Going against Peyton Manning in Madden was like a Super Computer year after year after year. So today I’m going to use company time to unpack the peak video game versions of Peyton Manning, including one of the most dominant video game streaks of all time.
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00:00 If you ask pretty much everyone, Peyton Manning was one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history.
00:04 If you ask me, he was a perennial thorn in my side for my entire childhood.
00:10 As an only child growing up, I would often have to play against the computers.
00:13 And playing against video game Peyton Manning was playing against someone
00:16 that could basically read your mind.
00:18 Year after year after year after year.
00:22 So today I'm going to use company time to unpack the peak versions of Peyton Manning,
00:27 including one of the best video game streaks of all time.
00:30 Welcome to Most Virtual Player.
00:33 My lucky generation was able to grow up with many NFL football video game options.
00:48 NFL 2K, NFL Blitz, NFL Fever, NFL Street, and last but not least, Madden.
00:56 Now Peyton Manning is probably the best NFL athlete to never be on a Madden cover.
01:00 And if I had to guess, it's probably because he was the cover athlete of multiple NFL Fever titles.
01:06 He was on the cover of NFL Fever 2002, 2003, and 2004.
01:11 You see, being a video game cover athlete wasn't that big of a deal at that time.
01:15 You know, Allen Iverson's on like four 2K covers,
01:18 and Madden just hadn't Maddened on the cover until about 2001.
01:22 Because the game's named after him, and it just makes sense.
01:26 Speaking of Madden, Peyton Manning has one of the most impressive Madden streaks of all time.
01:30 From Madden 2006 to Madden 11, Peyton Manning is a 99 overall.
01:35 It's very impressive.
01:36 It's one of the most impressive streaks in gaming, and as much as I am a hater,
01:40 we should unpack this.
01:42 During that span, there were only two other quarterbacks that were able to make 99 overall.
01:46 Tom Brady in Madden 09, and Drew Brees in Madden 11.
01:50 So we have a lot in store for today's video agenda.
01:53 We're going to talk about Peyton Manning's Madden attributes
01:56 compared to other quarterbacks in Madden.
01:58 We're going to break down all the Madden features that help out
02:01 Peyton Manning beyond just his attributes.
02:03 I would give some examples right now, but I don't want to spoil the fun.
02:08 We're also going to talk about some of Peyton Manning's real life stats for a little bit,
02:13 just to remind you how good he was in real life.
02:15 Then we're going to go back into Madden and compare Peyton Manning's
02:19 supporting cast overalls year over year.
02:22 Because I think who Peyton Manning is throwing to in Madden matters as well.
02:26 Finally, I'm going to review and declare which
02:29 Peyton Manning 99 overall year I think was actually the best.
02:32 Now, knowing how I operate, I might go on a tangent or two,
02:37 but this is what I'm trying to achieve in the first episode of Most Virtual Player.
02:42 Before we take a deep dive into Madden 2006 and beyond,
02:44 we have to look at the fate of Madden around that time.
02:48 So we have to take a journey to Madden 2004.
02:51 The year is 2003, and Madden is about to release a banger of a game, and they don't know it.
02:57 They also are about to release one of the most broken video game characters of all time.
03:02 2004 Madden Michael Vick was the result of Madden's good ideas all coming together...
03:06 a little too well.
03:08 Now, Madden 2003 had a great change where the passing icons would show up
03:12 as soon as the ball was hiked.
03:14 In earlier Madden's, you had to press another button to show the passing icons,
03:17 and as someone that has been playing Madden for years,
03:20 going back to that was really weird.
03:22 I also found out that it's a feature that you could toggle in the earlier Madden's,
03:26 but it still doesn't make it any less weird.
03:28 Now, Madden 2004 had playmaker controls,
03:30 which allowed Michael Vick to just scramble in the backfield forever,
03:34 and then direct which receivers to go where.
03:38 You could basically use the right analog stick to mind control a receiver to go somewhere else.
03:43 This is very unfair.
03:45 Madden 2004 also had to create a playbook feature
03:49 where you could create your own custom routes,
03:51 so Michael Vick could scramble forever,
03:54 and then mind control tell his receivers where to go,
03:56 on top of the fact that you could make custom routes that the AI is just not prepared to guard.
04:02 All of these features made it more fun to play with a scrambling quarterback like Michael Vick,
04:06 versus a pocket passer like Peyton Manning.
