Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts gets a ton of hate for nonsense reasons. However, one person who will always be in his corner is Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning.

Manning recently joined “The PFF podcast with Cris Collinsworth,” where he raved about more than just Hurts’ talent on the field.

“He’s played so well in both of the Super Bowls, but I like the way he goes about it,” Manning said. “He calls me a lot and asks me lots of questions. … And he calls me with very specific questions about certain plays. So he’s a student of the game. Here’s another example—he squats 600 pounds, he can run over guys, he can throw it a mile. But his appreciation of the cerebral part of the game is what’s impressive to me and how he’s taken his game to the next level. I think the sky is the limit for this guy.”

Manning also emphasized Hurts’ leadership skills and how well he handled being benched during his time at Alabama.

“I mean, it tells you all about his mental toughness, right? Because that’s the kind of situation where it’s embarrassing and you just don’t sort of recover from it mentally or emotionally,” Manning said. “So it tells you how mentally tough he is, and they said he was the first guy to high-five [Tua Tagovailoa] in the locker room and was as celebratory after that win as all the players that were involved in the game.”

But perhaps Manning’s favorite characteristic of Hurts is just how serious he is, which he admitted is “almost intimidating to be in the same room as him.”

While the two don’t meet a lot in person, they do text often, though Manning leaves his dad jokes out of it.

“I haven’t had a face-to-face with him in a while,” Manning said. “We do a lot of texting and a lot of voice memos, but I imagine he’s reading those with a very straight, serious face. I don’t crack any jokes with him and I don’t test my material on him because I’d imagine I would hear crickets.”