The main story was Peyton Manning against the New York Jets’ pass defense. One of the subplots, perhaps much further down the list, involved New England’s Tom Brady.
A few years back it was assumed that Brady was the pick over Manning for the label of NFL’s best quarterback. Now? If Manning goes on to win a second Super Bowl, then it’s easy to give him the title of best quarterback of the past decade. By a sliver, perhaps. But that sliver is enough for us.
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It helps that Manning just played a good game and will be making his second Super Bowl appearance. So it’s hard to say at the moment that Manning is not the best quarterback in the NFL. He also won his fourth MVP trophy.
But the older he gets, the smarter his game becomes. Considering that was his strength early in his career as well, that’s pretty scary. When Brady faced the Ravens in the first round, he appeared confused at times and rattled other times. That’s also how he looked vs. New Orleans earlier this season when facing similar pressure.
And Manning looked a little rattled early vs. the Jets when they sent some overload blitzes. Really, this isn’t about knocking Brady because it’s hard to do that; he’s one of the best ever.
But thanks to his knee injury and some questions about the Patriots, his effectiveness might be on the wane. Might be, we stress. However, Manning’s is not. He was sterling from the two-minute drive on vs. the Jets; going deep when it was available and taking underneath routes when they were open. If you ever wanted a definition of someone carving up a defense, it was Manning (who has 141 more touchdown passes and nearly 20,000 more passing yards than Brady. We’re just sayin’).
What’s helped him is that he’s worked with head coach Jim Caldwell since 2002 (albeit in a new role); both offensive coordinator Clyde Christenson (2002) and senior offensive coordinator Tom Moore (1998) have been with Manning for a long time. Makes a big difference. He’s also 33 and has been sacked 59 times the past four years combined (30 fewer than Brady). Most quarterbacks his age are beaten up; Manning is still fresh.
And it’s not hard to look into the future and predict which one could be in this position next season. Manning has better young talent around him. Their talent and his brains and precision will help further distance himself from Brady. It’s hard to say Brady won’t return to a certain level; but Manning is still there — and he’s showing no signs of going anywhere else.
