I alluded to this on my Facebook earlier today, but my belief is that Manning will be in a Colts uniform next year, and most likely until he retires. Before I get started, let's assume this: Andrew Luck WILL be a Colt as well. They will use the no.1 pick on Luck and it might be tempting to make him the starter throughout training camp. Luck has a very bright future, but I don't see him starting with Peyton in the mix. Peyton does not want to go anywhere. He is going to be 36 soon. His whole career has been played in Indianapolis. The last thing he wants is to have to move to another city, learn another system (even though the system will have to learn him just as much), and deal with a different team. He will sign a deal with the Colts with a modest base salary and a lot of incentives. This allows the Colts to make sure he still has it without paying him a large amount of money.
Peyton said in November that he did not think the Colts should pay him the 28 million if they did not get a chance to see him play before them. He knows he needs to prove that he can play. He will gladly take less to stay in Indianapolis and win another Super Bowl for the city he has played for since his entrance to the league. And Luck with learn at an NFL level by watching one of the best QBs of all time play the game. In two or three years Manning will retire and Luck will take the throne, much like Aaron Rodgers did in Green Bay a few years ago.
This means that Matt Flynn will land in Miami. He follows Green Bay's former OC, Joe Philbin, to Miami, where he will be handed the starting job despite the illusion of a quarterback position battle.
This leads me to my next point: the Jets (who have been rumored to be contenders for a new QB this offseason) will NOT attempt to find a starting-caliber QB before the start of the 2012 season, barring injury to Sanchez. Rex Ryan is bullheaded and loves Sanchez. Mark is the man in NYJ territory, at least this year.
So then the other teams rumored to pursue Manning or Flynn will be out of luck. Arizona will not pursue anyone else; they gave up a lot to get Kolb and you would have to be crazy if you think they are going to give up on him after an injury-plagued season where he had very, very limited time to learn the offense. Remember, he came from Philadelphia in a trade AFTER the lockout already shortened training camp and the offseason. Washington and Seattle still might make plays for starting QBs, and with some interesting names potentially hitting the market (Orton, Campbell, and Young, just to name a few notables) it will be fun to see the opening-day starters next season.
Oh, and there is NO WAY Alex Smith leaves SF or Brees leaves NO. Don't be stupid.
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