Peyton Manning says QB speed overrated, still jabs Eli for 'humbling' 40 time

Peyton Manning couldn't win too many foot races before being the NFL's oldest starting quarterback. But it clearly hasn't held him back in a career that places him among the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game.

Not shockingly, Manning did his best to decry foot speed as a necessary trait for quarterbacks at the Manning Passing Academy on Thursday — and did so, quite predictably, with a dose of humor and while taking a jab at his little brother, according to the Times-Picayune.

"When I was a senior being recruited by Tulane at the Tulane Football Camp, we ran 40s and they said that I ran a 4.88 (seconds) that day," Manning said. "I'm pretty sure that was [then Tulane coach] Buddy Teevens just doing some good recruiting. I probably ran about a 5.1."

And what about Eli Manning's time?

"I remember Eli was a 7th-grader at the camp, the youngest kid at the camp," Peyton said. "He's the only guy who ran his 40 wearing his helmet. I don't know why he had his helmet on. I remember he ran a 6.2, (that) was the time that I heard — a humbling moment for Eli."

Hey, if Ricky Williams can do an interview session in a helmet and Johnny Manziel can run through his pro day in full pads, we can kind of admire a pre-teen Eli showing a little grit in this fashion.

But Peyton has a point. Here's a look, per NFL.com, at the fastest quarterback 40s going back to 2006:

Of those, the only ones with a chance to start this season at QB are Robert Griffin III, who is treading water with the Washington Redskins, and Tyrod Taylor, who might be the best of a bad lot with the Buffalo Bills despite 35 passing attempts in four NFL seasons to this point. A few other fast quarterbacks ranked in the top 15 40-yard dashes have had different levels of NFL success, including Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick, but for the most part it's a very mixed bag.

Peyton's point is that foot speed — as it relates to sprinting in a straight line — is a wildly overrated trait for a QB. It's nice, but it's hardly necessary, right? Both Mannings and Tom Brady, for instance, have incredible foot quickness in the pocket to evade the rush.

"My point was it doesn't matter if you're slow or not strong as an 8th grader or a 9th grader," Peyton said. "Go to work at it. If you can't get real fast (then) jump a lot of rope and get good feet."

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm