Peyton and Eli Manning help fans of the sport learn the game of football every week during ESPN’s Monday Night Football ManningCast. However, it turns out that this is not where their teaching ends, as their football knowledge was also of use in helping Glen Powell during the filming of the upcoming Hulu comedy series Chad Powers.
According to Powell, who is in the lead role on the Chad Powers series set to premiere on September 30, both Eli and Peyton Manning played a significant part in helping him prepare for the role, offering notes on how to portray the quarterback position accurately.
“It’s not like if you are trying to go play a mechanic,” said Powell. “Where you are like, ‘Every once in a while, my car breaks down. I kind of know what it looks like.’ If you are faking, you can probably screw something in, I would buy it. The quarterback is something we’re all faced with all the time, good or bad. So, you know, I really relied on Peyton and Eli to connect me with the best of the best. And they went straight to the top. Nic Shimonek, who is Patrick Mahomes’ coach, was my quarterback coach. Pat O’Hara, who was the offensive coordinator for the Titans, really put together…
“We would go out to the West Side, and they would have an offense and a defense. I would line up behind everybody. All that footage would go to Peyton and Eli every day, and I would get notes and reviews, and I would do it over every day. For a guy that is a college football fan, to line up as QB1 every day, it was a dream.”
#ChadPowers star Glen Powell on the dream it was to receive notes from Peyton and Eli Manning and work with Patrick Mahomes’ coach while training to play QB pic.twitter.com/MXZYhRayPD
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) September 26, 2025
As a college football fan, Powell already had a tremendous amount of respect for the pressure that comes along with playing in front of thousands of people in person and millions watching at home.
But given his new responsibilities as a quarterback in Chad Powers, Powell has a newfound respect for both the players in the NFL at the highest level and the coaching staffs that prepare players for game day. Especially considering the actors playing on defense against him were former NFL players who know how a real game feels.
“It’s an unbelievable amount of pressure,” said Powell about playing in the NFL. “You know, when I go to set every day, I am there to obviously get the best thing we possible can every day on celluloid. But if I was booed off a set for not performing, I’m not sure how I would handle that. You know what I mean? It’s a different job.
“And also, the amount of information that I think you are taking in… One of the things that they really wanted me to do, especially in the opening Rose Bowl sequence, was where my eyes were looking. Like, they were saying, ‘I need you to be reading what the safety is doing. Your D-end, I need you to be analyzing what is happening on the field and the coverage so that the audience is seeing what you are looking at. Where hands are, where your feet are. How it is all moving together. How you are looking down your (offensive) line and interacting with your line. It’s a whole dance.
“And by the very end of it, when I was on the field, it felt very immersive. Because they also had former NFL players playing with us, putting on pads. Guys that were 350 (pounds), 6’7”, sprinting at me with everything they have got. But it felt very much like Chad Powers in the fact that Russ Holiday is getting a second chance to get back on that field. These guys got to put on pads and be back on the field with me. And you could see their eyes light up, and their hearts were full. It was really special.”
Glen Powell on the appreciation and respect he has for football players, what he learned through the process, plus playing with former NFL players for #ChadPowers pic.twitter.com/IGymrnm9wG
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) September 26, 2025
It makes sense as to why the Manning brothers would be so invested in this project. Not only is the original premise behind the Chad Powers character the brainchild of Eli Manning on his Eli’s Places series, which quickly went viral and sparked the concept of an entire show based around Chad Powers, but the Chad Powers series is being produced in part by Omaha Productions along with 20th Television and Anomaly Pictures.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.