2012 NFL season outlook: How Indianapolis Colts will cope without Peyton Manning-NFL Feature – Part Two
A number of commentators believe that the Indianapolis Colts should have given the quarterback, Peyton Manning, another chance and fear for the owner, Jim Irsay, losing too much as result of his decision to waive the player at this juncture of the career.
According to them, the player’s release was premature and might have longer repercussions for the team.
Peyton was optimistic about his recovery and fitness. He has evidence to prove his progress in the recovery and gaining strength in throwing arm.
He had an opinion from his doctor and independent surgeons who were privy to his recovery. He had been working hard on it and started throwing football at an aggressive pace, as shown in a leaked video.
So altogether, health could not have been a substantial reason for Irsay to discard Peyton at this point of moment.
Moreover, he is not an ordinary player. He is the only four-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the league. He has made it to Pro Bowl nominations at many occasions.
His 14 years of successful career at Colts are evident of his superb form and performance. So it couldn’t be the possibility of his coming back with a poorer form that Colts could sense beforehand and therefore decided to release him.
Throughout his stay, the player had a significant role to play in the team. His form and performance had taken the entire squad on the winning momentum for past many seasons.
The players’ dependency on Peyton was so much that they could not pull off a win without him on their sides in 2011 season for the first time.
He was providing cushion and protection to many of them. Otherwise, the quality of the team’s talent was fully exposed in his absence.
Peyton’s presence in the team also seemed to be contagious that his one year miss has cost the entire unit of Colts their jobs.
All the managers, coaches and assistant staff the player had worked with before 2011 season were fired by the owner in one go. This came as a result of the sole one year poor form on the field.
None of other players gave a notable performance during the entire season. By having lost 13 consecutive games, the team at one stage looked to be certain about becoming the only second team to finish a league season without a win.
Luckily, they survived the scare, thanks to their successive wins in 14th and 15th games of the season.
Now Peyton Manning is no more there, and it will be seen how Colts perform when they return to the 2012 NFL season with a completely new outlook.
It’s not just Manning’s departure, it is revamping of the entire Colts organization, with new general manager, head coach, assistant coaching staff and with pending inclusion of Andrew Luck with new squad as well.
So the performance in the next season going to prove how credible the entire overhauling exercise had been. It will also determine their ability of moving out and beyond of Peyton Manning’s legacy.
Apparently, the owner, Jim Irsay, remains upbeat about his so called rebuilding campaign. At least he has refused to admit the possibility of failing himself regarding the credibility of his Manning decision.
He has also refused to be bogged down by all the criticism and hammering around his choice of releasing Manning. He remains confident Colts will perform even better with the new quarterback.
A point that could come to his rescue is that Colts had faced a similar situation in 1998 when they had to part ways with the then star quarterback, Jim Harbaugh, in front of the draft quarterback, Peyton Manning.
Finally, Irsay decided to give preference to Manning over Harbaugh and next 14 years proved that his decision was a credible one.
Now he had the similar choice to make, either to retain Peyton Manning or let him go and take the draft quarterback, Andrew Luck on the board. He has already made his choice and the future will bear a witness to its credibility.
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