RENTON, Wash. (AP) - Though now isn't the best week for the Seahawks to learn this, Jim Mora loves Peyton Manning.

He has for more than 15 years, ever since Seattle's current coach was his dad's assistant with New Orleans and a then-teenage Peyton Manning joined the Saints for a minicamp in the spring of 1994.

Of course, Manning wasn't just a random teen who wandered off a school bus and onto a professional practice field. Mora's father, Jim, then the Saints' coach, is a friend of Archie Manning, Peyton's father and a former star quarterback for New Orleans.

The younger Mora said the younger Manning deserved to be on an NFL roster then, as a teen about to leave for the University of Tennessee.

Not only that, Mora said Manning was better then than cannon-armed Jim Everett, who was the Saints' starter.

"Jim was our quarterback. He had a great arm. I mean, he could fire it,'' Mora said. "Well, Peyton was a senior in high school, and he would come out - this is before they had all the rules in place (about offseason workouts) - and he would actually take seven-on-seven, throw one-on-one, and do that stuff with us.

"I kid you not, at age 17 or 18, even with Jim Everett and the talent he had, Peyton was the best quarterback on the field.''

While in New Orleans, Mora used to go to Manning's games at Isidore Newman High.

"You know that cliche, 'He's like a man among boys?' It was just that way,'' Mora said. "I mean, he was just big. He was fast. He was smarter. He had a whip for an arm. He made great decisions. It was a joke watching him play against these guys.

"The funny thing is, he still looks that way today, even though he's playing against this elite competition.''

Funny until Sunday, when the grown-up Mora and his Seahawks have to try to stopManning the Colts.

Manning is completing nearly 70 percent of his passes and has three 300-yard games already this season.