Noodles was my first pick. Manning was somewhere around 8 or 9.
I think that's the anti-Manning Brady bias at work.
I've watched quite a few Colts games this year and Manning carried that team on his back, literally carrying them to the win when everyone around him was injured and / or playing like shit. Sure, he might not have racked up huge numbers in those games, but then that's hard to do when you have no o-line, no RB capable of more than 3.5 yards per attempt and a bunch of injured (and poorly-playing) receivers.
For those who claim the Colts would have won 8-9 games without Manning... I seriously doubt that. They've had wins of 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, and 4 points before getting hot (and healthy, not coincidentally) late. Without those wins, they would have been at real risk of collapsing... and I don't see them winning any of those without Manning.
Pennington and Manning were both viable MVP candidates in my book, but I had Manning slightly above Penny overall.
I do think there are a handful of defensive players that should have been part of the discussion as well, but considering the last time there was a defensive MVP (50 years ago?), that was never going to happen.