Peyton Manning Sits at Top of List With 5 MVP Awards

Published on December 9th, 2024 10:19 am EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Which NFL player do you think has won the most regular season MVP awards?

If you guessed Tom Brady (which would be a very good guess), you'd be wrong.

Despite playing 69 games less than Tom Brady over the course of his career, Peyton Manning sits at the top of the list for most regular season MVP awards with a total of five.

That's one more than Aaron Rodgers and two more than Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Jim Brown and Johnny Unitas.

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Peyton Manning won five MVP awards - four with the Indianapolis Colts, and one with the Denver Broncos.

This is perhaps the most impressive point about Manning's five MVP awards - he managed to win another MVP with a different team, and after destroying his neck.

In fact, his shoulder was so bad that the Colts elected to move on from Manning in favor of Andrew Luck.

Manning's first MVP award came in 2003, five years after the Colts had made Manning their first overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft.

Manning would go back-to-back, winning another MVP award in 2004.

In 2008, at the age of 32, Manning would win his third MVP award. The next year, in 2009, Manning would win his fourth MVP award.

Things would go south for Manning's health after that, and there was a very real fear that his career was over after he injured his neck. Would he still be able to throw in the same way? Would he be protecting his injury instead of trying to make throws?

The Colts didn't want to wait around to find out, as they drafted Manning's replacement in Andrew Luck.

Manning would not only return to full health but would go on to absolutely destroy the NFL in his 2013 season with the Denver Broncos.

That Broncos team, led by Manning, had one of the most potent offenses of all time. You can't help but think that Manning was making a point to the Indianapolis Colts - you should have believed in me.

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The ironic thing is that due to Andrew Luck's injury, Manning and Luck retired a few years apart, despite Luck being 13 years younger.

Andrew Luck, who was drafted to be Peyton Manning's replacement, ended up winning zero MVP awards over the course of his career.