04:09 No matter what overall Peyton Manning was,
04:11 it still wasn't enough to be as fun as Michael Vick.
04:15 So I feel like the Madden devs knew this,
04:17 and in Madden 2005 and Madden 2006,
04:19 they tried to balance the scales.
04:21 Madden 2005 introduced the hit stick,
04:24 and had Ray Lewis tackling Michael Vick in the Madden trailer,
04:28 basically to kind of send a message.
04:30 Now, Madden 2006 introduced a very divisive feature.
04:33 Welcome to the world of QB vision and precision passing.
04:37 Now, being an NFL quarterback is one of the hardest things in sports.
04:40 Think about how many quarterbacks in the NFL that you want on your team right now.
04:44 Scary, isn't it?
04:46 Thank you, Joe Burrow.
04:47 Now, it seems like Madden wanted to better replicate
04:49 the difficulty of being a quarterback by introducing QB vision.
04:53 In QB vision, you're able to see what the QB sees,
04:56 instead of your QB being able to throw accurate darts like he has spider senses,
05:00 and not even be looking at the person.
05:03 Now, the quarterback had to focus and lock onto the receiver to throw an actual accurate ball.
05:07 Now, with precision passing, you're able to use the left analog stick to throw a more precise ball,
05:12 whether you want it to lead your receivers or bring them back on a curl route or something like that.
05:17 Now, each quarterback had a vision cone that reflected their awareness
05:21 and how they can read the field.
05:22 As you can see here, Michael Vick only had a pizza slice wherever the field,
05:26 and that's with a 78 awareness.
05:28 Let me just sidebar here and say that Madden '06 gave 37-year-old Ty Detmer an 80 overall awareness.
05:35 In this Madden, Ty Detmer is listed as the third string quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons.
05:40 In case you're wondering how much an overall rating is affected by the awareness rating,
05:45 turning Michael Vick's awareness to zero turns him from a 92 overall to a 59 overall.
05:51 It matters.
05:52 And now that we've established that, let's look at Peyton Manning's awareness.
05:55 Ah.
05:57 So yeah, Peyton Manning has a 99 overall awareness,
06:00 and it makes his vision cone look like this.
06:02 Pretty big difference, huh?
06:05 So the following charts will help compare the top attributes
06:08 between the top quarterbacks from Madden '06 all the way until Madden '11.
06:13 You see, throughout those Madden years,
06:15 Peyton Manning and Tom Brady were always among the quarterbacks
06:18 with the highest throwing accuracy and throwing power.
06:21 Now, you can see here on the accuracy front,
06:24 versions of Mark Bolger, Drew Brees, Tony Romo, and Carson Palmer
06:28 are also up there in terms of accuracy.
06:31 Now, for throwing power, Peyton Manning actually clocks out at a 96 peak,
06:36 being beat out in that category by '06 Vick, '06 Favre, '08 and '09 Carson Palmer,
06:43 '06 Culpepper, and Madden '09 Tom Brady.
06:46 Madden '09 Brady is actually a 99 overall in both categories,
06:53 but this video is not about him.
06:55 But the awareness stat is where Manning truly shines.
07:00 Manning and Brady are at the top of the awareness charts,
07:02 but while other versions of Brady go as low as 97 overall awareness,
07:07 Peyton Manning's awareness for these six years don't go below 99.
07:13 And just because a quarterback has a high throwing power and throwing accuracy rating
07:19 doesn't mean that the awareness rating is going to be high as well.
07:22 That's not guaranteed.
07:24 For example, Tony Romo is only given an 80 awareness.
07:27 Donovan McNabb could only crack a 90 at his peak.
07:32 And all the way at the bottom is '06 Michael Vick at 78 overall,
07:36 which once again is reflected by the size of his QB vision cone.
07:41 Now, you had the option to turn the QB vision thing off,
07:45 but that didn't affect how Peyton Manning the computer would play against you.
07:50 It wasn't fun, especially as an only child,
07:52 and you're just trying to get a win and play on like the hardest level.
07:56 And I know what you're saying, "Kofie, that sounds like a skill issue."
07:59 I was 12.
07:59 You see, when the computer really takes control of the player,
08:02 that's when the awareness rating really kicks in
08:05 and turns a player into Sonny from iRobot.
08:07 So I'm realizing that iRobot came out in 2006,
08:10 so I need a more up-to-date reference.
08:12 Vision from Marvel.
