The Denver Broncos shocking upset loss to the St. Louis Rams this past weekend reminded us all that the championship window is closing soon for Peyton Manning and company. It’s time to start thinking about Manning’s future, and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network gave us a report on that very topic. “Broncos people expect Peyton Manning to play at least one more season,” Rapoport said.
“Peyton Manning is very secretive about his future plans but what the Broncos believe is it will be this year and next year because Peyton Manning is so in tuned with his legacy he wants to hold all of the records. He is behind Brett Favre in two key ones: quarterback wins and passing yards. Within one season, he could hit both of those milestones so expect Peyton Manning to play at least next year,” he continued. It all starts next week against the Miami Dolphins, and SBR projects them to rebound from the loss quite nicely. Sports Book Review has Peyton Manning and the Broncos listed as 9 1/2 point favorites. Rich Gannon of CBS Sports Network on Peyton Manning:
“(Yesterday) was very uncharacteristic of Peyton Manning. I saw a guy who was frustrated when they were held to seven points against theRams… There were easy plays and the ball was getting batted down. They weren’t in unison. They weren’t able to run the football, so they put more of the pressure on Peyton Manning. Anytime you throw the ball north of 50 (times), there are going to be problems.”
Trent Green added this during the show (Monday Evening Quarterback: “The offensive line has to play better to give Peyton Manning more time in the pocket to be able to find those weapons. The running game is the thing that needs to improve.”
Very true. If the OL doesn’t protect Manning better, the Dolphins can take advantage (they certainly have a couple standout pass-rushers to do so) and maybe we’ll be having similar discussions about the Broncos at this time next week. We’ll see how Peyton Manning and the Broncos respond to this recent disappointment.
Rapoport added one caveat to his report, if the Broncos win the Super Bowl this year, then Peyton Manning would leave at the end of this season; so he could go out on top.