Certainly in the running I agree, losing Brees or Brady would almost certainly kill their seasons, whereas the Broncos might even be able to win the #1 seed with Osweiller.
We saw Demaryius Thomas' and Eric Decker's production with Tebow. It paled in comparison to their production with Manning. What makes you think that the Broncos might be able to win the #1 seed with Osweiller?
Here's the thing. Both QBs do a great job of elevating the talent they have around them. Brady has elevated his WRs to play above the rookie level that they are. The difference is that Manning has elevated his talent more. Granted, he has played with Decker and DT for all of one year more than Brady has had with his receivers, but Manning elevated these receivers into Pro Bowl talent. He didn't inherit this talent (Welker aside), he created it. On top of that this is the first opportunity that he has had with an significant time with J Thomas. He certainly wasn't Pro Bowl talent before this year. And Manning is blowing everyone away with this team. Osweiller is no better than Curtis Painter. Osweiller would not lead this team to a #1 seed.
Decker and DT were both in the league for 2 full seasons before they got Peyton Manning as their quarterback, that is 100 times different then getting 2 rookies. Peyton didn't elevate them to pro bowl level. You could see DT was going to be a pro bowler the year before. The problem was he missed some games and had Tebow throwing too him, Decker was also going to be a borderline pro bowler with anyone other then Tebow throwing too him. I am not saying Peyton didn't make them better but the writing was on the wall the year before Peyton got there.
Julius Thomas played in 9 games in 2 years before this season. No one knew what he was.
Decker had 50 receptions in his two years before Manning. Thomas had 54 before Manning. J Thomas had 1 catch for 5 yards in his two years in the NFL. Where's the Pro Bowl talent? Manning comes in and turned them into Pro Bowlers. Brady might do the same with his rookies with 1.25 seasons under their belts together. I'd love to see it. But what Manning has done, and is doing this year, is head over heels far more impressive than what Brady is doing.
So maybe watch a game instead of quoting stats. Their first year in the league they barely played, they were behind Marshall, Royal, and Lloyd that year, that year Lloyd led the league in yards, Marshall had over 1000 yards. Second year both of them showed promise, but there were games Tebow was completing all of 8 passes, Tebow started 12 games that year and had just over 1700 yards passing. Please tell me how you can tell if anyone is going to be a good receiver when the quarterback is averaging under 150 yards a game and about 10 completed passes a game. Before you go complaining about my stats you should know that I am using the stats to back up what I saw. You obviously didn't watch them play at all if you had you would have seen their talent and Tebow holding that offense back.
I agree Manning is out performing Brady this year, but please stop with the whole he made Decker and DT, those guys were going to be good with an average quarterback.
I wasn't complaining about your stats. In fact I agree with what they spell out. DT was a first round pick with first round expectations. Decker was a third round pick with average expectations. I don't think that anyone would argue with you that Tebow was terrible (yes, I do watch the games) but I certainly didn't hear anyone talking about how terrible Tebow was while being surrounded by Pro Bowl talent. Bring in Manning and all of a sudden he is surrounded by Pro Bowlers? Throughout his entire career? C'mon. What do you have against Manning? So he's a choker in the playoffs. He still gets more out of his players than any other QB in the league.
I like Brady better, but Peyton is still one of the best too. I just hate how people say all the time how he made his receivers, and it isn't true. Wayne has proven this since Manning left, Harrison was proving it before Peyton got there. I watched Decker a lot that year with Tebow because I had him on my dynasty team. He was a lot better then his 3rd round pick. Even guys like Garcon have left and had success else where. You can't say that about many of the receivers that played with Brady. Branch was horrible when he left, Patton was nothing special, Brown wasn't either, what about Givens or Reche Caudwell? You know who Peyton has had his entire career for his top receiver Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, or DT. Brady has had Troy Brown, Deion Branch, Reche Caudwell, Randy Moss, Wes Welker, and Kenbrell Thompkins.
Like I said earlier, both QBs have elevated their WRs to better than expected levels. Welker was traded within the division from Miami to NE, that's how little Miami thought of Welker. Playing with Brady elevated Welker's game to the point where he is talked about as perhaps the greatest slot receiver of all time. Randy Moss was elevated by Brady to one of the greatest seasons a wide receiver has ever had.
I am just trying to refute the argument that Manning's greatness in 4 games is because he is surrounded by Pro Bowl talent and that Brock Osweiller would have similar success. That is so far from the truth of things. Manning makes his receivers better, not the other way around. When Manning joined the Broncos last year (without having a preseason to work with the team, mind you) I think that the general consensus was that the Broncos had talented receivers, but certainly not Pro Bowl talent. DT had potential, but hadn't proved anything yet. Now all of a sudden he is "surrounded" by this Pro Bowl talent.
There's a reason why Manning is labeled a playoff choker and not Harrison, Wayne, DT, Decker or any of Manning's other receivers over the years. It's because he's the main cog in the machine.