One of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, Peyton Manning, recently sat down with fellow great, Tom Brady, to discuss their Mount Rushmore of wide receivers. Having played with some of the best ever to do it, the longevity of Brady and Manning’s careers will never be questioned. As part of the “Rushmore on X” podcast, Manning was tasked with coming up with four of the best wideouts ever, a tough list to determine.
Peyton Manning Leaves Key Names Out of His Wide Receiver Mount Rushmore
At the end of the day, every list is going to be subjective. Some can go off statistics, while others go off the other intangibles that never show up in the box score. Key players will be left off of lists like this because, at the end of the day, there’s far more than just four wide receivers that deserve to be considered among the best ever to play the game.
Manning’s list began with Jerry Rice, a name that should come as no surprise, as he named off his untouchable records. Rice will undoubtedly go down as one of, if not the top, receivers of all time. Manning said his numbers “speak for themselves” as he mentioned his 1,549 career receptions for 22,895 yards and 197 touchdowns.
For his next choice, Manning acknowledged his bias: “Look, I played with him. I’m biased, but I saw it firsthand in the respect the DBs had for him.” He then named Marvin Harrison to his Mount Rushmore, joining Rice as his first two names. Manning continued, “The DBs told me that all of his routes looked the exact same, which I’m not sure there’s a better compliment that a defensive back can paint to a receiver.”
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.. Our 1st episode, Receivers.
Tom Brady & Peyton Manning join Ari & Ben as they try to land on 1 DEFINITIVE NFL Receiver Mt Rushmore. Thru some debate & phenomenal story telling we discover which 4 receivers should be etched in stone forever.
HOW’D WE DO? pic.twitter.com/bDvEr23yOy
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With over 100 career touchdowns, Harrison is in the Top 10 for receptions and receiving yards. He might not be a name that’s on everyone’s list, but Manning made sure to include him on his list. From there, he chose Raymond Berry. Berry, despite being an old-school player, was an obvious choice for Manning: “You can say he didn’t have as many catches, but he would have if he had played in the common era.”
Manning had high praise for Berry: “He and Johnny Unitas basically invented the timing passing.” At the time of his retirement, Berry held a few NFL records. Again, this is a biased choice from Manning, knowing where he spent most of his career.
As for active NFL WRs, Los Angeles Rams star Puka Nacua is the highest-graded receiver in PFSN’s WR Impact Score metric, with a 99.5 grade. That’s tied with NFL legend Julio Jones for the highest grade in our WR Impact Score database, which dates back to 2019. Nacua could one day end up on Manning’s list if he revisits it. As it stands, he rounded out his list with tight end Tony Gonzalez.
“I think he created this new type of tight end that we’re seeing. Gronk, Gates, Kelce, Kittle,” Manning said, just to name a few. Despite not playing with either Brady or Manning, the five-time NFL MVP was more than impressed by what he saw from Gonzalez throughout his career. At the end of the day, Manning’s list will certainly be up for debate, but he stuck to his core and chose names that he believes in.
