Lost in Sunday’s made-for-TV brouhaha over whether Peyton Manning would hold a clipboard (or, possibly, throw it down and storm away) is the fact that he’s not healthy enough to even serve as a backup quarterback.
The partially torn plantar fascia in Manning’s foot continues to bother him, with a setback occurring during practice on Friday. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the condition eventually could result in Manning having surgery.
According to the source, Manning was told by Dr. Robert Anderson in Charlotte last month that, if the problem continues for a year, surgery becomes the best option. Last year, Archie Manning said that Peyton has been dealing with the problem for five or six months.
If my math is correct (and it rarely is), Manning will have to decide in another six months or so whether to have the surgery. If he still intends to play in 2016, the surgery becomes a no-brainer.
The more immediate question is whether through rehab the foot will get to the point where he could play during the regular season or the postseason. For now, he can’t -- which makes any talk about whether he’d serve as Brock Osweiler’s backup irrelevant.