Peyton Manning - Greatest Ever?...Yes!!!!

Oct. 22, 2014

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1st. What is the definition of greatest ever? Do career stats matter? Does the greatest season or greatest game matter? Sometimes they all add up to a finite definition. For each sport its something different. For each position in Football, its something different.

For NFL quarterbacks, it is a combination of greatness for a prolonged period of time. Kurt Warner had some phenomenal years, maybe a handful. He was great, but can not be considered in the conversation, because his greatness was short lived. Tarkenton played great for many years, but did not win as much. Manning is the perfect combination of greatness and longevity. For a lifelong "Montana is the Jordan of Football" fan, its hard to admit, but Manning is the best of all time, and its not really that close.

VERDICT = MANNING IS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME!!!

1. I looked at 15 top all time Qb's.
2. # of times QB was top 10% (top 3 in today's 32 team league) in league in 4 QB categories
A) Yards (shows consistency and longevity)
B) TDs (most important stat in Football)
C) Completion %age (measure of accuracy)
D) QB Rating (a statistic combining: passing attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns, and interceptions)
3. Average the results of the 4 categories.

Manning was in top 10% of league in Passing Yards 11 times in his career (the next highest was Marino at 8, Brees at 7, and Favre at 5). Staubach, Bradshaw, Rodgers, Montana, Elway all had 2 or or less years in top 10% of QB's in Passing yards.

Manning was in top 10% of league in touchdowns 11 times in his career (the next highest was Favre at 9, Brees at 7, and Marino at 6). Staubach, Bradshaw, Rodgers, Tarkenton, Elway all had 2 or or less years in top 10% of QB's in Touchdowns.

Manning was in top 10% of league in Completion Percentage 10 times in his career (the next highest was Montana at 8, Young at 7, and Brees at 5). Staubach, Bradshaw, Elway, Fouts, Brady, Unitas, and Marino all had 1 or or less years in top 10% of QB's in Completion %age.

Manning was top 10% of league in Passer Rating 6 times in his career (only behind Young at 7). Marino, Fouts, Bradshaw, and Elway are only ones with 2 or less.

Take the average of these 4 QB categories, and Manning at 9.5 is followed not so closely by Brees, Favre, Young, Marino, Montana, Warner, Unitas, Tarkenton, Brady, Fouts, Staubach, Rodgers, Bradshaw and lastly Elway.

ITS NOT EVEN CLOSE!!! Greatness x Longevity.

But is that it? Is that all that matters? statistics? What about winning?

Below is the next step.

1. Adj Yrs = Meaningful years played (played in at least 8 games)
2. Adj Win % = Regular Season win % for games started
3. Seasons w/ 75%+ = Season QB won more than 75% of his games (in today's 16 game schedule that would be 12 wins).
4. Seasons w/ <50% = More losses than wins in the season
5. 75%+ minus <50% = # of seasons winning 75% or more minus number of losing seasons.
6. % of Career = 75%+ minus <50% / Adj Yrs

Brady tops this list with 9 Adj Yrs seasons (75% of his Adj Yrs) winning at least 75% of games with zero losing seasons. Manning follows with 10-2=8 (53.3% of his career). Warner, Rodgers, Brees, Tarkenton, and Fouts are only QB's with a net score of 0 or negative.

Brady (77%), Staubach (75%), Montana (74%), and Manning (70%) are the only QB's with 70+ winning percentage.