Brian Spurlock / USA TODAY Sports

In the most recent NFL season, Peyton Manning’s legacy has been diminished. Drew Brees dethroned Manning as the league’s all-time passing yardage leader and will likely take the all-time passing touchdown record next season. Tom Brady won his sixth Super Bowl to further cement the idea that he’s the greatest quarterback to ever live, not Manning.

The most commonly cited criticism of Manning’s career is his inability to maintain a high level of play into the postseason. The only evidence to back this claim up is the discrepancy in wins between Manning and Brady — a shoddy method of measuring quarterback ability. However, the narrative has grown to the point where it’s a common belief ingrained into the mind of most football fans. Peyton Manning is pretty good in the regular season, but he sucks in the playoffs. Therefore, Tom Brady must be better. Right?

Instead of acknowledging that both players are legends who can’t be reasonably compared due to the many external factors which impact a quarterback’s success, fans on both sides attempt to defame the other quarterback to boost the status of their own favorite player. While the debate was previously balanced, Brady’s three Super Bowl wins in the past five years have silenced any slander of Brady’s abilities. Instead, this criticism has been redirected onto Manning.

I think both players are about as good as it gets at the quarterback position. That’s why it’s disappointing that the perceived gap between the two has become immense in the past few years. It has apparently been “set in stone” that Brady is the greatest quarterback of all-time. Many legendary quarterbacks of NFL history have been brought down a notch because of the need to praise Brady. In my mind, there is a tier of quarterbacks who are at the same incredibly high level of play. Of course, discussion is always healthy. That’s why it’s preposterous to act as if the debate is finalized in any way and one player is clearly far ahead of the rest. The point of this article isn’t to argue that Peyton Manning is better than Tom Brady. It’s a reminder that Peyton Manning is just as good as any other quarterback to play in the NFL.

Regular Season Greatness

The general argument against Manning is that he was “only good in the regular season.” Before we refute the implication that he wasn’t a good player in the playoffs, let’s refresh our memories on just how good Manning was in the regular season.

The year before Manning was drafted with the first overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft, the Indianapolis Colts finished with a win-loss record of 3–13. The 22-year-old was thrust into the starting quarterback job for the worst team in the league. He attempted 575 passes in his first year as a pro, the most in the league at the time — not exactly a recipe for success. Naturally, Manning tossed 28 picks and the Colts once again finished with just three wins.

Then Peyton Manning became Peyton Manning.

In his next 12 years as a Colt (before he signed with the Broncos), Manning led the team to 11.5 wins per season. The Colts only missed the playoffs once in this span; in 2001, the team finished with a 6–10 record despite boasting the league’s 2nd best scoring offense. Overall, Manning and the Colts finished with a top-5 scoring offense in 9 of his 13 seasons on the team. For reference, Brady has led the Patriots offense to be a top-5 scoring unit in 11 of his 17 seasons as the starter. In addition, Manning was voted into the Pro Bowl eleven times and was named a First-Team All-Pro on five occasions. Manning also brought home four Most Valuable Player awards during his tenure in Indianapolis. His shining moment as a Colt may have been in 2004, which is arguably the greatest season by a quarterback in NFL history. Manning boasted a staggering touchdown percentage of 9.86% while also passing for 9.78 adjusted net yards per attempt — good for a passer rating of 121.1. All of these statistics are single-season records once adjusted for era.