In his 15-year career as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, not to mention another three years as defensive coordinator in Kansas City and four years in Cleveland as a special teams coach, Hall of Famer Bill Cowher came across quite a few great football minds on the field and on the sidelines.
None of them top Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning though.
In a roundtable interview with the NFL on CBS crew, Cowher stated that Manning was the smartest football mind he had ever encountered in the NFL due to his ability to read defenses, know exactly where to go with the football, and do so quickly.
“Peyton Manning, to me, just defending against him, he could read coverages. He knew exactly where to go with the play,” Cowher said of Manning, according to video via NFL on CBS on YouTube. “He would set protections. He was an offensive coordinator on the field, and defending against him was a pain because if you showed him anything, he would get into the right play and knew exactly where to go with the ball.”
During Cowher’s career as head coach of the Steelers,  he matched up against Manning — the No. 1 overall pick in the 1999 NFL Draft — three times: twice in the regular season in 2002 and 2005, and once in the playoffs in that famous 2005 AFC Divisional Round matchup in Indianapolis.
In total, Manning saw the Steelers seven times in the regular season and playoffs in his career, going 4-3.
Manning got the best of Cowher’s team just once, and it came in the regular season in 2005, a 26-7 win for the Colts in the old RCA Dome. But, the Steelers got the last laugh against Manning and the Colts in the playoffs that year, winning the thrilling 21-18 game over the Colts to punch their ticket to the AFC Championship Game in Denver, where they won and then went on to win Super Bowl XL, giving Cowher his long-eluded championship.
In the 2002 matchup against Cowher’s Steelers, Pittsburgh prevailed over Manning and the Colts 28-10.
Manning was a first-ballot Hall of Famer who had all the tools to be an elite-level quarterback, which he was for many years in the NFL. He won two Super Bowls, five NFL MVPs, two Offensive Player of the Year awards, seven first-team All-Pros, and three second-team All-Pros, along with 14 Pro Bowl trips.
He had a great arm and a great brain for the position, which ultimately made him so difficult to deal with. When you combine the physical tools with the mental ability, that makes for elite quarterbacks, and that’s what Manning was, causing headaches for Cowher.