08:15 And speaking of vision, when it comes to the Madden QB vision cone,
08:20 it was very divisive.
08:22 I'm being nice. People really hated it.
08:24 A lot of people thought that the vision cone made the lower level quarterbacks
08:27 basically unplayable,
08:28 while 10-year-old me was mad that the Glo-Glo cone made the throw no good.
08:32 So Madden 07 overhauled this and gave you the option to turn it on mid-play
08:36 versus the play starting with it on.
08:39 They also overhauled playmaker controls,
08:41 so you had to click the right thumbstick to actually activate it.
08:44 Now Madden also added new jukes in the form of the highlight stick.
08:47 This really didn't benefit Peyton Manning,
08:50 but it did really help other scramblers.
08:52 Now I just gotta say that Madden 07 is one of my favorite games
08:55 I think it's incredibly balanced, has a great soundtrack,
08:58 and has so many features that are not in Madden today.
09:02 Like a ton of features.
09:04 There's a video by SoftdrinkTV that like counts all the features that Madden used to have.
09:10 Now Madden 08 is where it really gets spicy.
09:13 Now Madden released something called the weapon system.
09:16 The weapon system gave special players in the league special abilities
09:19 that allowed them to do some really wild stuff in the game.
09:22 Now this was a really cool way to do it.
09:24 Now this was a really cool way to separate the players from each other,
09:27 but I think that some were more powerful than others.
09:30 Now there were 24 weapons in total and each weapon had their own counter to it,
09:34 but Peyton Manning, already at 99, was given the smart QB weapon.
09:39 Now the smart QB weapon was OP in my opinion.
09:43 During the course of a game you had a light bulb feature under Peyton Manning.
09:47 Now when that light bulb meter got full, you were able to see your opponents play.
09:52 You were just able to see the opponents play.
09:55 Now how fast the light bulb lit up depended on how often you were calling the same play,
10:00 so results may vary.
10:02 Also there was a smart defender icon as well, so where the defense could see
10:06 the offense's plays or part of the offense's plays,
10:10 but I think the smart QB one is way more powerful than the smart defense one.
10:15 So the Madden 08 weapon system brought in some fun and overpowered gameplay.
10:20 So of course Madden did the right thing and took weapons completely out on Madden 09.
10:26 Which is what I thought.
10:28 What Madden 09 actually did was give the user the ability to turn the weapons on and off,
10:34 turn the icons on and off, as well as just turning the smart weapons on and off specifically.
10:39 Now I'm not an EA developer, but I think that having a specific filter for just the smart weapons
10:45 tells you how powerful that weapon was the year before.
10:48 Also I forgot to mention that players could have more than one weapon, so Peyton Manning had three.
10:54 Yeah.
10:55 Good luck guys.
10:56 Now Madden 10 offered some more subtle changes compared to Madden 08 and Madden 09.
11:01 They got rid of the weapon system,
11:03 but gave Peyton Manning his own throwing style and throwing animation.
11:06 Now this might not matter that much at face value,
11:09 but Peyton Manning's release was quicker than the likes of Joe Flacco, David Garrard.
11:15 Now if someone was to say that the release animations don't really matter that much,
11:19 I'm not going to argue against it.
11:21 However, I believe that in the short and intermediate passes,
11:25 Peyton Manning does have a little bit of an advantage.
11:27 Now I wish that I could say that Madden 11 added something new that distinguished
11:32 Peyton Manning from the rest, but no.
11:34 The only thing that Madden 11 did that I can really distinguish is that they added
11:39 an old Spice Swagger attribute.
11:41 I don't know.
11:44 Now that we've gotten the differences between the Maddens out of the way,
11:47 I do want to talk about Peyton's in real life stats for a little bit.
11:51 And since the Maddens usually come out before the season starts,
11:54 I want to talk about the rosters that happened before the game.
11:58 It's really confusing for me, honestly.
12:00 I have to remind myself of this.
12:02 So the seasons we're going to talk about are 2004 to 2010.
12:07 In 2004, Peyton Manning had a monster quarterback season,
12:10 commanding the highest scoring offense in the league.
12:13 Manning threw for 49 touchdowns to only 10 interceptions at 9.2 yards gain per pass attempt.
12:19 Yeah.
12:19 Uh-huh. Yep. Okay.
12:21 I'm told that these stats are really good.
12:23 Manning also sported a quarterback rating of 121.1, which is the third highest all time.
