Peyton Manning goes down as one of the all-time greats, in my opinion. While there have been other outstanding quarterbacks – Unitas, Brady, Montana, Elway – I think Manning is right up there as maybe the best ever. For the bulk of his career, he seemed capable of being essentially a one-man offense. If you had Manning and any 10 nobodies, you’d probably have a top-10 offense. I can’t say that with the same certainty with the other guys.
The one area where Manning comes up a little short is in the postseason. Just 14-13 as a starter in the playoffs during his career. Thirty other quarterbacks have started at least 10 playoff games, and 23 of them won a higher percentage of their playoff games.
| WINNING PERCENTAGE IN PLAYOFFS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | W | L | Pct |
| Bart Starr | 10 | 9 | 1 | .900 |
| Jim Plunkett | 10 | 8 | 2 | .800 |
| Terry Bradshaw | 19 | 14 | 5 | .737 |
| Troy Aikman | 15 | 11 | 4 | .733 |
| Eli Manning | 11 | 8 | 3 | .727 |
| Tom Brady | 31 | 22 | 9 | .710 |
| Russell Wilson | 10 | 7 | 3 | .700 |
| Joe Montana | 23 | 16 | 7 | .696 |
| Kurt Warner | 13 | 9 | 4 | .692 |
| Joe Flacco | 15 | 10 | 5 | .667 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 17 | 11 | 6 | .647 |
| Roger Staubach | 17 | 11 | 6 | .647 |
| John Elway | 22 | 14 | 8 | .636 |
| Phil Simms | 10 | 6 | 4 | .600 |
| Ken Stabler | 12 | 7 | 5 | .583 |
| Steve Young | 14 | 8 | 6 | .571 |
| Donovan McNabb | 16 | 9 | 7 | .563 |
| Drew Brees | 11 | 6 | 5 | .545 |
| Bob Griese | 11 | 6 | 5 | .545 |
| Fran Tarkenton | 11 | 6 | 5 | .545 |
| Brett Favre | 24 | 13 | 11 | .542 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 13 | 7 | 6 | .538 |
| Jim Kelly | 17 | 9 | 8 | .529 |
| Peyton Manning | 27 | 14 | 13 | .519 |
| Danny White | 10 | 5 | 5 | .500 |
| Mark Brunell | 10 | 5 | 5 | .500 |
| Steve McNair | 10 | 5 | 5 | .500 |
| Matt Hasselbeck | 11 | 5 | 6 | .455 |
| Dan Marino | 18 | 8 | 10 | .444 |
| Warren Moon | 10 | 3 | 7 | .300 |
| Randall Cunningham | 10 | 3 | 7 | .300 |
Manning doesn’t grade out as poorly when you look strictly at passer rating. He finished with a 87.4 in his 27 postseason games, which is very similar to Brady and Favre.
| PASSER RATING IN POSTSEASON | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pct | Yds | TD | Int | Rating |
| Bart Starr | 61% | 1,753 | 15 | 3 | 104.8 |
| Kurt Warner | 66% | 3,952 | 31 | 14 | 102.8 |
| Drew Brees | 66% | 3,539 | 24 | 6 | 100.7 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 64% | 3,454 | 27 | 8 | 98.2 |
| Joe Montana | 63% | 5,772 | 45 | 21 | 96.2 |
| Russell Wilson | 61% | 2,328 | 16 | 9 | 93.4 |
| Troy Aikman | 66% | 3,735 | 24 | 16 | 91.5 |
| Eli Manning | 62% | 2,516 | 17 | 8 | 89.3 |
| Joe Flacco | 57% | 3,223 | 25 | 10 | 88.6 |
| Tom Brady | 62% | 7,957 | 56 | 28 | 88.0 |
| Peyton Manning | 63% | 7,339 | 40 | 25 | 87.4 |
| Brett Favre | 61% | 5,855 | 44 | 30 | 86.3 |
| Steve Young | 62% | 3,118 | 19 | 12 | 85.4 |
| Ken Stabler | 58% | 2,584 | 19 | 13 | 85.0 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 61% | 4,052 | 22 | 19 | 84.6 |
| Warren Moon | 64% | 2,834 | 17 | 14 | 84.5 |
| Matt Hasselbeck | 58% | 2,741 | 18 | 9 | 84.4 |
| Terry Bradshaw | 57% | 3,833 | 30 | 26 | 83.0 |
| Jim Plunkett | 60% | 2,293 | 10 | 12 | 80.7 |
| Donovan McNabb | 59% | 3,752 | 24 | 17 | 80.0 |
| John Elway | 55% | 4,964 | 27 | 21 | 79.8 |
| Dan Marino | 56% | 4,510 | 32 | 24 | 77.1 |
| Phil Simms | 56% | 1,679 | 10 | 6 | 77.0 |
| Randall Cunningham | 53% | 2,426 | 12 | 9 | 74.3 |
| Roger Staubach | 54% | 2,617 | 21 | 19 | 72.8 |
| Danny White | 58% | 2,157 | 14 | 15 | 72.3 |
| Jim Kelly | 59% | 3,863 | 20 | 28 | 71.7 |
| Mark Brunell | 52% | 1,808 | 11 | 11 | 67.5 |
| Bob Griese | 54% | 1,397 | 10 | 12 | 67.3 |
| Steve McNair | 59% | 1,764 | 6 | 11 | 67.0 |
| Fran Tarkenton | 51% | 1,803 | 11 | 17 | 58.6 |
In my opinion, there’s no quarterback who lords over the rest. And I think Manning can definitely say he’s in that top group of guys – if not No. 1 of all of them.
—Ian Allan