The End: Peyton Manning’s Loss to Father Time Should Not Come as a Shock

If Father Time really is undefeated, then we just saw the greatest living example of its power.  That example comes in the form of Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.

This may finally be the end for Peyton, the man who just this week set the all-time record in passing yards previously held by Brett Favre. Favre, because he’s a legend, congratulated Manning in the only way he knew how, which was from a tree stand while hunting in the woods:

**VIDEO** Brett Favre congratulates Peyton Manning … while hunting from a tree stand pic.twitter.com/RpnjR6975V

— Troy Hughes™ (@TommySledge) November 16, 2015

All that aside, Manning may very well be the greatest regular-season quarterback to ever play in the NFL.  But, as many wise people have said, all good things must come to an end, and Peyton Manning’s career has reached the same fate that every other good thing in the history of the world has: the end.

The end for Manning has been abrupt.  It came without warning.  But most importantly, it was no different from what happens to every other NFL player at a certain stage in his career; said player’s skills decline and no team in their right mind would sign that player, so the player is left with no other choice but to retire.

And in most cases, those players have absolutely no clue what to do when they reach retirement.  Luckily for number 18, he has endorsements such as Nationwide.  And Papa John’s.  And DirecTV. And Gatorade.  He’s prepared for retirement, and that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, retirement will (or at least should) be coming soon.

Manning threw four interceptions in Sunday’s home loss to the Chiefs, and looked like a shell of himself for the entire day; he would be benched in favor of backup Brock Osweiler in the third quarter. And to put it plainly, Peyton has looked like a shell of himself for about the last calendar year.  Starting with a loss to the Rams around this date last year (November 16th, 2014), Manning has thrown 25 interceptions against just 19 touchdowns.  This is a sharp contrast from his career 2.15:1 touchdown to interception ratio; if you were to remove the numbers of the last calendar year from Peyton’s resume, his TD-INT ratio would be 2.3:1.

He has stunningly thrown an interception in each of the first nine Broncos games this season; to compare, there were nine games last season in which he didn’t throw a pick, so the sharp decline means that something else must be at play here.  That thing that is at play is the silent killer of NFL careers; injuries.

Before we get into the more recent injury(ies) Peyton is dealing with, the more long term one has to do with the feeling he has in his hands, or lack thereof.  If you saw Peyton Manning play for the Colts, you know he had one of the strongest arms in football.  I mean, just check out some of the lasers he was chucking for the team in his then-record-setting 2004 season, one that saw him throw an unprecedented 49 touchdowns.

Manning would come back to break that record with the Broncos in 2013.  He threw 55 TDs that season, but if you look closely, you can clearly tell that his arm strength is fading by this point.

Why did that arm strength fade?  There is not one definitive answer, but one of the main explanations for this sudden drop-off is his fingertips, and the fact that, you know, he has no feeling in them.  This is what Manning said to Sports Illustrated’s Peter King in August:

“I can’t feel anything in my fingertips,” Manning said Thursday. “It’s crazy. I’ve talked to a doctor recently who said,  Don’t count on the feeling coming back. It was hard for me for about two years, because one doctor told me I could wake up any morning and it might come back. So you wake up every day thinking, Today’s the day! Then it’s not.”

This is just me talking here, and I’m not Peyton Manning.  But if I had no feeling in my fingertips and I may not ever get them back again, I would probably retire.  That being said, his comeback from four neck surgeries in 2011 is nothing short of brave and admirable, and he should be commended for coming back from such a dire state.  I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that he was able to play so well without any arm strength or feeling in his fingers for his first two and a half years in Denver.  But if it were my decision, I would have hung it up after having the neck surgeries and finding out that I couldn’t feel the tips of my fingers anymore.

The other far less serious and shorter-term injury that Peyton has incurred is a partial tear of the plantar fascia in his left foot, which should keep him out at least for this week against the Bears. Osweiler, who went 14-24 for 146 yards after Peyton was benched midway through the third quarter, will take his place in the meantime. Osweiler is not a great option at quarterback but, as painful as this is to say, he’s obviously a better option than Manning at this point.

Unfortunately, it’s pretty safe to say that Peyton Manning is at the end of his rope in terms of his illustrious career.  His decline is remarkably similar to that of Dan Marino, and while the two will be united in Canton soon enough, Marino’s decline was eerily similar to that of Manning’s; Dan’s team reached the playoffs in his final season and he threw more interceptions than touchdowns in 2000 as well, just like Manning is doing in 2015.

Additionally, the only way Manning can reclaim his 2015 season is to get fully healthy again, and while that may take some time, the Broncos have no other option at this point but to bench him and allow his foot injury to heal.  Also, it wouldn’t hurt if he magically recovered the lost feeling in his fingertips; it seems to be what has caused his arm strength to go out the window in his Denver years.

Peyton Manning is one of the best quarterbacks ever; even though many rag on him for his career record in the playoffs (11-13), he routinely took teams to January that had no business being there without his presence; this is especially true in his years with the Colts. He’s one of the all-time greats, whether he under-performed in the playoffs or not.

But there is one opponent he couldn’t conquer: father time.