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| Peyton's in and Tebow's out. And Elway's happy.(Getty Images) |
Peyton Manning has reportedly chosen his team and he will be the next quarterback of ... the Denver Broncos. CBSSports.com's Mike Freeman confirms that Manning's pick is Denver and that a contract "is a formality" at this point.
Freeman also reports that the Broncos will attempt to trade Tim Tebow and "do not care" what they get for him. Over the weekend, my colleague Ryan Wilson put together a list of teams that could potentially make a move for Tebow; it's a pretty prescient post that you should read.
Chris Mortensen first reported the news of Peyton to Denver, noting that Manning has told his agent Tom Condon to "open negotiations" with Denver.
Manning has, at this time, informed the other teams of his decision. Jim Wyatt of The Tennessean notes that Manning called Titans owner Bud Adams personally to inform him of the decision.
"I was hoping we would win out," Adams said. "I thought we'd be ahead of Denver. I thought he'd want to stay in Tennessee. I was hoping we could get him. On my next birthday I will be 90 yrs old. So I felt he could get us in the championship quickly."
That's precisely what John Elway believes as well, and why he pressed so hard to get Manning. Now Elway needs to, as CBSSports.com's Pat Kirwan notes, surround Manning with enough talent to help him succeed in Denver.
"Now that Manning is headed to the Broncos it is time to build around him," Kirwan writes. "Sign Jeff Saturday, Dallas Clark, Jacob Tamme, and maybe even Brandon Stokley and Joseph Addai. John Fox will let Peyton start installing his offense. Some of these former Colts may not make the final roster but they will help put the offense in place. As for Tim Tebow it is time to trade him to the Dolphins for a third round pick."
Of course, there's one little problem for Miami in that scenario. As Kirwan writes, Miami's new coaching staff probably isn't in love with the idea of going from maybe Peyton to maybe Matt Flynn to ... maybe Tim Tebow.
"Do you think new Miami coach Joe Philbin is going to be excited about coaching Tim Tebow and his unconventional offense instead of Matt Flynn, who knew his system?" Kirwan writes. "Setting market values on players like Matt Flynn and then losing him to a $6.3 million average from Seattle is a problem. Miami had to know the market, and if they weren't prepared to pay at that level, they should have dropped out of the recruiting process.
"I ran free-agent recruiting in the NFL for years, and rarely do you sign a guy for under the market value, especially if your team is struggling."
Some could balk at the idea of giving up something of value for Tebow, but if the Dolphins or the Jaguars want to sell tickets and draw more interest than they would with Matt Moore and Blaine Gabbert, Tebow would be the ticket.
It's a stunning decision, really. Earlier today we mentioned that Manning was "dealing directly" with various teams. But it seemed as if the Broncos had fallen behind in the race for Peyton. Instead, John Elway was able to close the deal and land one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.
Needless to say, people in Denver are kind of excited
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