It’s well-documented that former Tennessee football quarterback Peyton Manning became a master of audibles at the line of scrimmage while in the NFL. That’s how he turned into such a superstar quarterback. He always got credit for reading defenses so well.
However, what’s less known is that many of his audibles were more about tricking the defense than reading it. A recent article in The Athletic on Denver Broncos centers talking about what it was like blocking for “The Sheriff” revealed just how far the NFL Hall-of-Famer would go to fool the opposition.
One of the stories was about how Manning’s “dummy” audibles. He would have his backup quarterback study the film of the previous week’s games and see what audibles were picked up by the mic, and he would make that the “dummy” call next week. Here’s one of his stories.
Omaha! Omaha!
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) October 29, 2021
When the defense was playing checkers, Peyton Manning was playing chess. ♟@NickKosmider on what it's like starting at center in front of Peyton Manning: https://t.co/Cll1SLEk2q pic.twitter.com/auuV0cG1YD
This is why he’s Peyton Manning. The level he took to studying the game was what set him apart from so many other quarterbacks who still had the size, accuracy and arm strength. He didn’t do anything complex. Sometimes it was just that simple.
There’s a reason that at the end of his career, Manning held both the single-season and career records for passing yards and passing touchdowns. He also still holds the career records for single-season MVPs with five. Nobody else has more than three. Add in the two Super Bowls and a Super Bowl MVP, and there’s nothing he didn’t accomplish.
Of course, when he we was with the Vols, Manning’s audible reputation hadn’t developed yet. David Cutcliffe often called the plays and had a huge hand in developing the quarterback. This line-of-scrimmage play-calling was developed by Manning and Tom Moore with the Indianapolis Colts.
Once it was perfected, though, Peyton Manning became a Hall-of-Fame quarterback. It’s no secret that his first MVP came in 2003, Tony Dungy’s second year on the job. Dungy was much more hands off with the offense than Jim Mora was, and the Colts were much healthier than they were in 2002. That was the recipe for Manning to become a superstar.