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Denver Broncos | News

Peyton Manning: A career by the numbers

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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- **The debate over Peyton Manning's place in NFL history will rage among barstool experts for decades to come, but as he bids farewell, he leaves with a passel of numbers that create a resume unlike any other quarterback in NFL history.

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71,940: **Manning's regular-season passing yardage total in 18 NFL seasons, a league record. Manning threw for an average of 270.45 yards per game; among quarterbacks with at least 150 starts, only New Orleans' Drew Brees has averaged more yardage per game.

17,112:Regular-season yardage amassed by Manning in four seasons with the Broncos, a figure that trails only John Elway in team history. Manning also ranks second in Broncos history in attempts, completions and touchdown passes. Elway and Manning are the only quarterbacks to throw at least 75 touchdown passes in a Broncos uniform. And making Manning's Broncos accomplishments all the more remarkable is the fact that he compiled them with no feeling in the fingertips of his throwing hand.

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539: **Career regular-season touchdown passes thrown by Manning, the most in NFL history, surpassing the previous record of 508 set by Brett Favre in his 20-season career with the Falcons, Packers, Jets and Vikings. Manning threw 140 of his touchdowns as a Bronco.

290:Quarterbacks to throw at least one regular-season pass since Manning entered the league, per pro-football-reference.com, from Brees (8,085 attempts) to five quarterbacks with one attempt: Mike Cherry, Pete Gonzalez, Mark Hartsell, Mike Quinn and Kevin Thompson.

200:Wins by Manning's teams in games he started, which included 186 in the regular season and 14 in the postseason. The regular-season tally is tied with Brett Favre for the most all-time, but the combined total of 200 surpassed Favre's by one.

96.5:Manning's career quarterback efficiency rating, just 0.6 points behind all-time leader (minimum 150 games played) Tony Romo's 97.1 figure.

78.9:Percentage of regular-season games won by the Broncos when Manning started, the highest figure for a quarterback who started at least 25 games for the Broncos. Jake Plummer (.722) is the only other quarterback to start 25 or more games with the Broncos and lead them to wins more than 70 percent of the time.

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55: **Manning's touchdown-pass total from his record-breaking 2013 season. Manning's 5,477 passing yards from his fifth MVP campaign also remain a league record.

50:Combined regular-season and postseason wins by the Broncos in games Manning started. With Manning at quarterback, the Broncos won more games in four seasons than they did in the previous six (45), and had their most productive multi-year stretch -- by far -- since they went 46-10 from 1996-98 in winning a pair of world championships.

50:As in Super Bowl 50, in which, of course, the Broncos earned their third Lombardi Trophy.

50:Players who caught Manning's combined total of 579 touchdown passes -- a league-record 539 in the regular season and 40 in the postseason. Fourteen of them caught exactly one touchdown pass: Lance Ball, Jim Finn, Virgil Green, Ronnie Hillman, Trevor Insley, Kenton Keith, Luke Lawton, Tom Lopienski (whose only touchdown catch was in the postseason), Aaron Moorehead, Mike Roberg, Gijon Robinson, Tom Santi, Mitch Unrein and Lamont Warren. Dan Klecko caught one each in the regular season and postseason.

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18: **The only jersey number Manning wore as a professional. It was also the college number of his father, Archie, and the high-school number of older brother Cooper. The late Frank Tripucka gave permission for it to be loaned out of retirement to Manning when he joined the Broncos in March 2012; it will immediately go back into retirement and will never be worn by a Denver Bronco again.

17:Combined regular-season and postseason games in which Manning threw for 400-plus yards, one ahead of Brees and two ahead of Dan Marino. No one else has more than eight.

14:Postseason wins by teams for which Manning started, a figure that trails only Tom Brady and Joe Montana and is tied for third all-time with Terry Bradshaw and Elway. Five of those wins came with the Broncos as they racked up more than twice as many postseason wins with Manning than they did in their previous 13 years combined, when they went 2-5 in the postseason.

14:4,000-yard seasons amassed by Manning, four more than anyone else in league history. In a testament to Manning's prowess -- and how the league has changed -- the record when Manning entered the league was six 4,000-yard seasons, amassed by Marino.

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14: **Pro Bowl selections for Manning.

12:Division titles earned by Manning-led teams: one AFC East crown (1999), seven AFC South titles (2003-07, 2009-10) and four AFC West championships (2012-15).

7: Manning's single-game touchdown-pass record, set against the Baltimore Ravens in the 2013 regular-season opener. He is one of eight quarterbacks with seven touchdown passes in one game, a feat matched by Brees against the New York Giants in Week 8 of the 2015 season.

5:Most Valuable Player awards won by Manning, two more than anybody else.

3:Playoff wins in five head-to-head matchups against Brady. The homesteading quarterback won every postseason game between their two teams in the rivalry that will long be remembered as the duel that defined the first 15 years of the 21st century.

3:Games in which Manning threw six or more touchdown passes, the most in NFL history. Seven quarterbacks have thrown six or more touchdown passes twice, including Brady, Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Y.A. Tittle, George Blanda and Ring of Famer Charley Johnson.

1:Quarterback to lead multiple teams to Super Bowl wins as the starter. Although neither Super Bowl XLI nor Super Bowl 50 qualify as vintage Manning performances, his team's successes in those games allowed him to etch a unique place in NFL history for himself as he succeeded where such legends as Joe Montana, Kurt Warner, Brett Favre and Craig Morton fell short.

This, along with his collection of league records, is why Manning leaves with a case to being the best quarterback ever to pass through the NFL. Along with luminaries such as Otto Graham, Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana and Tom Brady, Manning's name will be discussed for generations to come for his individual and team accomplishments, as well as how he raised the bar for the extent to which a quarterback can prepare and study the game.

Take a look at some of the top photos of Peyton Manning as a Bronco.

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