Peyton Manning is exiting the NFL with the game’s two most prestigious career passing records — yards and touchdowns.
He played in an unprecedented era for passers. The man he passed, Brett Favre, hadn’t even held them for a full decade; when Favre broke Dan Marino’s marks in 2007, Manning was still in his prime.
Nevertheless, Manning will get to keep his records much longer than Favre did — if anyone breaks them at all.
MORE: Peyton Manning's 18 career milestones | Top 10 players to catch a Peyton Manning touchdown pass
The next two decades in the NFL are an unpredictable haze. This pass-happy, quarterback-friendly era is running its course. The next generation of quarterbacks aren't cut in the Manning-Tom Brady-Drew Brees mold, and neither are the offenses in which they'll play.
And with the direction the game is taking with concussions and other injuries, expecting 18 seasons out of any player at any position — much less the most physically and mentally demanding of all — is asking almost too much.
So, if neither Brady nor Brees catches Manning, many of us might not live to see the quarterback who does.
For the record (pun intended), Manning finishes with 71,940 yards and 539 touchdown passes over 17 healthy seasons and one he sat out entirely. (All stats are from pro-football-reference.com).
The next two active players on the all-time yardage list are Brees, some 11,000 yards back; and Brady, nearly 14,000 yards back. With touchdowns, Brady and Brees are tied, 111 behind Manning.
On opening day 2016, Brees will be 37, Brady 39. Can Brees have three more 4,000-yard, 37-touchdown seasons? Can Brady have four more? Do the math. It’s possible for both. But remember how fast Manning's years and health caught up to him.
The active name mentioned as a threat most often is Aaron Rodgers. He’s 32. He’s not even halfway to Manning yet, at 32,399 yards and 257 touchdowns. Then again, he barely played his first three seasons, so he doesn’t have the mileage Manning did at the same age.
Who’s still in his 20s and worth discussing? Matthew Stafford, 28, is some 46,000 yards back. That’s just under Fran Tarkenton’s entire career total, and that’s what Stafford needs from now on.
Meanwhile, Cam Newton is heading into Season Six, turns 27 in a couple of months, and has 18,263 yards.
That’s where the future of the game raises its head.
Newton also uses his running ability more than his pass-heavy predecessors. He’s the blueprint now, much more than a Manning or Brady are. Andrew Luck (14,838 yards) turns 27 in September. Russell Wilson (13,974) is 27 now. They all run.
The others in their 20s have been an up-and-down bunch (Robert Griffin III, Sam Bradford, Colin Kaepernick) or are far too early to project (Blake Bortles, Teddy Bridgewater, Jameis Winston).
MORE: 10 best Manning performances
The hints of a tilt back to a run-dominated game have already appeared. Between teams that can and will trust their running backs more than their quarterbacks, and those that design offenses in which quarterbacks win games with their feet as well as their arms, it’s hard to imagine someone say, throwing for 4,000 yards 14 times in 17 healthy seasons, as Manning did.
Again, that’s if players walking away to spare the toll on their bodies doesn’t turn into the norm, instead of the exception it still is. The season that took Manning to the brink of Favre’s records, 2013, took place when he was 37. Will the next generation of greats be still playing at that age, much less cranking out those numbers?
The guess here: nope. Manning can bask in the glow of these marks for a long time. So could his kids.