I also wonder how Daunte Culpepper can throw 39 TD's and have an absolutely awesome year (overshadowed by Peyton's 49 TD's) and a knee injury later just be completely worthless. I could understand if it was a shoulder or arm injury.
IMO, that is easy. He lost his left tackle (I think McKinney) and Randy Moss. Moss would go up and catch anything thrown in his direction. When Moss left, Culpepper was neutralized b/c Minnesota had no effective running back between Robert Smith to the arrival of Adrian Peterson. Culpepper's ineffectiveness came before his knee injury, which pretty much finished his career.
If I implied that Manning was a choke artist, that was a misstatement. He choked in a few big games, but as Klydon more clearly stated than I, no one comes close to Manning in preparing and calling the audible. He may be the only current QB who calls his own plays. I hope Peyton has another Super Bowl win or two before his career is over.
I respectfully disagree about Edgerrin James. Yes, he's on the downside now and kudos to the Colts for foreseeing that decline and not re-signing Edge. But he was right up there with Terrell Davis, Shaun Alexander, and the elite backs from about 1999-2003, even with missing 1 entire year to an ACL injury. Yes, he doesn't have breakaway speed, but he was a durable multi-faceted back for 5 years.
