Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning lead the way, respectively, as the best offensive players on their teams in this decade.
As the 2010s decade comes to a close, examining the players who stood out for each of the 32 NFL teams. It could be something they did over time or did in a short burst that contributed to great success.
Larry Fitzgerald is one of the classiest and top receivers of his generation. A leader, the Cardinals’ wide receiver had five 1,000-yard seasons in the decade.
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has mastered the two-minute drill but it’s still not enough for his defense to close out a victory
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There’s a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, and the New Orleans Saints have held onto a timeout or two. The kickoff return unit has put the Saints offense in good — not great — starting field position. Drew Brees is under center, having rattled off the play call and waved his teammates into position. Down by a score, the Saints need him to make some last-minute magic to end the day with a win.
How many times has this story played out since Brees first came to town? More importantly, how many times has he came through with what should have been a game-winning drive, only for his defense to choke and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?
The answer to that second question is 21. Brees has retaken the lead 21 times in his Saints career on a go-ahead scoring drive, only to watch helplessly from the sidelines as his defenses cave under pressure and allow their opponents to surge back with their own salvo. That number includes the playoffs, and ties the total set by three other quarterbacks put with (or mistakenly above) Brees in discussions concerning “the greatest of all time.”
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has had to put up with this unique incompetence only four times in the 322 games he’s played in the NFL. Retired great Peyton Manning dealt with just six such answering-score comebacks from teams he put on the ropes throughout his 266-game career. Green Bay Packers signal-caller Aaron Rodgers has had it the worst of the non-Brees bunch, watching his defense fold against 11 last-second efforts (out of 195 career games).
Let’s reiterate that, to really drive the point home: Brady, Manning, and Rodgers have put their team ahead with a would-be game-winning drive only to lose anyway a combined 21 times in the 783 games they’ve played in the NFL, while Brees has found himself in the same situation 21 times in just 287 games. In other words, the combined defenses Brady, Manning, and Rodgers played with let them down in 2.7% of the games they’ve each played, while Brees has had to face his defense with a thousand-yard stare in 7.3% of their games together.
That’s almost too hard to believe. It speaks to the years of neglect and inadequacy the Saints have put out on defense, going back to the years when the likes of Gregg Williams, Steve Spagnuolo, and Rob Ryan were coaching the other side of the ball. Dennis Allen has done a better job than most during Brees’ tenure in New Orleans, but his flop on Sunday — in which he either chose or forgot to cover San Francisco’s best player, tight end George Kittle, on a last-second fourth-and-two that set up the game-winning field goal — is a painful reminder that Brees can do everything right and still lose the game, despite how talented and effective his defense has been in recent years.
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The race for Peyton Manning’s career touchdowns record is heating up between New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees and Patriots passer Tom Brady.
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New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees turned in a vintage performance against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, lobbing five touchdown passes and turning in another one on a goal-line leap over the top. It was enough to raise his career total to 537 touchdown passes, putting him ahead of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (536) as both living legends compete for the record Peyton Manning set (539) before his 2016 retirement.
Brees has to throw three touchdowns in his final three games to break Manning’s record, while Brady has to complete four scoring throws in his three games. Here’s who each quarterback will play to close out the regular season:
While Brady’s receiving corps has been horrific this season — so bad that he couldn’t even build a significant lead on Brees in the five games he missed with a thumb injury earlier this year — he could absolutely break the record against the Bengals on Sunday. What’s curious is that Brees is in position to break that record during Monday night’s game with the Colts. Would the NFL stop the Patriots-Bengals game to recognize Brady’s accomplishment (as they did when Brees broke Manning’s career passing yards record last year) and then do the same a day later? Godspeed to the NFL game day operations crew.
