A look at the Top 5 seasons of the career of Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning . . . so far

Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning (Darron Cummings/AP)

The drumbeat has begun, and rightfully so. Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning is off to the best start of one of the greatest careers in NFL history, and already there are those predicting a record fourth Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player Award.

Is it too early to think such things? Of course.

Is the idea absurd?

Of course not.

Manning, a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and the AP NFL MVP in 2003, 2004 and last season, has passed for more than 300 yards in each of the first four games of the season. That's the longest such streak of his career and a franchise record. And the numbers don't do Manning's performance this season thus far justice. He is a Hall of Fame talent at the height of his powers -- still in his prime physically with the experience to have seen almst everything imaginable.

You've heard of the game slowing down for great players?

Watching Manning this season, you sometimes wonder if it isn't completely stopped.

What's more impressive? Manning this season is playing without the receivers he expected to be using. Forget the absence of eight-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Marvin Harrison. The Colts planned for his absence all offseason, and he was ineffective much of last season, anyway. But Manning spent the offseason working with third-year veteran and 2007 first-round draft selection Anthony Gonzalez, who was expected to start at wide receiver opposite Reggie Wayne. Gonzalez hasn't played since the first quarter of Week 1, and Manning has worked rookie WR Austin Collie and second-year WR Pierre Garcon into the lineup. It hasn't been easy, and Manning made a point of saying the Colts need Gonzalez going forward, but Manning has made the Colts offense look like a veteran group this season even when at times that hasn't been the case.

In a very real sense, this is a continuation of last season, when Manning finished 2008 with one of the most remarkable quarterbacking stretches in NFL history.

The season's far from over, of course. And Manning's got some quarterbacking to do before this season even is in his Top 5, but at this rate Manning easily could be on the way to one of the premier seasons of a premier career.

So, with that as the backdrop, here's one man's look at the five previous best seasons of Manning's career:

5) 2006. This was the Colts' Super Bowl-championship year, but that's not why it's in Manning's Top 5. This was also the year Manning completely established himself as an elite-level comeback quarterback. Not that he hadn't done so before, but some of Manning's best comebacks came this season: a two-touchdown-drive-in-the-fourth quarter victory over the New York Jets; a-near-perfect-day-against-a-previously-near-perfect defense at Denver; and, of course, the dramatic, 38-34 victory over the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, a game in which the Colts trailed, 21-3, late in the first half.

4) 2003. Strange as it seems six years later, Manning entered 2003 with many, many doubters. There were observers who believed he needed to stop doing so much at the line before the snap, and those who believed Chad Pennington -- then with the New York Jets -- was the superior quarterback (really). When the season began, a 41-0 playoff loss to the New York Jets the season before was still the lasting image many had of Manning. Instead, 2003 became the year Manning became the quarterback he has been the last six seasons -- i.e., a quarterback capable of making big plays on any snap and at the same time one who made few silly mistakes. Before 2003, Manning never threw fewer than 15 interceptions in a season; since them, he never has thrown more than 14 in a season. In 2003, he cut his interceptions from 19 to 10, led the Colts to a 12-4 record and their first of five consecutive AFC South titles and shared his first MVP Award with the late Steve McNair.

3) 2005. One thing that was always tricky to understand was just how Manning didn't win the Most Valuable Player Award this season. This was the year RB Shaun Alexander of the Seahawks won it, because voters were enthralled with his rushing touchdowns. Yet, remember this about Manning that season: The Colts went 13-0 and clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with the 13th victory. That meant that through the regular season, Manning never lost a meaningful game. His statistics were also better than 2003, when shared the MVP Award with McNair. Manning finished second in the voting, but you got the feeling that after two seasons, voters were just tired of Manning getting the award. One thing important about the 2005 season, too -- this was the year teams decided they weren't going to let Manning beat them deep. The Colts that season faced defense after defense with the same strategy -- play their secondaries deep to prevent long passes and blitz as little as reasonably possible. Manning changed his style completely from the year before, when he threw 49 touchdowns against defenses repeatedly blitzing, and still threw for 28 touchdowns and 3,747 yards -- that despite playing a quarter in each of the final two regular-season games and despite the Colts often running clock late in games with huge fourth-quarter leads.

2) 2004. Remember two years ago when people were calling New England Patriots QB Tom Brady's 50-touchdown season the greatest quarterbacking season of all time? Perhaps it was, but Manning just three seasons before threw 49 touchdowns -- and played one quarter of the regular-season finale. He also sat out final quarters of at least three other games. Manning in 2004 broke former Dolphins QB Dan Marino's record of 48 touchdown passes and he also set a seasonal passer rating record of 121.1 that still stands. That mark is nearly four points higher than Brady's 117.2 rating in 2007. As was the case for New England in 2004, there were times for the Colts in 2004 when opponents simply seemed incapable of slowing an offense that included three 1,000-yard receivers and a Pro Bowl running back (Edgerrin James).

1) 2008. Just having had knee surgery in the offseason, Manning struggled -- for him -- at the beginning of the season, and through seven games, he had 10 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. In Game 7, he threw two interceptions in what some believed was a season-crushing loss at Tennessee. The Colts were 3-4 at that point and in serious danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2001. Manning threw just three more interceptions, 17 more touchdowns and led the Colts -- a team with an injured offensive line, ineffective running game and a sometimes-ineffective Marvin Harrison at wide receiver in his last Colts season -- to nine consecutive victories at the end of the regular season. Manning capped the season with a road victory at Jacksonville that some observers considered perhaps his greatest game -- and one that secured his third MVP in six seasons. Colts President Bill Polian toward the end of the season called it one of the great quarterbacking seasons -- not just of Manning's career, but of all-time.

*** COFFEE WITH THE COLTS: INDY FOOTBALL REPORT EDITOR JOHN OEHSER'S NEXT-DAY LOOK AT COLTS-SEAHAWKS HERE.

*** COLTS QB PEYTON MANNING CALLS 4-0 RECORD A GOOD START: INDY FOOTBALL REPORT EDITOR JOHN OEHSER'S GAME STORY. HERE

*** COLTS QB PEYTON MANNING ON THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF FORMER COLTS RB EDGERRIN JAMES HERE

*** WR PIERRE GARCON AMONG FIVE KEY EARLY-SEASON DEVELOPMENTS FOR 3-0 INDIANAPOLIS COLTS HERE ***

*** WHAT DO THE COLTS HAVE TO DO TO WIN THE AFC SOUTH? READ IFR EDITOR JOHN OEHSER'S FIVE KEYS HERE

*** REVIEWING COLTS PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN'S WEEKLY RADIO SHOW HERE. PART ONE

*** REVIEWING COLTS PRESIDENT BILL POLIAN'S WEEKLY RADIO SHOW HERE. PART TWO

DWIGHT FREENEY NEWS

* Colts quiet on status of DE Dwight Freeney

* DE Dwight Freeney out 2-to-3 weeks

* Freeney not ready to accept 2-to-3 week diagnosis

* Freeney plays against Seahawks