Money was no object for the Denver Broncos in their pursuit of Peyton Manning.
Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reports that getting the final financial numbers done on Manning’s contract will be easy because the Broncos told Manning in their very first visit with him that they could offer $95 million over five years.
That suggests that the Broncos were actually willing to give Manning a little more, at least in terms of total value and average value, than the Colts gave him when he signed his five-year, $90 million contract last year.
The question, however, is how the contract will be structured. We don’t know yet how much money will be guaranteed to Manning, and we don’t know what kinds of protections are built in for the Broncos if Manning has another neck injury that causes him to miss more games, or if the same neck issue that arose last year arises this year and — cover your eyes, Broncos fans — forces Manning to miss the entire 2012 season, just as he missed the entire 2011 season.
But at the moment all indications are that Manning is going to have a clean bill of health, and the Broncos are going to pay him a fortune.