Happy Thanksgiving! Peyton Manning out even longer…

Happy Thanksgiving! It sounds like Peyton Manning is going to be out for even longer than expected, per an NFL Network report…

Don’t mistake the initial greeting for excitement. As much as we want to see Brock Osweiler succeed, we don’t want to see Peyton Manning ailing, and right now, it’s the worst he’s probably felt since he missed the entire 2011 season with a neck injury.

The Denver Broncos — as I have been writing this — have fired back at these reports…

So, it would seem right now no one really knows what to expect as far as what kind of absence we’ll see from Peyton Manning. We know without a shadow of a doubt he’s not playing against the Patriots, and he’s not playing the week after that against the San Diego Chargers either.

The most optimistic return date would be December 13th against the Oakland Raiders, and given that he’s currently in a walking boot, that would seem seriously unlikely. The Broncos won’t want to give away anything in regards to his current status if they don’t have to, but there’s reason to believe Ian Rapoport’s report to be accurate simply due to the nature of Manning’s injury and Manning’s age/recovery time required to fully heal.

It’s not a bad thing for the Broncos, to be honest. There seems to still be this misconception that they are a worse team with Brock Osweiler, but they are currently 1-0 with him at the helm and the offense was far more efficient with him than it had been the previous two weeks with Peyton Manning.

Osweiler’s mobility, youth, and strong arm are all qualities Manning doesn’t possess, and he is also capable of running this offense from under center, which Manning is not.

We’ll see when Peyton Manning comes back, but to say he’ll just be out two weeks is certainly an optimistic prognosis.