For most football fans today, three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes has already cemented his place onto the NFL’s quarterback Mount Rushmore. But not for Hall of Famer Steve Young. 

“You gotta have Joe and Tom. That’s for sure,” Young weighed in on his Mount Rushmore quarterbacks on The Dan Patrick Show. “It’s Joe, Tom, Peyton, and… It’s [hard]. Like, people tell me how great the players were before in the 50s and 60s. It’s hard for me.”

As Young struggled with his fourth quarterback, Patrick asked him to focus on the modern-era quarterbacks. He even suggested Patrick Mahomes’ name. But Young was stuck on Manning’s name. 

“Peyton changed the game in ways that, that’s what I mean, people are changing the game,” Young went on. “And then there’s like five guys in the 90s that are somebody in there.”

He was likely referring to John Elway, Brett Favre, Troy Aikman, Jim Kelly, and Peyton Manning. Patrick pointed out that [Joe] Montana and [Dan] Marino changed the game too. And the two-time NFL MVP agreed. Meanwhile, Patrick wondered if there was any quarterback who had the freedom that Peyton had at the line of scrimmage. That made the Pro Football Hall of Famer recall a moment with Manning when he tried to compliment him. 

“Bill Walsh and the West Coast offense introduced the idea of connectivity to the receiver with what’s happening in the play,” Young went on. “The man zone, different ways to read it so that you could whatever they ran. We had an answer in the play, not before the play. Options that happened and connectivity and that really changed the game.”

But Manning took it a notch higher. He looked for four different ways to connect with his receivers like Marvin Harrison, regardless of what happened on the gridiron or where the line of scrimmage was. The only thing he cared about was connecting with his receivers. After all, that connectivity usually rendered him unstoppable. 

“That just takes a lot of time. It’s schoolwork,” Young continued. “And he was just willing to put that time in. I said, ‘You’re the one that eliminated the coach. It was just between you and the receiver.’ He said, ‘No… Coaches are vital.’ I didn’t mean that the coaches don’t matter. I’m just saying you took the game to a further place, which is super cool.”

Even though Peyton Manning has won only two Super Bowl games, he’s one of the most decorated quarterbacks in modern history. Spending 17 years in the NFL, Manning completed 6,125 passes for 71,940 yards and scored 539 touchdowns. Meanwhile, he rushed for 667 additional yards in 431 attempts to score 18 rushing touchdowns. 

Of course, the numbers look better in Tom Brady’s records. But Manning has better individual regular-season efficiency and accolades. And that was enough for Young to put Mahomes aside, even though the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback has won three Super Bowls.

Young never officially settled on a fourth face to join Joe Montana, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning. For him, Manning’s unmatched pre-snap intellect remains the ultimate gold standard of how to revolutionize the position.