady seems to have established himself as the greatest quarterback in NFL history. But since Patrick Mahomes boasts three championships at just 28, many wonder whether the Kansas City Chiefs star will end up taking the GOAT title away from TB12.

In fact, some consider the Texas Tech product is already defying Brady’s GOAT status with his early success in the NFL. However, it looks like a large of group of active players in the league beg to disagree.

In an anonymous player survey conducted by ESPN, 85 NFL players have voted Brady as the GOAT, with only seven votes going for Mahomes. Other players also received votes but their names weren’t revealed.

103 players from 25 teams were interviewed, responding to different questions to rank quarterbacks in different categories. Apart from voting for the GOAT, players were asked to choose:

Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs shakes hands with Tom Brady #12 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 41-31 at Raymond James Stadium on October 02, 2022 in Tampa, Florida.
  • Top three active quarterbacks,
  • Rookie QB who will have most success,
  • Most overrated quarterback,
  • Most underrated quarterback,
  • Biggest trash-talking QB

ESPN survey shows NFL players consider Mahomes the best active QB

Unlike with the GOAT question, Mahomes emerged triumphant when the polled players were asked to choose their top three quarterbacks currently playing in the NFL. With 291 votes, the Chiefs star finished above Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow:

  1. Mahomes: (291 votes)
  2. Jackson: (124)
  3. Burrow: (51)
  4. Josh Allen (39)
  5. Aaron Rodgers (32)

The rest of the results in the ESPN player survey

  • Rookie QB who will have most success: Caleb Williams (34 votes)
  • Most overrated quarterback: Josh Allen (11)
  • Most underrated quarterback: Brock Purdy (14) and Matthew Stafford (14)
  • Biggest trash-talking QB: Josh Allen (26)