Peyton Manning to Return vs. Chargers, Kubiak Says: "Brock is Our Quarterback"

Denver Broncos Head Coach Gary Kubiak ain’t beating around the bush…

Per his press conference this afternoon and a statement via DenverBroncos.com, Quarterback Peyton Manning WILL practice this week and will “likely” be on the active roster.

Well that means Peyton’s starting because Peyton’s never been a backup in his life, right?

Wrong:

Two weeks ago, NFL’s Ian Rapoport reported Manning was not OK with being the backup when he was ready to return to action — which was quickly refuted by Broncos GM John Elway, who said Peyton never expressed those feelings to him.

Hmmmmm. He said, she said blah blah blah — we’ve been here before with something Peyton-related, but, Manning’s response was quite PC … even for Manning….

"“I’ll do what I can to help the team, help Brock, and I’m happy to be more a part of it now than just being in street clothes and kind of quarantined in the indoor facility, working out on my own to be more a part of a team is a positive step.”"

Per the Broncos’ statement: the decision to start Brock Osweiler moving forward was a result of what Kubiak called “a combination of things,” described as ‘Manning’s health’ and ‘Osweiler’s performance the last six weeks’ — which has seen the Broncos win four games.

"“Brock’s our quarterback, and nothing has changed from that standpoint,” Kubiak said. “… The team knows that Brock is our quarterback.”"

Can you blame Gary? Despite sitting out six+ weeks due to his injury, the 38-year-old hall-of-fame quarterback STILL leads the NFL with 17 interceptions and owns a league-worst 67.6 QBR.

Anything to look into here re: these statements? Maybe, maybe not…

It seems completely harmless at first glance, but, if there’s one thing we’ve learned this season from the Broncos: when it comes to Kubiak and Manning, where there’s smoke — there’s fire…

Stay tuned…