Yet Peyton said he would be fine working with Luck....truth of the matter is, neither of us know and at this point it doesn't matter.
I would say given the tearful press conference he and Irsay had, Manning really did want to finish his career here. It's all he's known for the last decade plus and all things being equal, why would you want to move on this late in your career? He's done a lot for the city on and off the field.
As to the contract, it couldn't be restructred according to most reports here (due to the timing of the bonus / start of league year). He could be released and then sign a new contract with the Colts (or anyone else) but given the Colts draft position / cap situation it didnt really make sense for either party to enter into a new deal. Manning doesn't want to be part of a rebuild and the Colts will hopefully have the "next great QB" in Luck.
So....Manning gets a better situation....the Colts get a potentially great QB in Luck and cap savings....and Tebow get traded, which probably makes him the big loser in this whole saga.
I don't know - I really don't get the sense that Manning is interested in "developing" a quarterback to take over when he's gone.
He certainly didn't do ANYTHING for either Kerry Collins or Curtis Painter, not letting them take
any snaps from center, or running any offense, in practice. And that lack of experience certainly came back to bite Indy in the butt last year.
Manning said last year, after he signed the 5 year contract extension, that it meant that he would "end my career here as a Colt". Well, that was in July. Before the season deconstructed. Before Indy got the #1 draft pick. Before it became painfully obvious that to be competitive at the highest level, Indianapolis would not only have to start over and rebuild from the ground up, they would have to do that with essentially an entirely new team.
That why they didn't just get rid of Peyton. They also released Pierre Garcon, Jeff Saturday, Dallas Clark. It's clear that they want to use every last dime of the salary cap to build for the future, and not carry any extra baggage.
As for Tebow, don't feel too sorry for him. He now has a chance to head back South, where he's said he wants to be, maybe even back to Florida . . .