Denver Broncos: Peyton Manning’s lingering starting to hurt
Denver Broncos offseason: The time is now for John Elway to ask Peyton Manning to make a decision so the team can move forward with the Brock Osweiler era.
The offseason is here, and while the Broncos have the luxury of “Super Bowl Champs” attached to everything they do now, they also have some very difficult situations at hand.
Most importantly, the team has to make a decision at the quarterback position, and according to Mike Klis of 9News in Denver, the decision to re-sign Brock Osweiler has been put on hold while Peyton Manning makes his decision of whether or not to retire.
Even though you don’t want to force Peyton Manning into a decision like Brett Favre was in Green Bay, it seems obvious at this point that he has literally nothing left to play for. In fact, no matter what you think about the Manning scandal from 20 years ago at Tennessee, his alleged HGH use, or the fact that he managed to win a Super Bowl while leading the league in interceptions, his presence on the roster is actually hurting the team more than it is helping at the moment.
And did I mention the $20 million he counts against the salary cap?
All of these reasons, whether right or wrong, have to be diminishing the amount of excitement the Broncos have about Manning’s presence on the roster. It’s sort of at the point of, “Thank you for what you’ve done. Now go be with your family and enjoy the next chapter of your life…”
It’s only been a week since the Broncos made their way out of Santa Clara and back to Denver for the Super Bowl parade. Perhaps I’m just being impatient, but the clock is ticking and Manning has never had an easier decision to make in his life.
No pre-snap read necessary for this one.
Retire a champion. Retire on top of the game. And for goodness sakes, retire before all the ghosts of your past start to drag the rest of the Broncos through the mud.
The Broncos need to be able to move on to the Brock Osweiler era, which is clearly what they want to do. The price at which Osweiler will need to be retained remains to be seen, but there are some rumors floating around that he will cost the Broncos upwards of $10-12 million per season.
Yuck.
But, the quarterback position costs a lot of money in the NFL if you want some stability. With six starts under his belt this past season, paying that kind of top dollar for Osweiler would be borderline foolish for the Broncos but what’s more foolish — paying him what he wants or letting him go and hedging your bets elsewhere on a QB?
That’s a scary thought, but none is scarier than Peyton Manning continually holding the Broncos back from making a decision. This offseason is going to be so exciting because how often do you see a Super Bowl champion team making a necessary change at the QB position?
John Elway gets to start essentially from scratch, even though the team knows Osweiler would be the best option moving forward. But can they afford him? Does he want to be in Denver?
The answer to both questions should be yes. There’s no reason Osweiler shouldn’t want to play in Denver. There is a job opening on the best team in the league at the most important position. That’s a desirable job that players should be lined up for. Not to mention, you get to work for John Elway and have the backing of the best defense in the NFL.
Pretty sweet gig, if you ask me.
If Brock Osweiler were to leave Denver, it would have to be for a lot of money, and it would certainly be for a worse situation than the one he would be leaving in the Mile High City.
We’ll see what eventually winds up happening with all of this, but it’s time for the Broncos to be able to turn their focus on Osweiler and the rest of the in-house priorities, of which Peyton Manning is currently not.