12:30 Manning won both Offensive Player of the Year and the MVP this season.
12:35 This is one of the best offenses ever made,
12:37 which unfortunately had their Super Bowl run cut short by a 14-2 Patriots squad.
12:42 In the cold and the rain, and they were only able to muster up three points that game.
12:46 Another game that was adding on to the narrative that Peyton Manning was a playoff choker.
12:51 So midway through recording this, I'm realizing that Secret Base already
12:54 has a Peyton Manning Prism episode out.
12:56 If you want to learn more about Peyton Manning's early legacy,
13:00 feel free to watch that video.
13:01 You know it's Secret Base and you know we make absolute bangers.
13:05 In the 2005 season, Peyton Manning saw a regression in some of his stats,
13:09 but asking Peyton Manning to keep up with his 2004 year is absolutely ludicrous.
13:15 The Colts had the number two scoring offense in the league and had a 14-2 record,
13:20 which set the table for a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the divisional round.
13:25 After beating the Bengals in a game that we will never talk about...ever.
13:30 The Steelers took down the Colts 21-18,
13:32 thanks to a missed field goal at the end by Mike Vanderjaagt.
13:36 For those that want to learn more about this,
13:38 feel free to go to the Peyton Manning vs. Mike Vanderjaagt beef history,
13:41 also made by us at Secret Base.
13:44 I told you we only make bangers and I meant it.
13:46 Now the 2006 season saw Peyton Manning leave the league in passing touchdowns,
13:50 and Peyton Manning was able to beat Tom Brady on the way to the Super Bowl,
13:54 which they won.
13:55 Sorry, Chicago.
13:56 From the 2007 to 2010 season, Peyton Manning kept up with a stellar play,
14:01 averaging more than 4,000 passing yards each season,
14:04 winning two MVPs and making it to the Super Bowl once again.
14:08 This time they lost that one though.
14:10 Now since Peyton Manning was only a 97 overall in Madden '05,
14:13 that's why I didn't include him in the Madden '06 to Madden 2011 run.
14:19 Now the third and final factor to finding out which version of Peyton Manning is the best,
14:24 actually has nothing to do with him at all.
14:25 Let's talk about his supporting cast.
14:28 Now in 2004, the Colts had not one, not two,
14:31 but three receivers to have over a thousand yards in the season.
14:35 Keep in mind this has only happened in the NFL five times in history.
14:39 Number 88, Reggie Wayne, and Brandon Stokely all had a thousand receiving yards for that season.
14:46 Now starting with Madden '06, in the backfield was 96 overall Edgeron James,
14:51 a 98 overall number 88, a 90 overall Reggie Wayne, and an 86 overall Brandon Stokely.
14:59 The true balance of this 99 overall offense made them a nightmare in any formation.
15:07 Now Madden '07 gave the Colts a 91 overall offense,
15:10 and this is due to the part that Edgeron James left the team that season.
15:15 Now a 91 overall offense tied them with the Seahawks and the Chiefs,
15:18 but put them behind the 92 overall Cincinnati Bengals.
15:22 That doesn't make me sad at all.
15:27 Now in the running back department that year, they had an 84 overall Dominique Rhodes,
15:31 and a rookie Joseph Adai.
15:33 Now Adai would go on to have over a thousand rushing yards that year.
15:37 Now Madden '07 also had the tandem of number 88 as a 97 overall,
15:42 and Reggie Wayne as a 92 overall.
15:44 Not to mention an 83 overall Brandon Stokely, and an 86 overall Dallas Clark.
15:50 Now Madden '08 had a gauntlet of talent with Joseph Adai as an 87 overall.
15:55 Number 88 was a 98 overall,
15:57 and Reggie Wayne was a 96 overall with an 87 overall Dallas Clark.
16:01 Madden '09 had another powerhouse Colts offense where Manning was joined by 91 overall Joseph Adai.
16:07 Reggie Wayne and number 88 were a 97 and 94 respectively,
16:11 and Dallas Clark was a 93 overall in his own right.
16:14 Now Madden '10 is where the supporting cast downswing really happened.
16:17 Joseph Adai goes down to an 85 overall,
16:20 and the Colts have a new receiving core that Madden does not take on lightly,
16:25 and it's just Reggie Wayne.
16:27 Now Reggie Wayne has a 95 overall,
16:30 but that's that's all that there is to see from the receivers this year.
