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Inevitably the questions seem to pop up whenever the Broncos don't score 40, or Peyton Manning doesn't have a 300-yard game or 5 touchdown passes....are we finally seeing the physical decline of Peyton Manning? After re-watching the Jets game a couple of times some things stood out to me.
Let's move forward by acknowledging the obvious. Peyton Manning cannot throw on the run. Never has been able to, never will be able to. Manning does not have the greatest arm-strength to begin with. It's never seemed to bother his game before, shouldn't be an issue now. How Peyton Manning generates arm-strength is through his core and follow-through. When Manning is lazy with his delivery, you get a lot of ugly looking passes. Let's take a look at some of them.
The pressure moves Manning to his right, which shouldn't be an issue. He has plenty of time to set and throw. Instead, he short-arm's the throw on the move and quite predictably the ball falls at the feet of Emmanuel Sanders. Now the intention could have been to throw incomplete all along as you see the corner ready to deliver a big hit, but this is a good example of what happens when Peyton Manning is lazy with his follow through.
Here, Manning doesn't have the time to throw and he's forced to throw on the run. the 20-yard out to Emmanuel Sanders comes up just short. Again, this is not decline, this is reality. Manning will never be able to make that throw with any sort of accuracy.
This throw more than any other this season highlights what happens when Peyton gets lazy. He's flushed slightly to his right and fails to step forward into his throw. In fact his momentum is falling away from the throw almost on the back foot. All arm and no body is a recipe for failure.
Does this mean Peyton Manning is in decline? No. It means that he is a terrible thrower on the run. Peyton must have a solid foundation in order to create enough torque to get the ball down the field and everytime he's been moved, his ability to reset his base and throw an accurate ball has been compromised.
Peyton had such an historically awesome season last year, the year after will always seem like a bit of a letdown. So far this season, he's on pace to throw for 4800 yards (2nd most in his career), 48 touchdowns (3rd most in his career), average 8.0 yards per attempt (3rd highest mark in his career) and throw 10 interceptions (2nd best mark in his career). Those aren't numbers in decline.
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