To say Peyton Manning is excited about the upcoming season of ESPN’s “ManningCast” is an understatement.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame former quarterback turned media maven was on the dais with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith Sunday during the third and final day of FanaticsFest in New York City. During the 40-minute conversation dubbed “The Sherriff,” the two-time Super Bowl champion talked about his playing career and provided insights into what he’s looking forward to from the NFL this year. He also talked extensively about his media projects with Omaha Productions.
Perhaps his best known is a co-production with ESPN–the famed Monday Night Football “ManningCast” that airs on ESPN2. This year, Peyton and his brother, former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, will bring Bill Belichick aboard as a full-time guest after the former New England Patriots head coach left the team after the 2023 season.
Manning, in his now famous self-deprecating way, talked about how he and Eli will pair together with a once common foe in Belichick, who vexed opponents for decades as both a head coach and defensive coordinator.
“Bill Belichick is going to be a permanent guest in the first half, and he’s going to fit in great because he doesn’t like Eli,” Manning told Smith in jest. “Bill and I get to gang up and make fun of Eli the whole time.”
Manning explained how the former head coach has melded his style with the brothers during rehearsals for what will be show’s fourth season. “I don’t think people necessarily have gotten to hear Bill Belichick speak about defense, about head coaching decisions and whatnot,” he said. “Eli and I’ve had a couple rehearsals (with him), and he had so much knowledge, and he’s already shared that with his team, but he’s never shared that with the general public. I think he’s going to do that this year… I’ve found it very insightful. I think the fans will as well.”
Manning somewhat agreed with Tom Brady, who appeared with Smith on the same stage on Friday, that the quality of quarterback play had declined in the NFL.
“If you want football to be good,” Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion, told Smith, “then you’re going to want to develop these players to be better every single year. The reality is we don’t have the processes in place for those players to better year after year.”
Manning was a bit more diplomatic, but said the expansion of the transfer window in the NIL era of college sports has made it harder for programs to develop continuity with quarterbacks. “The problem is now, if the rookie quarterback struggles early. What do they do? They take him out. No, no, no, leave him in there!
“NFL coaches, I think smartly, are doing the best job they can of adapting their offense to the quarterback that’s playing, if that means putting in some plays that player ran in college? I’m for it.” Manning also said that a young signal-caller must speak up at times for what’s the best fit for him, comedically referring to his first season in 1998 when he set an unfortunate rookie record.
“The best quarterbacks that play well they feel comfortable. The problem is it’s even hard for those quarterbacks sometimes to tell the coach, ‘Hey, I don’t really feel comfortable with that.’ It takes a lot. I didn’t learn that until my second year. That’s why I threw 28 interceptions.”
In closing his conversation with Smith, Manning said that while he thoroughly enjoys the ManningCast, the projects that he’s not on camera for most excite him, referring to such Omaha productions as Quarterback and Receiver for Netflix.
“I’m proud of the shows that … I kind of helped recruit, right?” Manning said. “I call Patrick Mahomes, I call George Kittle, I talked to Amon-Ra St. Brown and said ‘Hey, we want to highlight you guys, let us know what’s behind the scenes.’ So it’s kind of a different role. I just showed the quarterback on the field, now I’m the offensive coordinator of the press box, right? But I love those shows.”
