Todd McShay watched the same game everyone else did Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The former ESPN NFL Draft analyst saw Arch Manning complete just 17 of 30 passes for 170 yards in Texas\u2019s 14-7 loss to Ohio State. He watched the much-hyped quarterback struggle with his accuracy, miss routine throws, and look overwhelmed in his biggest test yet.<\/p>\n
McShay isn\u2019t defending Manning\u2019s performance. He\u2019s calling it what it was. But he\u2019s also calling out the sports media vultures who immediately circled Manning\u2019s struggles with their \u201cI told you so\u201d victory laps.<\/p>\n
\u201cF*ck it. I don\u2019t care. I saw Jordan Rodgers come out and do it,\u201d McShay said on his eponymous show for The Ringer<\/a>. \u201cHe played quarterback. His brother (Aaron) is one of the all-time quarterbacks. Whether they have a relationship, I don\u2019t know, but to come out today and say, \u2018I told you so,\u2019 Why? Does that make you feel good?\u201d<\/p>\n For weeks, ESPN\u2019s Jordan Rodgers has been positioning himself as Manning\u2019s primary skeptic<\/a>, declaring before the Ohio State game that \u201cthe hype doesn\u2019t match the tape\u201d and predicting the sophomore would struggle against elite competition.<\/p>\n But Rodgers is also part of the same sports media machine that spent all summer building Manning into a Heisman favorite and college football\u2019s main character<\/a>, acting as if he was a sure-fire superstar<\/a> before he\u2019d even made his third college start. And when Manning struggled against elite competition \u2014 exactly what should have been expected from a 19-year-old quarterback in his first major road test \u2014 the same analysts suddenly realized<\/a> he might need time to develop.<\/p>\n But rather than own their role in the hype cycle, some media members immediately pivoted to victory laps.<\/p>\n .@JRodgers11<\/a> had to pull out the cowboy hat and cigar after Arch Manning\u2019s play last weekend \ud83d\ude02 pic.twitter.com\/iypBfZrJyL<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Get Up (@GetUpESPN) September 3, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSo, to come out and do the \u2018I told you\u2019 thing makes you just as horrible, maybe more horrible,\u201d McShay said.<\/p>\n The irony wasn\u2019t lost on anyone paying attention. Manning had more commercials than completions in the first half \u2014 a joke that wrote itself \u2014 but the same media ecosystem that put him in Warby Parker ads<\/a> before he\u2019d proven anything meaningful was now rushing to declare they saw his struggles coming all along.<\/p>\n McShay actually dissected what happened instead of just piling on. Ohio State\u2019s defense systematically took away Manning\u2019s mobility, which had been the cornerstone of Texas\u2019s offensive game plan. The Longhorns played conservatively, and a 19-year-old quarterback looked exactly like what he was, which is a talented but inexperienced player facing elite competition on the road for the first time.<\/p>\n \u201cI watched the same tape\u2026 The mobility\u2019s a great asset, but guess what? The mobility was taken away today, in part, because the Ohio State defense is awesome again,\u201d McShay said. \u201cAnd every report I got from camp down in Austin was, \u2018He\u2019s running, man. The QB run game is a big part of\u2026\u2019 Where was it today?\u201d<\/p>\n But that kind of nuanced analysis doesn\u2019t generate the same engagement as hot takes about overrated quarterbacks. The \u201cI knew he was overrated\u201d crowd had their moment, and they weren\u2019t going to waste it on actual football analysis.<\/p>\n McShay wasn\u2019t interested in protecting Manning from legitimate criticism, and he made that abundantly clear.<\/p>\n \u201cArch Manning sucked today. He was not good,\u201d McShay said. \u201cA Manning with that talent level, with those resources at this point in his career, can\u2019t miss some of the throws he missed today.\u201d<\/p>\n But the point was never about defending Manning\u2019s poor performance. It was about calling out the dishonest media cycle that created unrealistic expectations and then immediately pivoted to claiming prescience when those expectations weren\u2019t met.<\/p>\n \t