It is ironic that as New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning prepares for Super Bowl XLVI this Sunday against the New England Patriots, it is his brother, Peyton, who is getting all of the media attention.
Peyton Manning has spent his entire NFL career with the Indianapolis Colts after coming into the league following a successful career at the University of Tennessee. He has started every game as the Colts quarterback since his rookie season, that is until this past year. During last off season Peyton had neck surgery that sidelined him for the entire year. Now it appears that the effects of the surgery may get him cut from the Colts, and if he does, where he lands is anyones guess.
For the Colts, it seems like an easy decision to cut Manning. If he is on the roster on March 8 of this year the team will owe him a 28 million dollar bonus. There is no doubt that Peyton is valuable to the team. In fact, he is so valuable that without him in the lineup the team went 2-14 this past season and secured the number one draft pick in Aprils NFL draft. The Colts are an old team by NFL standards and need to rebuild. It would make no sense for them to keep Manning and his hefty salary around while all the peices around him are new. What makes the story most interesting is that the Colts are in position to draft Andrew Luck, the highly touted quarterback out of Stanford. If they were to draft Luck, it is hard to believe that he would sit on the bench while an aged Manning got the starting gig.
If indeed Peyton Manning is cut by the Colts many people in the know suggest that the Cardinals are an ideal fit for him. Of the teams that would likely be in the mix for a quarterback the Cardinals appear to be the closest to being a championship contender. The team has hungry young players such as Patrick Peterson and Beanie Wells with a nice mix of veteran receivers to throw to like former pro bowl tight end Todd Heap, and all-everything receiver Larry Fitzgerald. While the team did sign quarterback Kevin Kolb last year to a two year deal, he has proven not only that he is not the dominant threat that many people thought, but that he can't even stay healthy.
The two biggest stumbling blocks with Manning coming to the Cardinals are going to be his health and the money. First, Manning announced on Thursday that he has been cleared by doctors to play. His neck seems to be fine but the effects that the surgery has had on the nerves in his arm and his throwing strength are still to be determined. Manning's agent, Tom Condon, came out and said that the quarterback will play again but has denied meeting with any teams about interest in the signal caller. The second, and perhaps biggest, issue would be his salary. It is well known that the Cardinals organization, and more specifically the Bidwell family do not have a habit of loosening the purse strings for player salaries, this goes for current players or free agents. To be fair though, there has not been a free agent to hit the market of this caliber in recent memory and it is yet to be seen if the team will even pursue the superstar quarterback. It is likely that there won't be much movement on the Peyton Manning situation until the first weeks of March when the Colts do indeed decide if they are going to release him or pay the large roster bonus. If he does get release this could be the big free agent splash that Cardinal fans have been waiting for for what seems like forever.
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