LSU Quarterback Joe Burrow Called On Peyton Manning for Rookie Season Advice
Last week, future NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning received a phone call from LSU quarterback Joe Burrow. Since Burrow appeared at his Manning Passing Academy camp last summer, the two have stayed in touch as Manning followed Burrow's Heisman winning season from a distance.
Burrow threw for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns while completing 76.3% of his passes as a senior at LSU, earning the Manning Award en route to a national championship.
“Anytime I just get to be mentioned with the Manning name it's a huge honor,” Burrow said in a conference call after earning the award. “I've gotten to know the Manning family the last three quarters of a year and they've been incredible to me. Peyton’s texted me a couple times, just checking in and Archie texted just about every week. So that means a lot and this is a huge honor for me and my family.”
Peyton appeared on a Sunday morning edition of SportsCenter where he provided some context on their most recent conversation for how Burrow should approach his rookie season. Burrow is the presumptive favorite to go No. 1 overall to the Cincinnati Bengals in Thursday's first round of the 2020 draft.
Manning tried to relay to Burrow that the first year for any young quarterback in the NFL is always the toughest, particularly if you're a highly touted prospect the likes of Burrow.
“I told him ‘look Joe when you’re the first pick in the NFL Draft, you are going to a team that has really earned the first pick in the NFL Draft,'" Manning said. "For him I tried to tell him it’s a marathon, not a sprint. I lost more games my rookie year than my entire high school and college life combined."
Manning said he told Burrow he was able to learn a lot from that first season on what it takes to win at the NFL level and that it's important he get as many reps and as much experience as possible.
"I learned a lot that year, I played every game and learned some things in those fourth quarter blowouts about what it took to have success in this league. So that’s what I encouraged and relayed to Joe is that your rookie year isn’t going to be the same as your senior year in college. If you learn how fast these defensive backs are, how soon you have to get rid of the ball and understand defenses, then you can really get it going the year or two after that."
After a 3-13 rookie season, Manning led the Colts to a 13-3 record in his second year with the Indianapolis Colts, something he said wouldn't have happened if not for the lessons learned during his rookie season. Manning, who holds quite a few NFL records of his own, joked that there's one record he owns that he wouldn't mind seeing Burrow break as a rookie.
"I threw 28 interceptions which is still an NFL record. If Joe wants to break that, I’d be ok with that. We'd still be friends," Manning said.
