Peyton Manning (Part 1): The Gift

Peyton Manning is probably going to break every single career passing record out there. Marino did it. Then Favre did it. And Manning looks to be next in line. For the past decade of NFL football, he has constantly been regarded by experts, analysts, and talking heads everywhere, as the best quarterback in the game. When those experts, analysts and talking heads start to talk about his all-time standing among QB's, they often rush to point to where his stats will likely end up, and often come to the conclusion that he is one of, if not THE best to ever play. They love him so much they've voted him the NFL MVP 3 times already. They voted him Super Bowl MVP in a game in which he threw for 247 yards 1 TD and 1 INT with a QB rating of 81.8, leading an offense that scored all of 2 total touchdowns. Meanwhile his starting RB in the game ran for 113 yards and a TD on 21 carries and his other RB had 77 yards on 19 carries with 10 catches for another 66 yards. Did I mention his defense caused 5 turnovers, the last of which was an INT returned for a TD when it was only a 5 point game?

Okay, so I probably just got ahead of myself and gave away where this blog is headed. But, the question remains, what do we make of Peyton Manning's career?

The Gift:

Gotta start with the stats. They're unbelievable. If you're not a fan of numbers you might want to skip down a few paragraphs, because this guy has more numbers than Texas Instruments. If you are a fellow number cruncher, buckle up!

Manning is currently 5th all time in career yardage and is expected to move up to 3rd (behind 1. Favre, 2. Marino) before the midway point of next season. He is 3rd all time in passing touchdowns (1. Favre, 2. Marino), 4th in completions and 8th in attempts for a career .647 completion percentage, which is the highest completion % among anyone in the top 30 in all-time completions. He does all this while staying all the way down at 40th in career interceptions, which explains why he boasts the 2nd highest QB rating in history (1. Young).

He is the only QB to average over 4,000 yards per season. He's broken the 4,000 yard mark a record 9 times in his 11 year career and his streak of 6 consecutive season at 4,000 is also a record. With the first 9 games of his 12th season in the books, he is once again on pace to break the 4,000 mark. In fact, forget 4,000, he's on pace for 5,105 this year, which would break Dan Marino's single season record of 5,084. He's led the league in touchdowns 3 times and QB rating 3 times as well.

All those current standing don't seem to matter much either since if he continues to play at anything close to the pace he's been at since he came into the league, he should hold the top spot in every statistical category in the next 5-6 seasons.

His stats haven't all been for naught either. He already has the 4th most regular season wins by a QB (1. Favre, 2. Elway, 3. Marino), and his career .681 win percentage is also good for 4th best in history (1. Brady, 2. Staubach, 3. Montana). If you throw out his rookie year, (3-13), his teams have only won less than 12 games twice, (6-10 and 10-6).

Of course none of this has been lost on the voting media. I already mentioned the 3 MVP's, and 1 Super Bowl MVP. In addition he's been a 4 time all-pro and a 9 time pro-bowler.

Beyond the measurables, there's the eye test. Every week it feels like Peyton is at the top of every highlight show, throwing for another 300-400 yards and 2-5 touchdowns. In early season night games, his high powered offenses never seem to fail to put on an explosive show. Of course ask any fantasy football head out there and they'll surely be quick to inform you that no other QB has held down a top draft spot among QB's year in and year out like Peyton Manning has over the past 11 years.

So what does it all mean? I don't know about you, but when I add up all the available information, I'm left with only one conclusion. Peyton Manning is, quite simply, the greatest regular season quarterback the NFL has ever seen.

He is the ultimate student of the game. He works as hard as anyone ever. When you listen to a post game conference, the guy sounds like the biggest football nerd ever! He can, and does, recite every play, every down and distance, every player involved. He can tell you the time on the clock, the players on the field, the defensive package the other team was in. Heck, it feels like he can tell you the defensive package HIS team was in half the time! The guy is a machine. A love-able, big lug of a machine.

Did I mention he makes some pretty hilarious commercials? LOTS of hilarious commercials as a matter of fact.

So the ladies think he's adorable. Mothers love him. Fathers want their sons to approach the game like him. Ad execs want him to endorse their product. Journalists can't find any dirt on the guy. Players want to play with him, and coaches want to coach him.

There's no denying it. From January to the end of December, the guy has absolutely everything you can ask for in a franchise quarterback. And more so than anyone who's ever played the position.

In summary, he gets my vote for greatest Regular Season Quarterback in NFL history. He has truly been a gift to the game of football and to fans across the nation.

Part 2, The Curse, coming soon.