Rich Gannon in action against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during Super Bowl XXXVII. (MPS-US PRESSWIRE)

Former NFL quarterback Rich Gannon spoke out on Peyton Manning and the difficulties that he will face in coming back after neck surgery and playing in a different system.

“He’s coming from out of football for an entire year,” Gannon says. “He’s had to rehab his back, his neck, his arm. Now there’s a new environment and a new system. That’s a real challenge.” – Rich Gannon via Yahoo Sports

Eric Adelson of Yahoo Sports wrote the piece detailing the challenges that Manning will face as a new Denver Bronco.

A similar layoff was a challenge even for Tom Brady, who came back in 2009 after a year rehabbing from a torn ACL sustained in Week 1 of the 2008 season. Brady was still elite, but his touchdowns dropped from (a ridiculous) 50 to 28, and the Patriots won 10 games – second fewest in his career as the full-time starter. (If you set aside Brady’s 2009, he and Manning each have only one sub-12-win full season since 2002.)

Brady, of course, was returning to roughly the same system. Not so for Manning. The split-second advantage he had in Indy was because he was in sync with coaches, receivers and lineman. There likely won’t instantly be the case in Denver.

This is becoming similar to Tebowmania. It’s Manning-mania. We’ll call it that because there are many so-called experts that have their doubts about the Broncos upcoming season, and they base their doubts solely on the quarterback.

Give the article a read.

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