Whoever ends up winning this record before Brees and Brady both retire will probably hold onto it for a decade. Either of them could retire at any time and not really shock anyone, and the active quarterbacks behind them have so much ground to make up that it could reasonably take six or seven years to even challenge the new high-water mark. Here’s what the standings look like among the NFL’s top ten quarterbacks in career passing touchdowns:
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If you follow the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it’s not shocking news to report on a Jameis Winston turnover. Following his fifth pick-six this season, Winston is close to finding himself in good company. Future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning …
If you follow the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it’s not shocking news to report on a Jameis Winston turnover. Following his fifth pick-six this season, Winston is close to finding himself in good company. Future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning currently hold the NFL record for the number of pick-sixes in one season with six, set in 2001.
That's the fifth pick-six thrown by Jameis Winston this season, one short of Peyton Manning's NFL record of six, set in 2001.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) December 8, 2019
The only real difference in the stat between Winston and Manning is that Winston is in his fifth year, while Manning was in his fourth. When it comes to the Bucs quarterback, there is no middle ground for fans. You either love him or hate him. I’ve often said that Winston could get you 30 points per week in fantasy football, and still throw three interceptions in each game because he generates such large passing numbers in yardage and scoring. If you’re looking for a glimmer of hope for Winston, Manning improved significantly every season after setting that very same record. No, I am not saying that Winston will go down next to Manning’s name in the all-time greats. This comparison is for informational purposes and should be taken as such.
In the latest mock draft by USA Today’s Draft Wire, the Bucs are projected with the 13th pick, and looking to add to their defensive line. Obviously, those are projections, and the order will most likely change as the season comes to a close and teams move up and down.
Aside from Winston becoming a free agent, other quarterbacks slated to join the open market after the season are Dak Prescott, Philip Rivers and Marcus Mariota. What this means for Bucs fans is they should get ready for at least one more season of Jameis Winston taking snaps under center.
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Archie and Peyton Manning both reached out to Broncos quarterback Drew Lock on Sunday after he helped Denver defeat the Chargers.
Broncos rookie quarterback Drew Lock made his NFL debut on Sunday and helped lead Denver to a 23-20 win over the Chargers. After the game, Lock received many positive text messages from family and friends. Lock’s favorite message came from former NFL quarterback Archie Manning.
“Archie Manning [said], ‘You can’t win them all if you don’t win your first,'” Lock said Wednesday. “That gave me a good giggle and gave me a good laugh. He’s so right. You can’t win them all if you don’t win your first. It was pretty cool to get a text from him and Peyton [Manning] as well. Being able to hear from those guys meant a lot.”
Peyton played in Denver from 2012-2015 and won the AFC West four straight times, helping the Broncos reach the Super Bowl twice. Peyton and his brother Eli help their dad, Archie, with the Manning Passing Academy each offseason. Lock got to know the Manning family as a counselor at the camp in 2018.
“It goes back to that camp,” Lock said of his relationship with the Mannings. “Getting close with them there, and then of course coming to Denver, that just amped the relationship up a little more.”
Lock completed 64.3 percent of his passes in Sunday’s game for 134 yards with two touchdown passes and one interception. He will start again against the Texans on the road in Week 14.
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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady couldn’t get it done against the Houston Texans in his team’s 28-22 loss on Sunday Night Football, but he did pad his personal stats in pursuit of NFL history with three touchdown passes. That helped his …
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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady couldn’t get it done against the Houston Texans in his team’s 28-22 loss on Sunday Night Football, but he did pad his personal stats in pursuit of NFL history with three touchdown passes. That helped his career total rise to 535, breaking a tie with New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees at 532. They both trail retired all-time great Peyton Manning (539), and each passer has a shot at surpassing him before the regular season winds down.
It was just the third time this year in which Brady lobbed three or more touchdown passes; he had previously scored just 15 times through the air in his first 11 games. When Brees missed five games with an injury to his throwing hand, Brady struggled to take advantage of the opportunity, allowing Brees to tie everything up last week. Now it’s up to Brees to keep up the pace down the stretch.
There’s a lot of pressure for each quarterback to go out on top, because the winner will own bragging rights for most of the next decade. Their youngest, closest competition (36-year-old Aaron Rodgers, and almost-35-year-old Matt Ryan) would need to make big improvements for the next five or six years to seriously challenge them.
