Peyton Manning jokingly wishes a rookie QB breaks his unwanted record

During his legendary career, quarterback Peyton Manning racked up passing records en route to his eventual place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Upon his NFL retirement after 18 seasons, Manning held the record for the most career passing yards (71,940), single-season passing yards (5,477 in 2013), and average yards per game (342.3). Though Tom Brady managed to topple all of Manning's records, there's one Manning record that remains uncontested.

Before all of the accolades, however, Manning had a rocky start to his career. As a rookie, the two-time Super Bowl champion set the record for most interceptions by a rookie quarterback with 28 interceptions.

Manning was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts. The Tennessee product was viewed as a generational prospect and he was asked to take the reins of the Indianapolis offense immediately.

Manning recently joked that he was hoping one of the rookie quarterbacks from the 2024 NFL Draft would take the undesirable record from him this upcoming season.

Peyton Manning jokes about breaking his historically bad rookie record

Manning was recently honored with the Community Enrichment Award at the Mizel Institute's 2024 Annual Event, where he also took a moment to comment on his illustrious NFL career. While discussing his rookie season, Manning reminisced about how it was "not a fun year."

"It was well-documented how many interceptions that I threw," Manning said. "I mean, if any one of these rookies wanted to break my interception record, I'd be for it. I don't want [Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix] to break it, but I'd like to get that one off my resume."

"You'd think with 17 games, they would be able to do it, right?" Manning joked. "It's 28 [interceptions], shouldn't be that hard."

The NFL has added an additional game to the regular season since Manning's rookie season, which should theoretically make it easier for someone to surpass his rookie blunders. Yet, it's hard to imagine a rookie quarterback getting close to that number without getting benched. A modern-day team likely wouldn't let a struggling rookie play out the entire season while turning the ball over that many times.

It's also worth mentioning that Manning's quarterbacks coach in Indianapolis was Bruce Arians, who would go on to become notorious for his aggressive "no risk it, no biscuit" approach. It was in Arians' offensive system that former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston threw 30 interceptions during the 2019 season.

Rules are also geared to favor offenses today, which has decreased interceptions overall. Quarterbacks are also entering the league with more familiarity to the professional game as collegiate and professional schemes have blended and overlapped more frequently. While plenty of rookie quarterbacks will start this season, they'll likely be protected by a running game, a conservative passing attack, and less suffocating defenses than Manning dealt with as a rookie.

Because the environment has changed so much, it looks like the unsavory interception record may stick with Manning for years to come.