Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Peyton Manning is on a pace to have the greatest season of any quarterback in the history of the NFL.
The Denver Broncos have started the season 4-0, and over that span, he’s tossed 16 touchdowns with zero interceptions, 1,470 yards with 9.42 yards per completion and a 75 percent completion rate.
Manning has been perfect this year, his 16th year in the league. He has been superb in spite of being 37 years old, which is old by NFL standards. The eye-opening thing about this is that he is doing all of this playing for a team he didn’t build his Hall of Fame career with.
Every Hall of Fame quarterback of today’s age has something in common: they all had great success and won Super Bowls playing for the same team throughout their career. Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady, Eli Manning and Aaron Rodgers all have a potential shot at being Hall of Famers, as well as suiting up for the same franchise throughout their careers.
Drew Brees is the single exception. He only had one good season in 2004 when he played for the San Diego Chargers before being shipped to the New Orleans Saints to allow Philip Rivers to take over the reins in San Diego.
The situation for Manning is completely different than any of these. He could have retired after his season-ending neck injury in 2011. His four MVP awards, 399 touchdowns to 198 interceptions and not to mention, a Super Bowl ring, would’ve been a powerful case for him to be enshrined.
Manning has a shot at another ring, because Denver is the clear favorite in the AFC. The Broncos have scored more points in the first four games than any other team since the AFL-NFL merger.
An MVP award for the fifth time in his career is a definite possibility with the way he is playing. We could very well see the first time a player has won the Most Valuable Player Award with two separate teams.
