Peyton Manning and Tom Brady were the greatest of rivals, and they finish 1-2 on ESPN’s all-time quarterback rankings.
ESPN.com’s Mike Sadano created the “GOAT Index”, which polled 10 Super Bowl champion coaches and executives to finally answer the question of who is the greatest NFL QB ever.
The panel consisted of Pete Carroll, Tony Dungy (who made some news for his selections), Mike Holmgren, Howard Mudd, Wade Phillips, Mike Reinfeldt, Ray Rhodes, Mike Shanahan, Al Saunders and Norv Turner who have a combined 330 seasons of NFL experience with 20 Super Bowl rings among them.
There wasn’t much of a question who the panel would rank first on the list after Tom Brady locked up his fifth Super Bowl championship this past season, but the number two spot was up for grabs.
The panel decided to pair Brady and Manning together at the top of the list after they spent the majority of their careers competing against each other at the top of the AFC.
Manning finished in the top three on six of the ten ballots cast for the index with one vote for first place, which Sadano mentioned was cast by someone with no ties to him.
Manning’s résumé includes:
- 5 NFL MVP Awards
- 2 Super Bowl Championships with 1 Super Bowl MVP
- 14 Pro Bowl appearances
- 7 All-Pro teams
- All-time career passing yards leader
- All-time career passing touchdowns leader
- Single-season passing yards leader
- Single-season passing touchdowns leader
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Manning’s body of work had him no lower than fifth on anyone’s ballot, and he finished in front of legends like Joe Montana, John Elway, and Aaron Rodgers who finished third, fourth, and fifth respectively.
While Colts fans would’ve loved to see Manning break those single-season records and win his second Super Bowl in an Indianapolis uniform, the organization made the right move by ushering in the Andrew Luck era in 2012. If they would’ve stuck with Manning, they could have a disastrous QB situation on their hands like the Broncos do right now.
Manning will surely go down as a Hall of Famer, and it’s great to see him get the recognition he deserves from this panel.