Peyton Manning admits it's been difficult finding QBs to participate in 'Quarterback' series

Peyton Manning and his Omaha Production company are responsible for Quarterback, the hit Netflix docuseries that focuses on the biggest names who play the NFL position.

However, Manning say it’s difficult to find additional quarterbacks for season two. Few want to put their lives on camera like Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota did in season one. In fact, some quarterbacks are actually ghosting Manning. Talk about brutal. The Hall of Famer said time is running out to find a new cast. The NFL season starts Thursday night.

“I’d love for someone to call us back and say, ‘I want to do it.’ I had three starting quarterbacks tell me no yesterday, so I’m swallowing my pride,” Peyton Manning told the Hollywood Reporter.

The first season struck reality gold with the perfect combo of quarterbacks who saw success and failure. Mahomes’ team won the Super Bowl. Cousins enjoyed an extraordinary season and his viral moments pulled in more fans. Then Mariota, the one-time Heisman Trophy winner, got benched by the Falcons. He signed with the Eagles in the off season to back up Jalen Hurts.

Peyton Manning’s potential cast members don’t need a reality show to help with their popularity

The first week of the series this summer totaled 3.3 million views. And those views added up to 21.4  million hours. The series ranked third among original streaming shows. And Nielsen said it was fifth among all titles.

Those numbers are nice. But just starting a game gives a league quarterback much higher viewership. In 2022, the NFL accounted for 82 of the top 100 most viewed programs on TV. Each NFL game averaged 16.7 million viewers.

There’s a marquee list of quarterbacks who have turned down Peyton Manning. It does sound like Matthew Stafford might be warming up to the idea, although he turned down season one. Tua Tagovailoa, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields and Dak Prescott all have said no. (In Prescott’s case, being the starter of America’s team already is its own reality show).

“I think maybe some guys are thinking that it is going to be a distraction,” Peyton Manning said. “Even though I told a couple of them, ‘I guarantee you’ll win the Super Bowl like Mahomes if you do it.’ ” 

Manning admitted that he would have turned down a reality show if a producer offered the role to him while he was playing. Now, he’s on the other side of the pitch.

He’s already imagining the conversation bubbles.

“If a quarterback that I respected told me, ‘Hey, trust me, we’re going to do right by you,’ ” Manning said, creating a conversation with an unnamed quarterback. ” ‘You are not going to regret it, we’re going to cut out anything you don’t want in there, you won’t even know we’re there,’ then I probably would have said, ‘Yeah, I might as well do it.’ ”