Colts owner Jim Irsay wasn’t joking around about signing a veteran quarterback out from “retirement.” It’s just not the guy from Hattiesburg.
Irsay announced via Twitter that the team has agreed to terms with Kerry Collins.
We heard before last week’s Colts preseason game that Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky had to improve or risk the Colts bringing in a veteran quarterback. They didn’t improve and now Collins is reunited with Jim Caldwell, who coached him at Penn State. (Bill Polian also drafted Collins in Carolina.)
This is the clearest sign yet that Peyton Manning’s status for Week One is in question. The Colts simply felt they couldn’t go into the opener with Painter as the starter, and now they have another option if Manning can’t recover from neck surgery in time.
Even if Manning gets healthy for the opener, the Colts need a fallback plan if his neck doesn’t hold up. Collins’ “retirement” can wait a year.