There are many reasons for Peyton Manning to retire following the Super Bowl. He is 39 years old, he is coming off his worst season, he has battled injuries and he might not even have a home.
Brock Osweiler has waited patiently for four years to become the Broncos’ starting quarterback, and the team might want to move forward with him as their guy. And according to Peyton’s father and brother, he won’t likely be interested in playing somewhere other than Denver.
Speaking on ESPN’s Mike and Mike on Thursday, Archie Manning said he figures his son wouldn’t want to go through the hassle of switching teams for the second time in his career.
“He had some offers last year from teams, some teams talked to him,” Archie said. “But I think that was going to be a lot of drama, again, to change teams, that he didn’t want to go through. He did do that once, so I don’t know that he would want to do that.”
Then, on Friday, Eli Manning added his own commentary, agreeing with pops that Peyton probably wouldn’t be taking his talents to another NFL team.
Eli on Peyton possibly playing elsewhere in 2016: "I can’t speak for him but no, I think that would be tough.''
— Paul Schwartz (@NYPost_Schwartz) February 5, 2016
As for the odds that Peyton retires, Eli and Archie have been generally mum. Despite reports that the quarterback is done, Eli told NFL Network his brother would probably make a decision following the Super Bowl, unrelated to the game’s outcome.
“I don’t think this is going to be a situation where win or lose a decision is going to be made on his career on Sunday night,” Eli said on Super Bowl Live. “… After the season, he’ll think on it and figure out what he wants to do.”
Archie said on NFL Network that Peyton has not indicated whether he’ll return and guessed that the QB had not yet made up his mind, suggesting he was leaving “a little avenue open” to returning.
“He’ll take some time, probably soon after the season, and kind of lay everything out, say ‘Do I want to do this anymore, can I do this anymore, should I do this anymore,’ those types of things.”
So it seems Manning’s future lies either in Denver or out of the league, with the latter a much stronger bet at this point.
