During Peyton Manning’s visit to Denver, he threw some passes, after all. Mike Klis of the Denver Post reports that Manning threw roughly 50 passes to former teammate Brandon Stokley.
Klis says that the pitch-and-catch session, which no one from the Broncos attended, occurred in a small park on Saturday morning.
Stokley also saw Manning throw passes in North Carolina, presumably at or about time that grainy Zapruder/bigfoot film was shot. “I saw him for three days at Duke and he was the only quarterback and he threw a ton of balls for three straight practices and the guy looked to me like he did when I was there six years ago,” Stokley said.
Saying that Peyton looks like he did “six years ago” is one hell of a statement, meaning that he’s not only 100 percent but also that he has found a way to turn back the hands of time.
Klis also reports that Manning’s workout at Duke was filmed and distributed to teams last week.
“People who say the Broncos are crazy for not watching his balls fly, or what are they doing? Those people are dead wrong,” Stokley said. “I’ll put whatever reputation I have on the line behind that guy right now. He looks great.” (Is that sort of like when Mike Shanahan put his reputation on John Beck and Rex Grossman?)
Fine. But how can anyone expect any team to pay Peyton millions of dollars of guaranteed money based on “whatever reputation” a former teammate has and a mass-produced video? Multiple league sources have told PFT in recent that there’s no way Manning should be offered a contract in light of his recent medical history without demonstrating his arm strength, in person.
Indeed, if Manning was able to do it with Stokley in a small park on Saturday morning, why couldn’t Manning do it at the Broncos’ facility on Saturday afternoon, the Cardinals’ facility on Sunday afternoon, or any other team facility this week?
We realize that the rabid pursuit of Peyton permits the player to dictate terms. But if he truly looks like he did six years ago, wouldn’t he be showing it off? It would drive his price even higher.
For more on the throw/not throw issue, here’s a little something from today’s PFT Live.