Bills legend Jim Kelly thinks Patriots’ Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time

Hall of Famer Jim Kelly thinks the greatest quarterback of all time is still playing in the NFL right now, although he jokes with the 17-year veteran on a regular basis that maybe it’s time to call it a career.

“I continue to tell him, year after year, it’s time for you to retire,” the legendary Buffalo Bills quarterback said on ESPN’s “ Monday Night Countdown.” “Come on, Tom, retire, bud. I say it all the time.”

Of course, he’s talking about New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who shows no signs of slowing down at age 39. In four games since returning from his Deflategate suspension, Brady has completed 73% of his passes for 1,319 yards with 12 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Even after missing the first four games of the season, Brady is on pace for 36 touchdowns, the same number he led the league with last year and in 2010. Also at his current rate, he will finish with 3,957 passing yards, very close to hitting the 4,000-yard mark for the fifth straight season and the eighth time in his career.

And numbers like those on a yearly basis are why Kelly thinks Brady is the best.

“The consistency — every single year he does it,” Kelly said a day after Brady and the Patriots beat his Bills, 41-25. “And he doesn’t have all the time the greatest players around him. … [Wes] Welker’s gone, a couple other guys are gone. He does have a great one in [Rob] Gronkowski, a Buffalo guy, but the thing is he makes it work.”

charles.schilken@latimes.com

Twitter: @chewkiii