yes I said that if Manning was here and threw 14 INT at this point in time most people would call him a bust..
Now maybe you wouldnt and thats ok but did you call for the Giraffe to be benched and if so how many INT did it take you to reach that decision? Just so can make a educated guess on where you would be after 14 INT..
To the manning point- he played a tough schedule at that point and everyone realized that.
He played the Marino led dolphins that had a murderous defense twice. They were 1 in points allowed, number one in interceptions.
Then, they played the Bledsoe led pats twice... Incidentally their defense was number 2 in the league in picks.
He also played the jets twice- the number 4 team in the league in interceptions.
And the saints... Tied for number 4 in the league in interceptions.
And th 49ers... Also tied at number 4 in interceptions.
And the chargers..number 8 in interceptions.
If you are counting... 9 of mannings first 10 games were vs. Top 5 teams in interceptions. 10 of 10 were top 10 teams.
I remember very clearly the inside the nfl guys mentioning the meat grinder of defenses that manning faced as a rookie and pointing out the abnormal amount of picks were very likely less a product of manning being bad and more likely a product of a crazy tough schedule.
There were no alarms about manning- he played at an exceptional level given what he faced and people recognized that.