An analysis of Peyton Manning's pay cut

But first, that silly dog!

Laurie captured this heartwarming moment between Mommy and doggie.


Anyway, Peyton Manning agreed to take a $4 million pay cut to help the team with cap room.  And far be it from me to stand up for a man still making $15 million next season, or approximately 790 times what I will, especially a man whom I have taken great pleasure in pilloring over the years.  But I thought of something quite curious in all this.


Now, it would be easy to justify a pay cut based on what he did last year against what he did the year before.  But the comparison really should be against the contract he had when Denver got him- in other words, is he still meeting the expectations they had when they signed him?

Last year, his completion percentage dropped 2.1%- not all that stiff;  but it only dropped .1% from his last season as a Colt.  Likewise, his passing yards, while plummeting a whopping 750 yards from last year, actually went up 27 yards from the last Colt season of 2010;  his TD passes fell 16 from last year, but UP 6 from 2010; his interceptions went up 5 last year, but fell 2 from 2010;  and his QB rating went down a huge 13.6 last year, but still 9.6 higher than 2010.

Now he had gotten a raise coming to the Broncos-  he went from averaging $18.0 million to $19.2 million. And after a season that he exceeded most of his stats from that original year- he takes a pay cut.   But say that winning is what counts.  In Indy that last year, he went 10-6.  In Denver, he's been 13-3, 13-3, and then "slumped" to 12-4 last year.

So in short, the only thing he's actually done to lose 22% of his pay from when he was first signed is, he got 3 years older.  I think he should sue for age discrimination!

And I still got 11 years before I get to join AARP!