The Buffalo Bills extended running back James Cook this week. That is important in terms of Indianapolis Colts legend Peyton Manning and Bills QB Josh Allen, it appears. Good Morning Football host Kyle Brandt thinks so anyway.
While breaking down on a recent episode of GMF, why the Bills needed to extend Cook, and how that should make Buffalo a long-time rival of teams such as the Kansas City Chiefs, Brandt started to go a different route. His implication appeared to be that Josh Allen is trending toward being better than Peyton Manning because, well...Manning had good players around him?
Brandt stated that Allen was ahead of Manning after sevens seasons because the Buffalo quarterback had gone to two AFC Championship games while Manning after seven years in Indy had only gone to one.
NFL analyst delivers terrible comparison of Indianapolis Colts legend Peyton Manning and Bills QB Josh Allen
Moreover, Manning had more help offensively to be great than Allen. The Colts quarterback was blessed to play with Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, and Edgerrin James, while Allen has mostly seemingly played with scrubs, at least according to Brandt.
What the analyst left out was how football works. Sure, Manning played with three guys who might all one day be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Perhaps, one huge reason they could all get there (Wayne is the only one not yet inducted) is that they got to play with Manning.
After all, Harrison didn't become Marvin Harrison until Manning arrived two years after Harrison's career began.
More importantly, however, teams don't win a lot of games or Super Bowls just because they are great on one side of the ball. The Bills' defenses in Allen's seven seasons were far better than what Manning's Colts had in the Indy QB's first seven years. If Manning had the defenses Allen has had, the Colts might have gotten to a Super Bowl or two in the early years of Manning's career.
In five of Allen's seven seasons, the Bills' defense has ranked in the top 10 among yards allowed. In four of the seasons, the defense has ranked in the top four in points allowed.
In Manning's first seven years, the defense ranked in the top 10 in points allowed once, but 17th or worse five times. Three times in his first seven seasons, Indy's defense ranked 29th in yards allowed.
Sure, former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning had a lot of offensive help, but good defense wins championships, and Manning didn't have that. Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills have had.
Instead of trusting Kyle Brandt's argument, one could argue that Allen's teams should have done much better than what Manning's teams did. In fact, without Peyton Manning, just imagine how much worse the Colts would have been. Plus, Allen and Manning are completely different quarterbacks in completely different schemes. The comparison is ultimately hogwash.