Mort: Colts to release Manning

[Whit Prowdy]

It is being reported on NFL32 by Chris Mortensen that the Colts and Peyton Manning are going to part ways. An official announcement is expected Wednesday.

[Hawkeye]

We all knew it was coming and now it becomes a matter of where he will play next year. I just read an interesting article on that subject today.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_yl...w_teams_030612

I don't see the Bills and Browns as good possibilities at all and I don't think he would go to New York either.

Even though Arizona has Fitzgerald, Doucet, Heap and Wells, they are too cheap to outbid others for his services. That and they just overpaid last year for Kolb.

Washington and Jacksonville don't have the firepower that other clubs do. To me Houston (AJ, B Johnson, Jones, Daniels, and Foster), Seattle (Rice, Tate, Butler, Carlson, Miller and Lynch) and KC (Bowe, Baldwin, Breaston, Moeaki, Charles and McCluster) have the most talent at every level to be very enticing. Miami almost made the playoffs with their talent and SF made it to within a few plays of the SB with not much of a receiving corps and much less talent at QB. I would be surprised at Houston making the move, so I think Seattle is a likely destination for Manning.

[GlasstheGrey]

I honestly don't see peyton wanting to play against Indy twice a year for the foreseeable future. I feel Irsay was successful in making this a mutually amicable split. So Houston is straight out, but I do think Houston would be remiss to not pursue him. They have the pieces together to be competitive, and they likely feel that they're a Super Bowl team with Matt Shaubb... when he's healthy. However Matt Shaubb has proven that he can be an Efficent passer in this League, but he has also proven that he's only really good for 4-6 games a year.

That being said my money is actually on San Fransisco. They are in a precarious position where they were a play away from the superbowl with Alex Smith. But I don't think anyone will say that Peyton even if he's 80% this season isn't a easy upgrade. And Peyton is the kind of guy who makes everyone around him better. That team would be scary good with Peyton.

[GlasstheGrey]

I honestly don't see peyton wanting to play against Indy twice a year for the foreseeable future. I feel Irsay was successful in making this a mutually amicable split. So Houston is straight out, but I do think Houston would be remiss to not pursue him. They have the pieces together to be competitive, and they likely feel that they're a Super Bowl team with Matt Shaubb... when he's healthy. However Matt Shaubb has proven that he can be an Efficent passer in this League, but he has also proven that he's only really good for 4-6 games a year.

That being said my money is actually on San Fransisco. They are in a precarious position where they were a play away from the superbowl with Alex Smith. But I don't think anyone will say that Peyton even if he's 80% this season isn't a easy upgrade. And Peyton is the kind of guy who makes everyone around him better. That team would be scary good with Peyton.

[|(evin|(olb|(ritik]

An interesting twist...

It's believed by many that the team who has the inside track to sign Manning is going to be the team who is not only willing to sign Manning but also to pursue Reggie Wayne at the same time. They were talking about this on the radio yesterday that Manning and Wayne would like to be reunited in their new destination and that the two may have already agreed to work in tandem on making it happen.

I don't think this is as cut and dry as a lot of people are making it out to be. They make it sound like half of the league is going to be involved in this pursuit but i'm not so sure. With this Reggie Wayne thing on the table now you've got quite a complicated set of requirements a team needs to fill to qualify for Manning. They need to first be a team where adding Manning and Wayne makes them a realistic Superbowl contender for the next 3'ish years. They need the cap room and backbone to invest nearly $35 million into two free agents. They need to have a coach and a front office that appeals to Manning and who might not be afraid to turn their entire offense over to a QB which may or may not involve allowing Manning to throw their current system in the garbage and install an offense their current coaching staff doesn't run. I also think that AFC teams have an edge over NFC teams in that there is a lot less QB talent in the AFC than in the NFC currently. Manning and Wayne can likely turn any team into a playoff contender, but once they get there how many great QB's do they have to go through to attempt to win a championship in a short window of time? In the AFC it's pretty much like 2 legit top tier QB's (Brady and Rivers), and a few good but beatable ones. In the NFC you've gotta deal with every team you run up against in the playoffs fielding a probowl QB.

Those requirements eliminate a lot of the teams many people think should be chasing him.

[StevenSD]

I'll bet on Miami, Arizona and Seattle... in that order

[gamefarm83]

Did anyone see the Bronco's coming?

[BigBenCan7]

the AFC it's pretty much like 2 legit top tier QB's (Brady and Rivers), and a few good but beatable ones. In the NFC you've gotta deal with every team you run up against in the playoffs fielding a probowl QB.

Not exactly sure what makes Ben Roethlisberger a good but beatable QB with 2 SB titles and third AFC title if Philip Rivers, who has zero of either, is not.

Either way, the NFC would have 3 quarterbacks in your "legit top tier" ranking: Eli, Brees, and Rodgers. I don't think one more is going to sway Manning towards either conference, especially when considering the defenses that the AFC has to offer.

[|(evin|(olb|(ritik]

Not exactly sure what makes Ben Roethlisberger a good but beatable QB with 2 SB titles and third AFC title if Philip Rivers, who has zero of either, is not.

Either way, the NFC would have 3 quarterbacks in your "legit top tier" ranking: Eli, Brees, and Rodgers. I don't think one more is going to sway Manning towards either conference, especially when considering the defenses that the AFC has to offer.

Because irregardless of rings, which i'm not so willing to credit a QB for directly, the NFC's overall list of QB's is considerably deeper. At the top they may be similar in respect to the number of truly elite guys, but after that it changes considerably. That second tier of probowl caliber guys (of which Roethlisberger qualifies, don't get hung up on my "beatable" remark) is much greater in the NFC currently. In the AFC that tier is looking like Roethlisberger, maybe Flacco, possibly Schaub, and the list stops there. Then you have a considerable dropoff before you get to serviceable guys like Palmer, Sanchez and Cassel. 2 elite'ish guys and 3 good/great guys in the AFC. Move down to the NFC and you get the Brees, Rodgers, Eli group at the top followed closely by Romo, Vick, Stafford, Cutler, Ryan, and (begrudgingly) Alex Smith. Then below that tier you've got guys who look like up and comers a group that is almost non-existant in the AFC with dudes like Cam Newton, Bradford, and Josh Freeman, maybe Kevin Kolb. There are only like Washington and Seattle are the only 2 teams out of the 16 in the NFC who don't have some sort of a legitimate QB solution right now, maybe Arizona as well. There are easily twice as many good QB's in the NFC right now as there are in the AFC.