Thank you Donald! I love Warner and he has had a great year and great post season success but Peyton is a better QB and when all is said and done maybe go down as the best QB EVER!!! You telling me you would trade Manning for Kurt straight up right now, well after the Superbowl I mean? I would in a heartbeat can you imagine Peyton spreading it around to our receivers.
There's age to be considered on that question, so it's not a fair one.
Manning's obviously going to have a far better career than Warner, and that puts him further up the charts when you're talking about greatest ever. But he's also had better opportunities.
Do the 1994 draft over again, with all NFL GMs knowing what they know now about Warner's capabilities and he clearly goes in the early first round and becomes somebody's QB of the future with a ton invested in him.
Does he land in a situation like Manning's, with a terrific offensive coordinator like Tom Moore and a team commitment to build around him and give him a good offensive line his whole career? Maybe, maybe not. But in reality, Manning did.
Does Kurt, playing behind generally better lines, avoid the hand injuries that derailed him? Maybe, maybe not. But in reality, he didn't.
Does theoretical Kurt put up the kind of consistent numbers that Manning has, but with better postseason performance? Maybe, maybe not,
but I'm not convinced the answer is no.
Manning clearly will have the better career. I'm not entirely certain I wouldn't plump for him as the greatest QB ever right now. But it's impossible to argue that he wasn't given a lot of opportunities that most other QBs, Warner included, just didn't get.
Of course, maybe without adversity, Warner never achieves the greatness that he did. Maybe he needed the grocery-shelving and Arena years to have success. I dunno. But he's done pretty damn well with the chances he's gotten and created for himself.