Peyton Manning

     Is Peyton Manning a good quarterback? Yes, you won’t get an argument from me on that even though I have never been as enamored by him as a lot of people have. Is he the best QB in the league at running a no huddle offense and sniffing out defenses? I would agree with that at least until recently. Is he the only QB since Johnny Unitas to actually call his own plays for the most part? Again I will concede on that point. Should he have retired after the last Super Bowl that he lost? I will tell you he should have there are several reasons that I will present and back up as best I can.
     Peyton Manning holds many records when it comes to throwing the ball; however, he reminds me much of John Elway. They are both absolutely amazing in the regular season. Once post season comes around both of them have troubles. The main difference is Peyton Manning decided to keep playing after the last Super Bowl which they lost. John Elway soared in 6 super bowls and with Terrell Davis finally won two and retired. Peyton Manning hasn’t now or has he ever had a ruining back of quite that caliber and I am including Edgerrin James. Manning has still one out of the three opportunities her has had. Manning has appeared in the playoffs 14 times in all but four of those appearances he lost in the first round. To back up the fact that he struggles in the postseason. His winning percentage in the regular season is 69% in the postseason his winning percentage drops to 46%.
     In the regular season Peyton Mannings’ average completion percentage is 65.48% during the playoffs his completion percentage drops a little over 4% to 61.43%. In the regular season Manning averages 2.05 touchdowns per game one of only two QB’s that can boast about that record in NFL history. In the postseason that drops dramatically to 1.58. His INT’s per game vary a little from .90 a game on the regular season to 1.0 in the postseason.
     Peyton Manning deserves and will get into the Hall of Fame, likely in the first class after he retires. I feel that by keep playing with the injury he sustained that he has tarnished his Hall of Fame career because he has kept playing without really proving anything or improving in the postseason. Last week against Kansas City he had the absolute worst game of his career when he completed a total of 5 passes and threw 4 INT’s. There are many players that I really like in the league and Manning is one of them; however, nobody can play forever. Ask Favre, Smith,  Sanders, Bettis, Elway, Young, Lewis, Marino, Polamalu and any of the active players. Especially since any given Sunday could be game, season or career ending.