Peyton's Place?

This past season the folks in Indianapolis were never more reminded how important a franchise quarterback is when Peyton Manning was out with a neck injury. The iconic QB single handily kept the Colts a playoff/Super Bowl contender each and every year when he was under center. This year without Peyton the season was destined to be a failure and they fell apart to a horrible 2-14 record. His replacements at QB (i.e. Dan Orlovsky, REALLY?!?) were put in a no win situation as they had no chance to live up to the standard Peyton had set. The front office was never prepared, nor the team, for the idea that Peyton Manning wouldn't be leading this team once again this season. Now with Peyton's health and playing future in question where do the Colts go? This is the $28 million question. Keep the icon or look in your crystal ball that is the NFL Draft and select "Every body's All-American" Andrew Luck. This is now the dilemma the Colts find themselves into. Looking at the future of the franchise or the possibility that Peyton heals and is able to revert back to his Hall of Fame form. What does a franchise do?

A good poker player will say the Indianapolis Colts have tipped their hand by their actions within the past months. The shake up within their front office and change of head coach speaks of change for the future. The house that Peyton built is crumbling all around him. Mr. Manning's resume speaks for itself. The yards passed (54,828), the completions (4682), the touchdowns (399), the Super Bowl Championship he brought to Indy (over my poor Bears) all now seems like a distant memory. I believe the Colts franchise wants to assure they are relevant in the future and making a difficult business decision and moving forward rather than live in the past means letting Peyton go. This almost seems sacrilegious but it happens. This is the nature of the business and the state of the NFL nowadays. Think of recent iconic franchise quarterbacks that have played for other teams. Joe Montana leading the Kansas City Chiefs. Brett Favre leading the Minnesota Vikings and New York Jets. This will be difficult for Colts fans to grasp, however; it isn't even certain Peyton is able to recover fully from neck surgery. They could let Petyon go and use the #1 draft pick or could "Herschel Walker" the first pick and stockpile them since the team needs so much help. Whatever they do I don't see Peyton wearing a Colts jersey again. The Colts owner, Jim Irsay, has 28 million reasons and a deadline of March 8th to decide what direction their franchise will go.

The Colts were smart in 1998 to draft Peyton Manning #1 overall and not take another quarterback in Ryan Leaf. Amazing how different that could have turned out says the San Diego Chargers.

I feel this year with the #1 pick, LUCK will be on the Colts side again. Unfortunately for Peyton everyone's runs out some time.