16:34 Dallas Clark is still a 91 overall tight end,
16:36 but compared to the other Colts offenses that we've talked about,
16:40 this one's a little bit lacking.
16:42 And does it get better from here?
16:43 Not really.
16:45 In Madden '11 Peyton Manning's supporting cast was pedestrian on paper.
16:49 You had an 86 Joseph Adai.
16:51 You had a 96 overall Reggie Wayne and an 80 overall Pierre Garcon paired with Austin Colley.
16:58 But you did have Dallas Clark at a 96 overall tight end.
17:02 So all of that being out in the open,
17:04 I feel like the best Colts overall offense was the Madden '06 year with 96 overall Edrin James.
17:11 You had number 88.
17:12 You had Reggie Wayne.
17:14 You had Dallas Clark.
17:15 That's a true unstoppable offense through and through.
17:18 However, we're not here to find the best overall offense.
17:21 We're here to find the best overall version of Peyton Manning.
17:24 So now that I've talked about it, let's go through this a little bit.
17:27 And I did not write this part of the script, so we're just going off of vibes here.
17:31 No, not really.
17:32 So I'm gonna get rid of Madden '10 and Madden '11 for a couple of reasons.
17:37 One, Peyton Manning's supporting casts aren't as good as the other ones.
17:41 And two, there aren't many features in those two Maddens that really elevate Peyton's 99
17:48 overall even higher off the charts.
17:51 Now when it comes to Madden '08 and Madden '09, they both have weapons.
17:56 But I think Madden '09 having the smart weapon filter just shows how powerful
18:01 the Madden '08 version of weapons is.
18:04 So I'm leaning more towards Madden '08.
18:06 So now it just goes down to Madden '08 and Madden '06.
18:11 And honestly, I feel like you could go both ways for this.
18:14 If you were to say Madden '06 had the best version of Peyton Manning, I wouldn't hold you to it.
18:20 However, I do have to circle back to how absolutely overpowered it is for a quarterback
18:27 on the other team to be able to see the diagram of the defense's plays in a video game.
18:35 I really don't think that there's anything more OP than that.
18:38 And to give a quarterback like Peyton Manning that ability just seems just not fair.
18:44 I really wonder how that focus group thing went when they realized that
18:48 Peyton Manning could just read the minds of the defense in a video game format.
18:53 I think Peyton Manning and Madden '08 is the most overpowered version of him,
18:57 especially in that run of Madden '06 to Madden '11 where he's 99 overall.
19:03 I think Madden '08 is the peak.
19:06 Now you can also say Madden '09 because the supporting cast is a little bit better,
19:10 but I think that Madden '08 is just that much more dominant.
19:14 Now the cool thing about these investigations is that this is my opinion,
19:18 and if someone else has a different opinion, feel free to let us know.
19:22 Feel free to comment.
19:23 If you have any other things that you want me to investigate video game wise,
19:27 feel free to tell me and let me know.
19:29 And I feel like the cool thing about Madden Peyton Manning is that even though he was this good,
19:35 he wasn't easy to play compared to the other scramblers in the game.
19:41 But I feel like playing quarterback as Peyton Manning in Madden helped me
19:45 understand football a little bit more, if that makes sense.
19:50 I still don't understand it fully.
19:53 Football is one of the most complicated sports in my opinion,
19:55 but playing as Peyton Manning made me play the game more cautiously
20:01 because I couldn't use my legs to actually escape.
20:04 And playing as Peyton Manning often reminded me of the first-person football game mode
20:09 in NFL 2K5, which really humbled me playing quarterback as well.
20:15 But at that point, I don't know what I'm looking for there.
20:18 Whereas I feel like Peyton Manning in Madden kind of made you more disciplined as a video game player.
20:24 There was just something so humbling about Peyton Manning being a 99 overall
20:28 and me not being good with him.
20:30 And reality hitting that, I don't understand the first thing
20:34 about football concepts or schemes or any of that.
20:38 But those humblings also fueled my hunger to get better, my desire to learn about the sport.
20:44 Now Peyton Manning isn't the sole reason why I find football so fascinating,
20:49 but he is the reason why me watching great quarterback play
20:52 Sunday after Sunday will never get old.
20:55 And I thank him for that.
20:58 Anyway, thank you guys for watching to the end of the video.
21:00 Feel free to subscribe to Secret Base and I will see you guys next time.
21:04 [Music]
21:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]