It’s a busy offseason for Indianapolis Colts management, who have so many critical decisions to be made.
First, Jim Irsay fired Bill and Chris Polian. This week, alongside new GM Ryan Grigson, Irsay will have to decide whether to retain head coach Jim Caldwell or go in a new direction.
The third big decision — is Peyton Manning healthy and you give him his $28M bonus, or do you waive one of the best quarterbacks of all-time?
Peyton’s dad, Archie, doesn’t shy away from the spotlight. Following the Giants win in Green Bay, Archie told George Willis of the New York Post that “Peyton kind of likes his roots in Indy.”
“We’ll see what happens there. If that doesn’t work and he can get healthy we’ll see. That’ll all work out. He’s just trying to get healthy.”
The toughest part is determining if Peyton is healthy or not by the March 8th deadline, when his option-bonus is due. However, at this point, I don’t think even he knows if he can play again.
“He’s got a great attitude, ” Archie Manning added. “He’s just fighting and scratching, trying to get healthy. We’ll see what happens.”
Indianapolis holds the No. 1-pick in April’s draft and would be crazy not to draft Andrew Luck. There’s no question Peyton would be a fantastic mentor but unless he can’t play, that’s not the role he wants. Not yet.
Peyton will turn 36 in March and if healthy, he has only a few years remaining at best. He has stated his belief that it’s best for a quality quarterback to start right away and fight through the challenges. That’s what he did in 1998. But if he play a couple more years, Peyton wants to playing and not coaching Andrew Luck through his rookie mistakes, which will happen.
The Colts have about eight weeks to decide on their franchise quarterback. One thing I would suggest is for both quarterback’s fathers, Archie Manning and Oliver Luck, to keep quiet on the issue and see how it all plays out.