Bill Belichick says Peyton Manning is 'definitely the best quarterback I’ve coached against'
Tom Brady may be attending Peyton Manning's enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but the highest praise Manning will receive might have come from a different New England Patriots source.
Speaking with the Boston Globe, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick stated definitively that Manning is the best quarterback he has ever faced off against:
“He is definitely the best quarterback I’ve coached against,” Belichick said. “There have been quarterbacks who called their own plays, but it was nowhere near the same as what he did. He basically called every play by adjusting and/or changing the play once he saw what the defense was doing. He excelled at using the cadence and recognizing blitzes, and more than any one single offensive player, he forced us to change and adapt defensive game plans.”
Most people will probably react to that statement as obvious, and that's just a testament to Manning's career.
Peyton Manning vs. Bill Belichick (and Tom Brady) was quite a battle
Belichick has coached in 416 regular-season NFL games and 43 playoff games in seasons spanning from 1991 to now. His teams have played the entire top 9 of the NFL's all-time quarterback wins list, as well as Joe Montana and Patrick Mahomes. You may have also heard about Manning's brother giving Belichick some trouble.
And it's the elder Manning who gave Belichick the most trouble.
Of course, that's not to say Manning was an unsolvable problem for Belichick's Patriots. In his career, Manning was 5-10 against the combination of Brady and Belichick in the regular season and 3-2 in the postseason.
The two sides formed what will go down as one of the NFL's greatest rivalries, with Brady and Belichick combining to win the AFC in 10 out of 15 seasons between Brady's rookie year in 2001 and Manning's retirement in 2016.
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