On Sunday, the Broncos made it through a game without their quarterback throwing a pick for the first time this season.
Standing in for Peyton Manning, 25-year-old Brock Osweiler went on the road, in the cold, and completed 20 of 27 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns in a 17-15 Denver win over the Bears.
The short-term implication around here is that the Patriots will not be playing a Broncos team guided by a player scared of his own shadow when they visit Denver next Sunday night.
Against Chicago, Osweiler appeared to do the little things right that are indispensable but underappreciated. He got Denver in and out of the huddle and up to the line. He took checkdowns and was decisive. He took sacks (five of them), but didn’t turn the ball over. He ran a very nice two-minute drill before halftime. He looks – at first glance – like he has the potential to be good.
How will Osweiler perform next week against a Patriots team in prime time as opposed to the Bears in the middle of the afternoon? He deserves the chance to find out. The Broncos do too.
So that’s the short-term discussion.
The long-term discussion that we will begin to hear this week is what Osweiler’s performance means for Manning.
New England Patriots
Now that we’ve seen that A) Osweiler is physically superior to Manning and B) not a complete boob when it comes to running the offense, the closing scenes for the most prolific quarterback in NFL history plays are almost definitely going to be messy and painful.
Peyton Manning has no business being on the field and “competing for his job,” as Drew Bledsoe famously stated in 2001 when he was in a spot similar to the one Manning is about to be in.
Manning already betrayed his teammates and coaches once this season, playing in spite of injuries that made him non-competitive in the loss to the Chiefs in which he went 5 for 20 with four picks. Whether Manning truly believed he could gut it out that day, was too proud or ego-driven to yield to Osweiler, or didn’t want to let everyone down who hoped to see him set a pithy passing record, he wound up living out the worst-case scenario against the Chiefs.
And now, if you’re head coach Gary Kubiak and team president John Elway, do you yield to Manning’s wishes again when Manning says he’s good to go?
Think about it: Elway’s been “all in” for a Super Bowl with Manning since 2012. An awful overtime pick in the AFC Divisional Playoffs against Baltimore ended the 2012 season. The Broncos added Wes Welker and made it to the Super Bowl in 2013 but were not competitive with Seattle. They spent even more freely in 2014 and built a beautiful defense, then got crushed in Denver by the Colts in the Divisional Round, as they went 4 for 16 on third down and a battered Manning played poorly enough to cause reasonable speculation that he should hang it up. In the offseason, the Broncos brought in Kubiak and he put in an offense not tailored to Manning’s skills. The Broncos forced him to grudgingly take a salary haircut. The Broncos reportedly talked about dealing Manning to Houston (the Broncos denied it).
If you’re John Elway, you’ve seen the Manning Playoff Extravaganza before. You KNOW it’s not going to be any different this time and suspect it will probably be even uglier than before. And, since you’re John Elway, you know everyone doesn’t get to author their exit the way you did, with back-to-back Super Bowl wins before waddling off into the sunset. You’d have loved to see it work out for Peyton the way it worked out for you; you tried to make it happen, but it’s not going to. You hope Peyton sees it too, but you are suspecting he doesn’t because that’s how it works. And you dread the time when you and Kubiak have to break it to Manning that it ain’t happening.
But will Elway and Kubiak have the belly to do the right thing for their football team once Manning is healthy. The idea that Manning is “owed” the “right” to return as the starter will become a debate chew toy over the next few weeks.
Sunday night on NFL Network, former head coach Steve Mariucci got in his take, saying, “If Peyton gets healthy? Peyton gets his job back . . . He's earned it after 18 years of greatness."
There’s going to be a lot of that.
I get the sentimental aspect of it from fans and media. But I don’t understand how people “in” the game (as opposed to “around” it, as I am), can push the idea that a franchise is first obligated to make sure a great player has the chance to go out on his terms rather than giving the other employees who work there the best chance to succeed.
Why do the Broncos owe Manning a chance to leave on his terms more than they owe Danny Trevathan or any other Bronco the best chance to get to Super Bowl 50?
Osweiler is probably – PROBABLY – going to provide that best chance. It might be a close call. Osweiler could step on his junk next Sunday night. Manning, as recently as November 1, went 21 for 29 for 340 yards in a demolition of the Packers. Manning’s brain is still tied for best in the league along with Brady’s and his accuracy and anticipation are breathtaking.
But he has no velocity and when the field compresses inside the 20, he can’t throw to tight windows. And when it gets cold he can’t feel his hands at all, which makes it hard to play quarterback.
I can still envision a scenario where Manning leaves Denver with another glimpse of greatness. Riding shotgun, taking the wheel late in some game where the lights and the stage overwhelm Osweiler, cobbling together a performance that makes people think Manning could have done it all along if Kubiak and Elway hadn’t betrayed him.
But he can’t. And over the long haul he won’t.
The Broncos owe Peyton Manning the chance to finish this season with his dignity intact. And that means telling him “no” when he says he wants his job back.