Here’s how the standings among active quarterbacks look in all-time touchdown passes:
We’ll see whether Brees can continue making up for lost time in the final quarter of the regular season. Brady was visibly frustrated with his receiving corps for much of Sunday’s game against the Texans, while Brees and the Saints have someone they can lean on in Michael Thomas, an MVP candidate. If someone can start to consistently make plays opposite Thomas (this is your time, Jared Cook) then Brees could very well claim that record first.
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New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is locked in a tie with New England Patriots passer Tom Brady for Peyton Manning’s all-time record
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Peyton Manning retired after the 2015 season on his own terms, having clinched the second Super Bowl victory that eluded him (and that New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees had a hand in denying him, back in 2009) as well as the NFL’s record for career touchdown passes, with 539.
But that record won’t remain his forever. Brees is hot on his heels after lobbing a scoring pass to backup Saints quarterback Taysom Hill last Thursday against the Atlanta Falcons, putting him at 532 in his NFL career. That ties the mark for second-best set by New England Patriots legend Tom Brady, who will play the Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football.
That means Brady will have a chance to break his tie with Brees and gain further ground on Manning’s all-time lead. However, he’ll hardly have an easy go of it; flu season has hit New England hard, with 17 players listed as questionable to suit up in Houston. The Patriots even chartered a second airplane to travel cross-country and avoid further contamination between sick players and their (so far) healthy teammates.
Among Brady’s top receiving options, three will be dealing with injuries or the flu if they play at all. The list includes wide receivers Julian Edelman (shoulder), Phillip Dorsett (concussion), and Mohamed Sanu (ankle). With just five games left in the regular season, Brady has to score eight more touchdown passes to break Manning’s record — a rate of 1.6 per game. He’s averaged just 1.36 through his first 11 games, which opens the door for Brees to overtake him and possibly break the record first.
New Orleans only has four games left in the regular season, meaning Brees must average 2.0 touchdown passes per game to break the record. His five-game stint on the sidelines with an injury notwithstanding, the Saints quarterback has averaged 1.7 through seven starts this year. Take out his early exit against the Los Angeles Rams and that average rises to 2.0 per game, meaning the record is well within reach.
Whoever ends up setting this record before the other retires will likely hold onto it for quite some time. The only other active quarterbacks behind them are a gaggle of fringe Hall of Famers like Philip Rivers (389), Ben Roethlisberger (363), Eli Manning (362), Aaron Rodgers (356), and Matt Ryan (315), and each of them is closer to retirement than their prime.
As the youngest members on that list, Rodgers (who turns 36 on Monday) would need to average 2.3 touchdown passes per game for the next five years to break Manning’s record, while Ryan (who will be 35 in May) would have to average 2.34 for six years. Rodgers is only scoring 1.6 touchdown passes per game this season, and Ryan is scoring at a clip of 1.81 per game.
Those are some long odds, which only raises the pressure on Brees and Brady. Whoever ends up owning this record will have bragging rights that last nearly a decade.
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UT News: November 27, 2019
We have reached the middle of the week — and also the day before Thanksgiving — which means football is in the air, as the Volunteers gear up for their final regular-season game against the Vanderbilt Commodores. The Vols have been on a roll in the athletics realm, but they have also excelled in the classroom as well. Speaking of doing well, the Lady Vols basketball team continues to roll along after defeating the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions last night, and their coach had a few things to say about the hot start. The hottest of them all might be quarterback Jarrett Guarantano, but let us discuss the academic accolades first.
The Tennessee Volunteers have scored big in the classroom, with four football players earning CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team honors — the most among Power 5 programs.
Redshirt senior offensive lineman Brandon Kennedy, redshirt junior offensive lineman Ryan Johnson, junior defensive lineman Matthew Butler and sophomore punter/kicker Paxton Brooks were selected by CoSIDA in District 3 this month for their combined excellence both in athletics and academics. The four are also eligible for Academic All-American honors as well.
