With the Dolphins desperate to put asses in the seats and the Broncos apparently desperate to find a way to kick Tim Tebow’s ass out of town, the question of Peyton Manning’s arm strength has gotten lost in the scramble to sign him.
Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports, citing three unnamed sources, reports that, while Peyton’s arm strength is improving, a full recovery is “still far off.”
“So far, so good,” a source with one of the teams interested in Manning told Cole. “The question is still where is it going to stop, but the progress over the past month has been steady and that’s what you’re looking for.”
Fine, but the “where is it going to stop” line should be causing some concern, shouldn’t it?
“Some of this stuff is in the eye of the beholder,” another source told Cole. “I don’t think there’s anything there that would discourage you from going forward, but you’d have to consider the risk.”
Different teams will have different levels of risk tolerance. For Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, the risk can be justified by the tickets that would be sold the moment Manning becomes a member of the team. Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald said on Friday’s PFT Live that, when the Dolphins traded for quarterback Daunte Culpepper six years ago, ticket sales instantly spiked. With Manning, the numbers will soar.
For the Broncos, acquiring Manning — who even at 50 percent arm strength will be an upgrade over Tim Tebow as it relates to qualities like anticipation, decision-making, and accuracy — gives the franchise a way to move on from their mobile franchise quarterback.
It should be no surprise, then, that Cole mentions in his report that at least one team is willing to sign Manning without seeing him throw.
We think the accurate number is two. And it’s likely the two teams would be signing him for reasons unrelated to just how far and hard he can throw a ball.