Manning, who’s serving as one of the collegiate counselors for the hundreds of aspiring young quarterbacks at the MPA at Nicholls State University, put on a few pounds after offseason foot surgery back in the winter. But unlike a lot of middle-aged men roughly the same age as Peyton and Eli Manning — those aforementioned uncles, who both quarterbacked teams to Super Bowl wins — Arch Manning hasn’t had much trouble dropping back down to his listed playing weight of 226 pounds on his 6-foot-4 frame.
“I got a little big, but I lost some weight,” Manning said. “I got up to, like, 235. I was getting a little fat.”
So, did Manning want to add a few more pounds to a lanky frame in order to absorb a little more punishment? Or did the fourth-year quarterback have to follow doctor’s orders and stay off his feet while recuperating from the foot surgery?
A little bit of both, Manning said.
“I wanted to like see what it felt like, but I was a little too big,” he said. “It didn’t feel great. It’s hard; you can’t run.”
And running is part of what makes Manning special, especially compared to his somewhat stationary uncles. Last season, Manning ran for 399 yards even after taking away yardage lost on sacks, a statistical quirk in college football compared to the NFL. He had five runs of at least 20 yards, including a 65-yard touchdown burst in a 41-27 win over the Citrus Bowl in which he reached the top speed of a running back or receiver.
“He’s hitting 21 miles an hour, so he has the ability that, things open up, he can bust one for 60 yards,” said Eli Manning, who ran for 567 yards in 16 NFL seasons and never had 20 yards on a run. “He can run on third-and-10 and get first downs. That just changes what defenses do; there’s certain defenses that coaches won’t call against him, because if you leave it open, he can make big plays. So, I think it’s a great thing to have in your back pocket, where you can extend plays and make plays when things break down.”