The great Peter King from SI gives his his NFL Midseason Report. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning is the main feature. Be sure to check it out when it comes out tomorrow. Below is a summary of what is covered.
King praises Manning for his sustained excellence while also crediting new targets Austin Collie and Pierre Garçon—among others—for making their quarterback perhaps more confident than ever:
The numbers tell a good story about the young receivers’ adjustment. In the Tennessee game, 16 of Manning’s 44 throws went to his on-the-job-training guys: Collie, Garçon and rookie running back Donald Brown. Two of his three touchdown passes that night were to the newbie Collie. Particularly, the numbers say good things about Collie’s adjustment. In the rookie seasons of WR Reggie Wayne, TE Dallas Clark and WR Anthony Gonzalez, Manning averaged 47 pass attempts to each of them, completing an average of 31. Over the first half of 2009 Manning has thrown 46 passes to Collie and completed 32. Wayne, Clark and Gonzalez combined for four touchdowns as rookies. Collie has four in eight games.