Some have wondered if Peyton Manning will get back into football by running a team at some point, but he has thus far resisted that option for his post-playing career.
Manning has still done some player evaluation work, however. Colts head coach Frank Reich was an assistant for the team when Manning was their quarterback and he said that he has spoken to Manning about players who could help the Colts move forward without Philip Rivers.
“After Philip retired, I started going, ‘OK, here’s all the quarterbacks who could be out there,’” Reich said, via Jim Ayello of the Indianapolis Star. “And as we’re talking about who’s going to be our starting quarterback next year, yeah, I called Peyton and asked him his opinion on some of the guys. . . . When you hear from Peyton, it obviously carries a ton of weight. It carries a ton of weight. . . . Whatever percentage of all the other opinions matter, which is a smaller percentage of the overall picture, Peyton’s percentage is going to be higher because of who he is.”
Reich didn’t share any of the conversation, but said that Manning has stronger opinions about some players than others and that he “generally wants to speak positively” of players rather than bash them. He also said he thinks Manning would be great as a head of football operations, but Reich’s happy to make use of him on a consultant’s basis for the time being.