Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are both NFL greats, but the paths they took to the league weren’t similar. Manning was thrust into the starting quarterback role right away with the Indianapolis Colts after being drafted by the team in 1998. Brady, meanwhile, was a sixth-round pick in 2000 and didn’t take over as the starter until a year later — replacing Drew Bledsoe on the New England Patriots.
The game of football has undergone changes since the two quarterback’s retired. Brady appeared on the Stephen A. Smith Show recently and told the ESPN host that the game overall has “dumbed down” and has regressed due to the fact rookies aren’t developed the same way.
“The reality is, we don’t have the processes in place for those players to be better year after year,” Brady said to Smith.
Manning was the latest QB to join Smith and was asked about Brady’s comments and what he thinks of them.
“The problem is, if the rookie quarterbacks struggle early, what do they do? They take him out,” Manning told Smith. “I go, ‘No, no, leave him in there. Let him learn the hard way.’
“The game is still hard. NFL coaches, I think smartly, are doing the best job they can of adapting their offense to the quarterback that is playing,” he continued. “If that means putting in some plays that the player ran in college, I’m for it. I promise you Andy Reid watched Texas Tech’s film and said these plays worked pretty well for Patrick Mahomes in college, we’re going to put some of these things in.”
There have been rookie quarterbacks in recent draft classes that have struggled and haven’t been able to really find a groove as an NFL player. Despite a strong rookie season, Mac Jones regressed the next two years before he was ultimately traded by the Patriots.
Zach Wilson also struggled with the New York Jets and was also traded. Justin Fields is now with the Pittsburgh Steelers via a trade after three seasons with the Chicago Bears. The Dallas Cowboys acquired Trey Lance from the San Francisco 49ers.
All of the above QB’s were drafted in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft. And after they all struggled, now find themselves on new teams three years into their career without really ever proving themselves.
Manning believes the struggles are good for the players, and wants teams to let them work out the wrongs and not just take them out and trade them. And while Brady argued that players not sticking with a college program the way they used to, Manning doesn’t think it’s necessarily “dumbing down” the game.
“It used to be, ‘Oh, we’re the NFL, we’re not going to run any plays that colleges run. That’s beneath us.’ That’s not true anymore and guess what? It’s smart what they’re doing now,” he said. “The best quarterbacks that play well, they feel comfortable.”
Despite the struggles the 2021 QB class has gone through, as well as other young quarterbacks, Manning is of the belief that there’s “still some good football out there.”
It will certainly be interesting to see how this year’s class does, especially with Caleb Williams expected to help turn the Bears franchise around. Bo Nix was also named QB1 for the Denver Broncos and Drake Maye has been making his case to be the Week 1 starter for the Patriots.
