Peyton Manning to Denver

Apparently the Denver Broncos have won the Peyton Manning Courtship.  I’m betting their courtship included something similar to bald eagles falling from the sky.

If you watched the link, as much as that is supposed to be a mating ritual, somehow I feel like the Denver Broncos will be the eagle hitting the earth.  But I doubt they’ll have as much fight left in them as the eagle did after Peyton Manning gets done robbing their bank account….errr giving them a Super Bowl?

Peyton Manning is a great competitor.  But is he still $95 million great?  Apparently if John Elway says so, then he is.

Manning can still throw the ball, at least according to the Niners, Titans, and the Broncos.  I think that Peyton will manage to make sure that the team is more competitive offensively, but I don’t know if he will somehow make the Broncos wide receivers look like they are all Marvin Harrison.  Kind of like he did in Indianapolis.

Peyton Manning does not a good offense make.

That said, if the Broncos could go to the playoffs with Tim Tebow under center, I guarantee they can return with Peyton Manning.  Especially if their championship level defense continues to develop.  Von Miller, anyone?  But really, what this signing does (well at least the courtship) is expose a few weaknesses across the NFL.

Let’s take a peek shall we?

1. The Washington Redskins have now become forced to take Robert Griffin III in order to compensate for a terrible courtship of Manning and years of failed quarterback play.
2. The Kevin Kolb experiment in Arizona is obviously failing.  John Skelton may just be better (and cheaper) than the ex-eagle.  The Cardinals remain a quarterback away from returning to the playoffs and relevancy.  Sorry Whisenhunt, but the next Kurt Warner is more than a hop-skip-and jump away.
3. The Cleveland Browns still don’t know what a quarterback is or whether they want a good one.
4. The San Francisco 49ers don’t really want Alex Smith and think that signing someone off the street is better than bringing him back.  Side point:  Why announce your interest in Manning three days before he signs with Denver? Is Alex Smith really that bad?
5. Bud Adams in Tennessee is either senile or really hates Matt Hasselbeck and Jake Locker.  I’m hoping both.
6. The Miami Dolphins couldn’t get out of the hole they’ve dug themselves even if they signed Peyton Manning, Jerry Rice in his prime, and Deion Sanders.  They rightly looked to other sources.  Oh, they also failed at getting Matt Flynn even after hiring the Packers’ offensive coordinator as their head coach.  How do they have more fans than Jacksonville?  Oh yeah, Dan Marino….
7. The Jacksonville Jaguars new coaching staff thinks highly enough of Blaine Gabbert’s potential to give the middle finger to Peyton and the national media.

You may disagree with some of those seven points laid out.  But seriously, take a minute and think about the reactions of all those general managers, coaching staffs, and citizens/loyal/crazed fans.  Think about it for a minute and then think how happy you are that for the second year in a row, the Jags won’t face Peyton Manning twice a year.

Here’s to a championship!

– Luke N. Sims