Don’t Expect Peyton Manning Back This Year

Added on Dec 08, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

Indianapolis Colts fans have already had a brutal season and today they got a cold dose of reality from team owner Jim Irsay. Irsay said that he doesn’t expect Peyton Manning back this season despite some optimistic reports about the quarterback’s rehab from neck surgery.

Asked flat out if he had any hope for a Manning return in 2011 Irsay didn’t mince words:

“I really don’t see that. I think with the timeframe we have left, I think it’s something where it will go into the offseason.”

Manning has been kept on the active roster all season and there may have been some false optimism after recent reports from the quarterback and team VP Bill Polian. Manning said he may start throwing soon:

“Throwing will be part of the next progression. I will be doing some throwing and I have been doing some throwing. But now we’re going to ramp it up a little more.”

Colts’ VP Bill Polian was also pleased with Manning’s recovery:

“It’s great news that the fusion has healed. It’s on schedule, so we just keep going from here.”

Colts’ head coach Jim Caldwall said today that Manning wasn’t scheduled to participate in team workouts this week and that he wasn’t sure if he’d resume them before the end of the season.

As if the Colts don’t have enough problems being 0-12 on the season and without their franchise quarterback, it’s not simply a case of waiting for Manning to heal up and return to action. The team has to decide if they want to exercise a $28 million option for 2012 or let Manning become a free agent. Compounding their decision even more is their frontrunner(?) status for the first pick in next year’s college draft which would give them the right to select Stanford’s Andrew Luck. Luck is considered the best quarterback prospect of not only this year’s draft, but the best to come along in quite some time. Earlier this week Peyton’s dad, Archie Manning, made headlines by saying that in his view having Luck and Manning on the same team wouldn’t be a good idea. He later backtracked, but his comments didn’t make it sound like a situation where Peyton would ‘mentor’ the young quarterback would necessarily be in his best interest.