You don't have to like sports to know of the breaking news that has revolved around former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. He was released by the Colts earlier this month and ever since then, the league has gone into a craze to land him and become a playoff, even Super Bowl favorite.
Many teams have shown interest but only the Tennessee Titans, Denver Broncos, and San Francisco 49ers had a remote chance of landing Manning.
Manning, a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, dropped the bomb on the Titans and 49ers by announcing he will be playing for the Broncos next season. And sure enough on March 20, we saw Manning holding up that wild bright orange jersey with "MANNING" and his number "18" stitched on the back.
Now, in real life, I don't know Peyton Manning, I have no problem with this guy, but from a football standpoint, better yet a winning standpoint, this makes no sense to me.
The Broncos? No way Manning picked the Broncos with a running back like Willis McGahee, who fumbles the ball like he is handling two percent milk when fixing his Froot Loops in the morning. Why pick a Broncos team whose leading receiver only had 612 yards on 44 catches and needed Tim Tebow to save its season? It just doesn't sit right with me.
The Broncos aren't exactly terrible, but they really aren't that good. They went 8-8, ranked 20th in total defense, and 23rd in total offense. They rattled off some freak wins, thanks to Tebow, but those wins won't keep occurring on a regular basis, season after season.
I mentioned that their receiving core is weak in the statistics category, but that's not really their fault. As nice as a guy that Tebow is, he's not an NFL quarterback, no matter how bad Skip Bayless wants him to be. Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas are both talented young receivers that will benefit from having Manning as their quarterback, but the receivers out in San Francisco are ridiculous.
The 49ers passing game, which was weak last season, has dramatically upgraded with some good offseason moves at the wide receiver position. Randy Moss will now be wearing red and gold, and every defensive coordinator will tailor their game plan toward him, no question. Moss will be double covered on a regular basis to prevent the deep ball.
The Niners have also picked up Mario Manningham, who I believe is ready to be a consistent contributor. He's known for the clutch catches, but he wants the ball more; he's hungry and I feel like he's ready to step up, especially since he's used to making heavy traffic catches, which come frequently in west coast offenses.
These moves will compliment returning tight end Vernon Davis, who should be going off like he did in the postseason. The 49ers will take advantage of his freakish athletic ability after his big plays against the New Orleans Saints and the New York Giants in the playoffs. Michael Crabtree and Kyle Williams are also solid receivers who have made big plays last season, and are used to this system.
These would've been Manning's main targets. On top of that, Frank Gore would be there to help Manning's play action abilities. With so many weapons on this San Francisco team, it just doesn't sit right that Denver was picked over the Niners if his main objective is to win.
There have been a bunch of theories as to why Manning chose Denver over San Fran. My theory is that the NFL has turned into the Illuminati and is orchestrating a "Manning vs. Manning" Super Bowl. But maybe he's insecure about his arm strength with burners like Moss or Davis, or maybe he's a competitor who just doesn't want the wins to come that easy.
Whatever his case may be, it's no question that John Elway is a very persuasive man.
We'll just have to see how everything plays out in the upcoming draft to the start of the season. Manning can pretty much make anyone nice, but if he would've gone to San Francisco they would've been Super Bowl favorites immediately, and it's only March.
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