This past weekend, the Indianapolis Colts were able to beat the seven point favorite Denver Broncos in convincing fashion 24-13. Once again, Peyton Manning was unable to make it past the divisional round and found himself struggling against his former team. Now that Manning is pushing 40 years of age, this loss could spell the end of his career.
Claiming that Manning should retire after having watched the game on Sunday would be an overreaction. After all, the Broncos are a really strong team who don’t necessarily need to depend on a quarterback to succeed. However, if you are Manning, the idea of retirement would not be something to disregard. The reason for that is quite simple and it all comes back to injuries and the aging body.
When it came to Sunday’s game, the Broncos ran into two major problems. One of which included Manning and the other was on defense. As far as the defense, the Broncos defensive line had a very uncharacteristic game where they were unable to put any pressure on Andrew Luck. Luck was able to do as he pleased in the pocket and pushed the Colts to a win. When it came to Manning, he was unable to throw the deep ball. Many of his passes down the field were inaccurate and he couldn’t lead his offense down the field like he has in the past.
This is where Manning might consider now to be the proper time to hang up the cleats. Many players who are close to retirement will say things like, “I wont retire until I know I can’t play at a high level anymore”. The problem with Manning is that for the last half of this season and the divisional game on Sunday, he was unable to reach that high level of football he had accomplished just a year before. Manning became more and more dependent on the running game as the season went on and his passing game started to diminish. This was all due to the accumulation of injuries that Manning has faced in the last few years and even this year.
Before coming to Denver, Manning had undergone multiple neck surgeries and this season he had injured his thigh in a game against the Chargers in December. The abuse on his body seemingly caught up to him this season and he definitely did not look like the Quarterback we are all used to seeing every Sunday.
After Sunday’s game, Manning even came out and said that he will not commit to coming back next season right away. This means that retirement is on his mind and at the age of 38 no one can really blame him for that. To add on to his injuries and deteriorating play, the Broncos have a lot of work to do in Free Agency. Julius Thomas and Demaryius Thomas are free agents this off-season and so are a handful of other Broncos players. If the team loses these key offensive assets to other teams, Manning may not want to come back to a depleted roster.
This off-season Manning has a lot of questions to answer. In his three years as Broncos QB, he was unsuccessful at winning a Super Bowl and now it seems as though their window has closed. With his arm strength rapidly deterring, Manning would have to become a game manager. Someone who goes out and tries not to throw interceptions instead of trying to throw touchdowns. It would be hard to imagine Manning in that role and that is why retirement may be the next announcement you hear at a Broncos press conference.
Either way it seems as though the Broncos are in for a rebuild and only time will tell whether or not they can match the success of the last three years.
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