NFL 2011-2012 Off-Season Pre-Draft Catch-All

From a business standpoint and odds standpoint, I pretty much agree. Still think it sucks, though.

How can Peyton not get signed by the Vikings. Jim McMahon, Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, Brett Favre, Donovan McNabb. This franchise loves quarterbacks on the downslope of their career.

The Colts are right to let him go even if he does come back and play like "old Peyton".

Because how long will that last? A year? Two?

Indy has a prime shot at another franchise QB. Whether Luck pans out or not, it's the best shot any team could ask for, and they are right to take it and not drop that huge chunk of money on their old outgoing QB coming off a neck injury.

*Legion* wrote:

The Colts are right to let him go even if he does come back and play like "old Peyton".

Because how long will that last? A year? Two?

Indy has a prime shot at another franchise QB. Whether Luck pans out or not, it's the best shot any team could ask for, and they are right to take it and not drop that huge chunk of money on their old outgoing QB coming off a neck injury.

If this is the reason the Polians are out (and what else would it be), I think the ownership made the right decision. This is the right move for the future of the franchise.
It is a strong reminder however that this is a business, and sometimes personal feelings come second to good business decisions.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

How can Peyton not get signed by the Vikings. Jim McMahon, Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, Brett Favre, Donovan McNabb. This franchise loves quarterbacks on the downslope of their career.

Yeah but the Chiefs got the greatest of them all up to now (Montana). It only makes sense that Peyton will go there -- KC is apparently the retirement home of the truly greats. Being a Broncos' fan, though, I hope that this is not the case.

I see him going somewhere warm. Why play in predominately cold climates when you have a stiff, sore neck?

Fedaykin98 wrote:

From a business standpoint and odds standpoint, I pretty much agree. Still think it sucks, though.

This is pretty much the feeling around the city. I woke up this morning with a twitter feed about 10 times as long as it normally is, and there was no shortage of people attempting to drink away the pain and tweeting at the same time last night. Most of them are people that have long predicted and accepted that this is what needed to happen and would happen, but that didn't prevent them from feeling the loss that most local fans felt last night.

I will admit that after the maneuvering of the past 6 weeks it was refreshing to see Manning and Irsay deplane together last night on TV in relatively good spirits for today's joint press conference. Even if it is just for appearances, the ending would have been much worse and harder on fans if it came in the form of a terse press release from each camp slamming the other for not making it work instead of a joint press conference today.

I don't think "old Peyton" is a realistic possibility or else we would of seen him traded like Favre/McNabb were. Ever since Lombardi pretty much confirmed he cant throw the ball I haven't seen a report that states otherwise.

So yea no brainer by the Colts because as it stands he's not even playing so how could you pay him.

jowner wrote:

I don't think "old Peyton" is a realistic possibility or else we would of seen him traded like Favre/McNabb were. Ever since Lombardi pretty much confirmed he cant throw the ball I haven't seen a report that states otherwise.

So yea no brainer by the Colts because as it stands he's not even playing so how could you pay him.

They couldn't trade him because no one would be willing to pay him a $28 million dollar roster bonus. He will be signed somewhere, but his first year salary will not be anywhere near that much money.

As for the Vikings, they will be where Peyton goes in 2 years after mediocre/bad seasons elsewhere.

I just hope he doesn't go to Washington; I like Peyton, and I don't want to see him dragged into Snyder-land. KC? Sure. Seattle? Sure. Also, no Jets, because if I have to hear constant MANNING-MANNING NEW YORK CITY comments my head will explode.

kaostheory wrote:
jowner wrote:

I don't think "old Peyton" is a realistic possibility or else we would of seen him traded like Favre/McNabb were. Ever since Lombardi pretty much confirmed he cant throw the ball I haven't seen a report that states otherwise.

So yea no brainer by the Colts because as it stands he's not even playing so how could you pay him.

They couldn't trade him because no one would be willing to pay him a $28 million dollar roster bonus. He will be signed somewhere, but his first year salary will not be anywhere near that much money.

As for the Vikings, they will be where Peyton goes in 2 years after mediocre/bad seasons elsewhere. :D

His contract could of been restructured and he could of stayed in Indy. I assume it could of also been in a trade.

“We can make it work if he wants to be here,” Irsay told the newspaper. “We’d be excited to have him back and finish his career with us.

”I want him to be able to make the choice. We would love to have him back here if he can get healthy and we can look at doing a contract that reflects the uncertainty of the … healing process with the regeneration of the nerve.“

aka we are willing to pay him the reasonable salary of a QB that might not even be able to throw the ball which is probably not much at all.

jowner wrote:

His contract could of been restructured and he could of stayed in Indy. I assume it could of also been in a trade.

Under the current deal the Colts would have been on the hook for the 28 million this week (2011 league year) and couldn't trade him until next week. (2012 league year) Upon trading him the cap hit for the next four years from this roster bonus and the 26 million we paid him last year would accelerate into the 2012 cap (giving us a $38 million cap figure in 2012 just for Manning if we traded him). Even not paying the roster bonus and cutting him will cost us a bit over $10 million in dead cap money in 2012. link to article about cap issues if we traded him

Peyton's ONLY real incentive for restructuring his deal is if he really, really wanted to finish his career in Indy and was willing to take less money to do so. He would have absolutely NO incentive to restructure to allow us to trade him since he is going to become an unrestricted free agent anyway.

EDIT: Added link to an article about why the cap hit prevented us from trading him

Damn, Irsay's fighting back tears. I bet the peeps of Indy's hearts are breaking.

