Many suitors awaiting Peyton Manning: Is the QB long-term attraction? – NFL feature
Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback, Peyton Manning, has recently become the most talked about figure on the National Football League (NFL).
He is closer to the hearts of many suitors, who respectively and openly, have shown their interest in wooing the player if he is cut lose by his present owners, Colts.
It is the profile of the player that is attracting the lot, irrespective to a consideration that: is he a long-term solution to them?
Peyton Manning became pro in 1998, at the time he joined the Indianapolis Colts, as a draft rookie quarterback.
He has been with them since then, and did not fail them even once, except for 2011 regular season. His neck injury forced him out of the entire season, and his team stood exposed with a little success on the field.
It is the same neck injury, for which he has undergone the knife three times in 19 months. It is the same injury that has made his career uncertain.
His employer, Colts’ owner, Jim Irsay, is wary of accepting him back without assessing the ‘short-term’ and ‘long-term’ aspects of his health.
With all the discussions and debate about his future prospects, he is increasingly become an impossibility for Colts.
Irsay’s attitude has shown that he is unwilling to gamble on him given that his side stands eligible for a top draft prize, who is a quarterback as well.
So, with no or minimum chance of his returning to Colts, a number of teams have expressed their desires to pursue his signing after he becomes available.
The player is due a payment of $28 million optional bonus by March 08, 2012. If the deadline is missed he will go free agency.
The Indianapolis Colts are apparently looking to negotiate an extension in the deadline and if they don’t agree, either on a refusal by the player or otherwise, he will definitely be available for signing by any team off free agency.
The New York Jets and Miami Dolphins are leading contenders for the player. He will obviously have more options. It is not sure for him that uncertainty around is career will be over.
There are two issues confronting him. First, his injury is of a serious nature. According to Jim Irsay, no other player in the football community and history has had this type of injury.
Given the amount of time he has taken, since his surgery in September 2011, in his recovery it is a fact that the injury is serious.
There is no independent confirmation that he has already recovered from it, or how much will it take him to do so.
Another problem with his injury is that the last surgery was his third in 19 months. Despite that doctors have assured him that he would not suffer it again, there is no guarantee of it. This leaves him vulnerable to it in the future.
There is also no confirmation that he will be able to regain same old strength of his arm and shoulder, and generate power and pace in his throws as good as he use to do so in the past.
He threw passes at one occasion in the practice session in later part of the past season. So, he is yet to convince his coaches that his game skills have not been affected by his injury.
Second, he has already played football for more than 13 consecutive years. This leaves him to be closer to the finish of his career. He could play another season, and might be able to survive another more.
Obviously, beyond that it will be too much for a quarterback. He could have lingered on for a longer period of time if he were a defensive player.
So, despite that he has so many suitors awaiting him, he is unlikely to hold long-time prospects. The interested teams might not find him a long-term solution, either.
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