Legendary Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana knows a bit about being an aging player in the NFL business. Being that he played for 15 seasons until the age of 38, Montana can certainly relate to Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, who turned 39 this year.
Manning has clearly lost some of his physical attributes in the last year or so. Regardless, Montana still sees the future Hall of Famer as a “great quarterback.”
“He’s struggling a little bit,” Montana told Around The NFL’s Andrew Siciliano on Thursday. “I think that sometimes when you get to the point where he is in his career, you try to make a lot of things happen and you don’t do things the way you used to do them.”
“He’s still a great quarterback. Is it coming down to that time? I don’t know.”
Things look great on the surface for Manning and his 5-0 Broncos. However, Manning has not led the Broncos into the end zone in two of their five games this season. And, very un-Manning like, he has seven interceptions compared to six touchdowns, making him one of the only four quarterbacks that sport a lopsided touchdown to interception ration this year. Manning’s weaknesses on the field are so blaring that head coach Gary Kubiak has even suffered through answering questions about benching Manning.
The team doesn’t appear to be interested in going down that path — at least not yet.
Gary Kubiak asked if it is time to play Brock Osweiler. "No. Peyton is doing just fine."
— Lindsay Jones (@bylindsayhjones) October 12, 2015
Montana weighed in on the benching questions:
“Of course, you don’t bench a legend, but you have to recognize when he’s out of his element.”
Nice caveat, there, Mr. Montana, and a subjective one, that that.
The bottom line is the Broncos are managing wins primarily due to the efficiency of their defense. Manning is doing just enough on the offensive side to keep the team in the game. For this, the Broncos are still considered a great team. And, because of all of Manning’s past spectacular career accomplishments, he can hardly be stripped of the “great” title, himself.
It should be interesting to watch how much longer the future Hall of Famer can skate by and win games while riding on the coattails of the Broncos mighty defense.