Damn, so is Peyton.

garion333 wrote:

Damn, Irsay's fighting back tears. I bet the peeps of Indy's hearts are breaking.

Damn, so is Peyton.

Lots of tears in offices. Lots of overloaded networks as people try to stream the conference on their phones or in their office.

I'm not a Colts fan, and even I got a little misty. Tough to watch.

Reports are saying Peyton's likely to make a decision within the week. That's faster than I was expecting.

Decision on whether he will retire or what team he is signing with? I am going to assume the former.

If, and it is a big if, anyone can succeed in spite of Snyder, it would be Peyton. I want to see him or someone at least liven up DC football. We are not too far off from being the Clippers of the NFL. We do desperately need our Blake Griffin. (and Chris Paul would be nice too but I am not greedy)

garion333 wrote:

Reports are saying Peyton's likely to make a decision within the week. That's faster than I was expecting.

I have my money on Miami. He reportedly flew to Miami yesterday, but he does own a home there. All the more reason to play in Miami. A couple of my friends who are Dolphins fans don't want Manning, but I think they will change their minds if he makes them a playoff contender. RGIII will go to Cleveland, and Washington will be left out in the cold.

Those are my predictions, take them as you will.

fangblackbone wrote:

Decision on whether he will retire or what team he is signing with? I am going to assume the former.

If, and it is a big if, anyone can succeed in spite of Snyder, it would be Peyton. I want to see him or someone at least liven up DC football. We are not too far off from being the Clippers of the NFL. We do desperately need our Blake Griffin. (and Chris Paul would be nice too but I am not greedy)

Oh, it's the latter. He's not retiring. He wants to play.

Just shows how little loyalty there is to the players in the NFL, at least on the Colts.

It cuts both ways. If Peyton wanted to be loyal, he could have taken a heavily incentive-laden contract. I presume he's not near 100%, which he must know as well as anyone. He's opting to take someone else's big money in the hope that he gets well enough to play.

I can't get all that worked up about the Colts being the bad guys here. They made the right decision for their franchise, from my perspective, and Peyton was no innocent (or virginal) lamb in the process.

Eli took a pay cut from $10.75 million to $1.75 million to make $7 million in cap space. That's classy.

Kush15 wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Reports are saying Peyton's likely to make a decision within the week. That's faster than I was expecting.

I have my money on Miami. He reportedly flew to Miami yesterday, but he does own a home there. All the more reason to play in Miami. A couple of my friends who are Dolphins fans don't want Manning, but I think they will change their minds if he makes them a playoff contender. RGIII will go to Cleveland, and Washington will be left out in the cold.

Those are my predictions, take them as you will.

If the cold is Flynn with not much competition to sign him so no absurd contract then thats a pretty warm cold.

TempestBlayze wrote:

Eli took a pay cut from $10.75 million to $1.75 million to make $7 million in cap space. That's classy.

hold on a sec

The franchise quarterback will still get all of the $10.75 million with $9 million of it being paid up front and guaranteed, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

so yea! and he still has a pie face!

jowner wrote:
TempestBlayze wrote:

Eli took a pay cut from $10.75 million to $1.75 million to make $7 million in cap space. That's classy.

hold on a sec

The franchise quarterback will still get all of the $10.75 million with $9 million of it being paid up front and guaranteed, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

so yea! and he still has a pie face!

Yeah that sounds like a restructuring to free up cap space, but still getting a huge salary in the form of a bonus instead.

jowner wrote:

so yea! and he still has a pie face!

Kinda like Rodgers:

IMAGE(http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/170886/aaron-rodgers-mustache.jpg)

IMAGE(http://www.rotoinfo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/rogers.jpg)

IMAGE(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aXclGCVUKdY/T0PkXTjiKwI/AAAAAAAAd1E/dqWyr4EdqQo/s1600/aaron_rodgers_2009_02.jpg)

IMAGE(http://www.packersgab.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/aaron_rodgers_and_brett_farve.jpg)

But with that said, Eli is NO Jedi

IMAGE(http://chzupnextinsports.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/funny-sports-pictures-aaron-rodgers1.jpg)

TempestBlayze wrote:

Eli took a pay cut from $10.75 million to $1.75 million to make $7 million in cap space. That's classy.

No, not a pay cut.

The move doesn't hurt Manning at all. In fact, it only helps him. He gets that $9 million right now, as opposed to waiting for the season. Plus, it was previously non-guaranteed money, so there was a chance he wouldn't have gotten it.

...

While Manning's cap number grew smaller this season, the numbers for the next three years grew by $2.25 million each. A look at his cap numbers:
2013: $20.85m (was $18.6m)
2014: $20.4m (was $18.15)
2015: $19.75 (was $17.5)
The numbers will apparently be easier to stomach starting in 2014 because that's when TV revenue hits and is supposed to raise the cap by a ton.

Edit: Semi-Tannhausered (though no one else provided a link) due to work getting in the way of my posting. Bah!

so yea! and he still has a pie face!
Kinda like Rodgers:

That's not going to get traction.. sorry.. there can be only one Pie Face.

No, Rivers is doofus face.

IMAGE(http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kvtxmeEN4M1qabupuo1_400.jpg)

I refuse to provide counterpoints until I can read your post without wincing at the grammar.

garion333 wrote:

Reports are saying Peyton's likely to make a decision within the week. That's faster than I was expecting.

If he wants his team to be competitive, he needs to sign quickly and allow them to be active in chasing other free agents.

I believe he actually cares about that sort of thing, rather than pulling an it's-all-about-me Brett Favre move.