FIRST DOWN – I’VE GOT MORE TD’s THAN YOU, AND YOU, AND YOU… 

The title of this article is Beyond TDs and Tackles so it might seem odd that I’m going to devote most of this week to Peyton Manning and his record 510 passing TDs. The “Beyond” part will be all about the who, how, when etc. For this article all TDs will be thru week 7 of the 2014 season.

The following chart shows the number of passing TDs for each franchise and their top two and top three leaders in passing TDs. The green boxes help to point out the ones that Manning has more passing TDs than.  As an example, Sid Luckman (137) and Jay Cutler (115) rank 1st and 2nd respectively in all-time passing TDs for the Bears and their total of 252 is well below the 511 TDs Manning has thrown for. Add in the 68 passing TDs by Billy Wade (3rd All-Time for the Bears) and the three combine for 320 TDs, just 190 fewer TDs than Manning.

Yes, Peyton Manning has thrown for more TDs than four entire organizations. He’s also thrown for more TDs than the top three QBs have for 17 teams and more than the top two QBs have for 28 teams. That’s pretty much insane.

SECOND DOWN – GREATNESS MEASURED IN HOFers WITH A DASH OF WARNER

When Manning broke the passing TD record with his 509th toss in week 7 I couldn’t help but take a look at how other HOF QBs stacked up. What I found was that stacking HOF QBs still didn’t measure up to Manning’s 510.

Granted today’s game is much different than the era some of the above QBs played in but it’s still something to see how Manning’s numbers compare against some of the greatest off all-time.

THIRD DOWN – Steve’s Seven Sleepers

The Giants and 49ers are on a bye this week. Check out my seven sleepers that I think can help you cover a bye week issue. To qualify the player can’t rank in the top-36** at their respective position based on the season long rankings in the Huddle IDP Expert League. I thought it’d be nice to show how my sleepers did the previous week so you’ll also find last week’s sleepers with the amount of points that they scored. I also want to add that I’m trying to target players that should be available on waivers.

*Top-12 for QB & TE. **Top-15 for QB & TE.  

Oof, last week was a bad one for my official sleepers…outside of Malcolm Smith that is. At QB I’d have been better off going with my recommendation of Ryan Tannehill (23.88), and at RB Darren McFadden (15.50) was a much better call than Lorenzo Taliaferro. At least I prefaced that Taliaferro was a risky option. At WR I went with the wrong Seahawk as Doug Baldwin (25.30) lit up the scoreboard. I’m sticking to my guns and going with Kearse again this week. But back to last week, Marques Colston (17.10) was a much better call. Justin Hunter (1.60) and Cecil Shorts (4.20) obviously weren’t too good. In addition to Jermaine Kearse this week I like Michael Floyd too but I doubt he’s available on waivers. Jared Cook did OK for a waiver play but nothing great. Jeremy Mincey had a great matchup last week but didn’t capitalize. This week I love Michael Johnson’s matchup and think he’s a much safer play than Mincey was last week. Malcolm Smith filled in admirably for Seattle’s MLB, Bobby Wagner. This week I’m looking at another injury replacement in James Thomas to take Paul Posluszny’s MLB job and put up a productive week. I whiffed on DB with Terence Newman the way that Newman whiffed on a tackle at the goal line in week 7…badly. I’ve been high on Alterraun Verner all year and coming off of a bye you might be able to nab him off waivers…if you can, do it.

FOURTH DOWN – PEYTON MANNING HAS NEVER THROWN A TD ______________.

Ha, gotcha! I bet you were going to say fourth down and honestly, I’m not sure if he has or hasn’t. However, what I do know is that he has never thrown a TD in OT. Here’s a look at his TD throws by quarter.

Thru week 7, Manning has thrown for 66,812 yards which means that his TD passes have accounted for 14.3% of his passing yardage. His 510 passing TDs only account for 9% of his completions. He has thrown 335 red zone TDs, or you could say that 65.7% of his TDs were red zone TDs. 35 (6.9%) of his TDs were from the 1-yard line.

The next chart shows the top-10 players to catch TDs from Manning. They account for 339 (66.5%) of his 510 TDs.

We’ll finish up with a, “yep, he threw a ton of TDs against my favorite team!”

*With three TD passes in week 8 it ups Manning’s total to 27 against the Chargers.