Peyton Manning’s Profile at Pro-Football-Reference

Peyton Manning @ Jockbio.com

Click here for the coolest Peyton Manning website on the WWW?

Versatility

Pro football players are typically pretty terrible actors, but Peyton Manning’s body of work is doing well to debunk that:

Such versatility.

The 8^th Wonder

When God created the mold for the perfect quarterback, he chose Archie Manning  as his delivery system.  The approach probably went something like this,  “Archie, my son, what do you think about taking Olivia upstairs and testing out that Magic Fingers bed you bought off of Joe Namath last month?”  And so he was born. 

Peyton Manning has prototypical height and weight at 6’5” and 230 pounds.  He is an obsessed student of the game and has a work ethic rivaled only by other NFL greats (Brady, Elway, Marino, Favre, etc).  He reads defenses with the same precision President Obama reads a teleprompter.  Audibles, the hurry-up offense, game-prep, accuracy, arm-strength, footwork, cock management - wait, CLOCK management– there isn’t much that he doesn’t do well.  Did we mention that he can act? 

So much range, so many faces, it’s overwhelming.   There can be only one Peyton Manning.  And thank God for that because the thought of Archie Manning up on that vibrating bed again downright makes us want to do the Technicolor yawn.

Sweet 16

The numbers speak for themselves.  Manning has more records than Lester Bangs.

1)      Most seasons with at least 4,000 passing yards: 9 (1999–2004, 2006–2008)

2)      Most consecutive seasons with at least 4,000 passing yards: 6 (1999–2004)

3)      Most consecutive seasons with at least 25 touchdown passes: 11 (1998–2008; current)

4)      Most games with a perfect passer rating, career: 4 (includes 1 playoff game)

5)      Most consecutive games started to open a career by a quarterback (current): 176

6)      Highest passer rating, season: 121.1 (2004)

7)      Most consecutive games with at least 2 touchdown passes: 13 (games 1–13, 2004)

8)      Most consecutive games with at least 4 touchdown passes: 5 (games 7–11, 2004)

9)      Most games with at least 4 touchdown passes (season, 2004): 6 (tied with 1984 Marino)

10)   Most games with at least 5 touchdown passes, career: 7 (includes 1 playoff game)

11)   Highest career TDs/game average for any QB with at least 150 TDs: 1.90 TDs/game

12)   Highest career completions/game average (min. 100 games played): 21.7

13)   Most consecutive games with a passer rating over 100: 9 (games 5–13 of 2004 season; record tied by Carson Palmer, 2004–05 and Tom Brady, 2006–07)

14)   Most seasons with 12+ wins as a starter (regular season only): 7 (1999, 2003–2008)

15)   Only QB with at least 12 wins as a starter in 6 consecutive seasons (2003–2008)

16)   First QB to defeat the other 31 teams in the regular season (Tom Brady did this later the same day, and Brett Favre did it the following week)

He’s also played 16 games every season since entering the league.  This list is merely a clip of his total collection. He has destroyed every QB Colt record there is and also holds many playoff records.     

Hard to Knock 

But we gotta do it.  While Peyton Manning finally got himself a Super Bowl ring in 2006, a player of his talent and with his accomplishments should have a few more.  His post-season record is 7-8, which pales in comparison to his regular season record of 117-59.  His QB Rating in the playoffs of 84.6 is also well off of his regular season rating of 94.7.  In the regular season, he throws two TDs compared to every one interception, yet in the playoffs, it’s almost one for one. 

No one gets to point to lack of defense for the Colts over the years. 

The Colts defense has held up fine over the years.  And even if it hadn’t, it wouldn’t explain Manning’s overall numbers being off across the board in the post-season.

2009 Fantasy Outlook

Manning must dig deep in his arsenal for the upcoming year.  The Colts need more “GameFace” and  “StudyFace” and less “LoserFace” and “DisappointedFace”.  Life without Harrison officially begins in ’09 though it was already underway back in 2007; Harrison missed 11 games that year and Peyton didn’t seem to mind as he tossed 31 TDs and over 4000 yards.  

Fantasy football loves its Peyton Manning.  No one has produced more consistently over the last decade.  Wayne is the now the main man split out wide and Anthony Gonzalez will now see full time WR2 reps.  Dallas Clark has steadily gained Manning’s trust and no one has benefited more from Harrison’s fall than him.  The Colts break in a new RB this season in Donald Brown and also have Joseph Addai returning in a contract year. 

Once again, Manning will be among the fantasy QB elite.  Most will go for the gluttony with either Brees or Brady – and those are both the right calls.  But then you can wait, perhaps until the early part of the 3^rd round, and if Manning is there, lock that pick down with a Joker-sized grin