How much would you be willing to spend for a 36-year old quarterback coming off an injury? How about five years for $96 million?
The former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning recently signed a huge deal with the Denver Broncos. This coming after the Colts released their long time quarterback as they prepare for a rebuilding process.
Arguably the most skilled quarterback in the league over the last decade thrown away in the midst of a major rebuilding phase.
The world was buzzing as it waited to find out where Peyton Manning would play football next season. Some thought Miami, some thought Arizona, some even thought San Francisco. But Manning decided to take his talents to the Mile High city.
And in the process, the Broncos traded away Tim Tebow to the Jets — the same quarterback that brought Denver to their first playoff berth in years.
Now you can’t really blame the Broncos for signing Manning, even if he is coming off of a bad injury. But it was a bit surprising to see them ship away Tebow.
The fans loved Tebow in Denver, and even if he never played, he would still have been a great backup for manning.
What happens if Manning drops back one time, takes a big hit from the blind side, and is done for the year? Now you don’t have a solid backup. Hopefully, it won’t come to that point.
But still it might not have been the best decision to trade away the guy that made your team relevant last season. And even won a playoff game.
As far as Manning, it will be interesting to see how good of a decision he made. Will he be able to lead the young Broncos deep into the playoffs? Does this actually make the Broncos a Super Bowl contender in the AFC?
It won’t be easy, but there is a good chance Peyton will be able to win the AFC West. Although, you never really know what to expect with that division. The Chargers are extremely talented, but incredibly inconsistent. The Raiders are young and fast, on the rise and poised for a breakthrough, but they are still the Raiders. And of course you have the Chiefs that are also very inconsistent.
The Broncos should handle the division. It won’t be complete domination, but they should finish the season in first place.
But after that, I’m just not sure how far they will go, even with Peyton tossing the rock.
It was a great decision for the Broncos to sign Manning, but is this really the best place he could have gone?
Peyton could have went to the 49ers, a team that was one win away from going to the Super Bowl. They also have a great running game, one of the league’s best defenses, and a pretty good special teams unit.
So why settle for the Broncos? It almost seems like a perfect match to go to the 49ers; they are after all the much better team. But I suppose that Peyton’s heart was in Denver.
Maybe it was the weather, or the money — although he would have gotten top dollar anywhere. No, it must have been John Elway encouraging him to come to Denver.
Elway won both of his Super Bowls when he was older than Manning’s current age of 36, let’s see if Peyton can duplicate Elway’s success.
Tyler Rollason is a Winder-Barrow High School graduate and mass communications major at the University of West Georgia. You can e-mail comments about this column to
tyrollason@yahoo.com.
