Storyline: The best ever? Among Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Peyton Manning had the worst-ever regular season in ’15 and the worst-ever postseason in ’06. Written by Andrew Syrios, Kansas City, MO
So the Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl and Peyton Manning will likely ride off into the sunset on his trusty steed named Von Miller. Most would agree that he’ll finish his illustrious career as the greatest regular-season quarterback to play the game. His 71,940 career passing yards and 539 touchdowns are both NFL records. He also holds the single season records for passing yards and touchdowns and has won an unprecedented 5 NFL MVP’s.
Courtesy: Associated Press
And now he has become the first quarterback to ever win Super Bowl’s with two different teams. Those two rings certainly put him in the discussion for “Greatest of All Time,” although most would probably grant that honor to either Tom Brady or Joe Montana.
This year was particularly odd, though. Many have noted that Manning may have had the worst regular season ever for a quarterback that went on to win the Super Bowl. Even Trent Dilfer, playing for the Balitmore Ravens in 2001, played better. Manning was one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL this season, ranking 34th of 34 in pass rating.
Three Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks have technically had a lower pass rating, but they were all back in the pre-1975 when the NFL wasn’t anywhere close to as pass-happy or pass-friendly. None of those quarterbacks finished dead last in the NFL in pass rating those years. Indeed, comparing Manning’s record-setting 2013 season to this one is almost laughable.
Courtesy: ftw.usatoday.com
In half the pass attempts, Peyton Manning threw almost twice as many interceptions, not to mention less than one-fifth the touchdown passes. That 2013 Broncos team went on to set the NFL record for points in a regular season before getting blown out in the Super Bowl by Seattle, 43-8.
The big difference this year? Despite offensive futility Peyton Manning went out on top. But he did so as the worst Super Bowl-winning, regular-season starting quarterback of all time.
What’s interesting is Peyton Manning’s performance in his other Super Bowl win–way back in 2006 with the Indianapolis Colts–may have been just as inept. And it wasn’t just that the 29-17 win over the Rex Grossman-lead Chicago Bears was a snooze fest–just like Super Bowl 50. Unlike 2015, Peyton Manning had a good 2006 regular season: he threw 4397 yards and led the NFL with 31 touchdowns and a 101.0 pass rating. His regular season was fine, but his post season was terrible. Indeed, that year he may very well have had the worst post-season ever by a Super Bowl-winning quarterback.
Manning with Colts, 2006 (photo, patskrieg.com)
He started out that post-season surviving Kansas City, despite throwing three interceptions, before laying an egg against Baltimore in a game where he completed just 15 of 30 passes with no touchdowns and two picks. He played well enough in a comeback win against New England and, then, somehow got named Super Bowl MVP despite a thoroughly mediocre 247 yard, one touchdown, one interception performance against ‘Da Bears.’ According to Football Perspective, Manning had the worst post-season statistics of any Super Bowl-winning quarterback, except for Earl Morrall in 1972 (who shouldn’t even be there, since Bob Griese was Miami’s quarterback in that Super Bowl).
This year Manning didn’t play exceptionally well in the post-season, but at least he threw more touchdowns than interceptions (two to one). The only other quarterback to throw more interceptions than touchdowns and win the Super Bowl was Terry Bradshaw in 1975. Bradshaw threw three touchdowns and five interceptions–two interceptions better than Manning.
Manning with Broncos, 2016 (photo, nypost.com)
So while Manning is certainly one of the Top Five quarterbacks to ever play the game–possibly even the greatest–his two Super Bowl wins are highlighted by ineptitude. The facts speak to that conclusion. He had the worst-ever regular season for a Super Bowl-winning quarterback in 2015, and the worst ever post-season by a Super Bowl-winning quarterback in 2006.
But all that matters is that he won. Right?