Johnson received his second consecutive selection — only the third Vol ever to earn the feat, with Parker Henry and Peyton Manning being the only other two. Overall, Tennessee now has 32 all-time CoSIDA Academic All-District honors.
NEXT: Coach Harper breaks the Lady Vols down
New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees and New England Patriots QB Tom Brady are in tight competition for Peyton Manning’s passing touchown record
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Peyton Manning retired from the NFL in 2016 as the league’s all-time leader in touchdown passes, having scored 539 times through the air in his lengthy career. That put him ahead of the former record-holder, Brett Favre (who set the previous high-water mark with 508, ahead of Dan Marino’s 420), by a sizable margin.
But records are meant to be broken. And two Hall of Fame-bound quarterbacks have Manning’s accomplishment in their sights: New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, and New England Patriots passer Tom Brady.
Here’s how the top five shapes up right now, though only Brees and Brady remain active:
With just six games left to play in the 2019 regular season, both Brees and Brady may be hard-pressed to match Manning. Brees obviously missed out during his five-week recovery from thumb surgery, but Brady didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to put himself further ahead. The Patriots quarterback threw just seven touchdowns during the five games Brees sat out, and the Philadelphia Eagles defense held him without a touchdown pass in New England’s most recent win.
In order to break Manning’s record, Brady needs to throw nine touchdown passes in his next six games — an average of 1.5 per game. That may sound easy enough, but Brady has been limited to one touchdown pass or fewer in half the games he’s played this year. Brees has to connect on twelve throws into the end zone to do the same, a rate of two per game. He’s gone scoreless in two of his five starts this year. If they both come up short, well, there’s always next year.
When quarterbacks have accomplished as much as Brees and Brady have, it can be difficult to keep up with all of the records they’ve broken and those that are still up for grabs. But this is one competition fans can keep track of on a weekly basis, and it’s well worth watching. When Brees and Brady eventually hang up their cleats and start writing their Hall of Fame inductions speeches, all-time great records like this one are what fans will be using to debate for years to come.
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John Elway and Peyton Manning quarterbacked the four Broncos squads that made the NFL’s list of 100 greatest teams in league history.
In celebration of the league’s 100 years, the Associated Press created a list of the 100 greatest teams in NFL history and NFL Network put together a countdown series based on the list.
Four Denver Broncos teams made the cut.
Coming in at No. 86 on the list is the 2013 Broncos, a team that smashed offensive records in the regular season but suffered an embarrassing loss in the Super Bowl.
No. 86: 2013 @Broncos #BroncosCountry
📺: #NFL100 Greatest Teams on @NFLNetwork pic.twitter.com/eAnwIhtcpK
— NFL (@NFL) November 9, 2019
Denver’s 2015 team is ranked No. 58, which many Broncos fans would say is too low. It’s a fitting number, though, given that outside linebacker Von Miller wore No. 58 when he earned MVP honors in Super Bowl 50.
No. 58: 2015 @Broncos, @SuperBowl 50 Champions #BroncosCountry
📺: #NFL100 Greatest Teams on @NFLNetwork pic.twitter.com/fZfnzSnUik
— NFL (@NFL) November 9, 2019
Just nine spots up in the rankings from the 2013 squad, Denver’s 1997 team is ranked No. 50. Again, many Broncos fans probably feel that’s too low.
No. 50: 1997 @Broncos, @SuperBowl XXXII Champions #BroncosCountry
📺: #NFL100 Greatest Teams on @NFLNetwork pic.twitter.com/lw3GFew3uM
— NFL (@NFL) November 9, 2019
It’s no surprise that Denver’s highest-ranked squad is the 1998 team, which started the year 13-0 on the way to a convincing Super Bowl win. That team is ranked No. 14 on the list.
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The 1972 Miami Dolphins are ranked No. 1 on NFL Network’s list. To view our list of the 100 greatest players in Broncos history, click here.
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