Peyton Manning Reportedly Interested in Still Playing, But It Almost Certainly Wouldn't Be With Denver

Peyton Manning may not be retiring after all. This weekend, Woody Paige, who had confirmed his return a year ago, said he would be retiring. This morning, Adam Schefter went on Mike & Mike and said that Manning would “like to keep playing.” His agent, Tom Condon, was on Sirius XM radio and said (via Pro Football Talk):

"“Basically, I don’t ask him,” Condon said. “I know that he’s going to tell me when he’s made a decision. The closest he’s got to disclosing any of his intentions was that he said he just wanted to take his time and make sure and he said ‘I really like to play.’ I said ‘I know the feeling.’” "

We are now more than three weeks removed from Denver winning the Super Bowl. The deadline is approaching for when the Broncos have to either release him, or his 2016 salary of $19 million becomes guaranteed. In fact, it’s exactly one week from today.

So it’s no accident that these statements are coming out today and yesterday. Other teams are making decisions on contracts, franchise tags, and free agency is about to commence. Teams will be lining up their preferences. When we ranked our quarterbacks, for the next three years, the prospect of a 40-year old Manning still made the list, but down in the 35th spot. At this point, only a team without a good option or committed option would be in play. (One of those would be the Rams, as we’ve heard).

Perhaps his best option would be to go the Roger Clemens route, which Ryan Glasspiegel suggested before the last season. In practical terms, Manning did miss half the season recovering from the foot injury, and getting that time off probably factored in with him being able to still perform in January.