It’s Official: Osweiler To Start Vs. Chicago, Peyton Will Be Inactive

There it is. And, yes, Gary Kubiak made the right call, even if Peyton himself may not agree.

Peyton won’t even be active Sunday.

Peyton Manning Isn’t Hurt, He’s Injured

For reference, the Giants went 8-8 in 2009.

Back to Peyton: He is injured and needs to sit down, at the very least until he’s healed, and may very likely not take another snap this season.

Forget your perceptions of Brock Osweiler. Forget about the Patriots being 9-0. Forget about the Bengals being undefeated going into Monday’s game. Forget about where the Broncos may or may not be in the playoff picture. The fact is, Peyton is no longer at the point that he can keep playing through an injury.

Omar Bolden had this injury earlier this season. Not only did he miss two games when he was listed no better than questionable, the Broncos held him out an additional game when he was listed as probable.

The Broncos have rested DeMarcus Ware twice with back spasms, were careful with Ty Sambrailo before they concluded he needed surgery, and pulled Emmanuel Sanders even after he passed concussion protocol (and before that, they limited his snaps).

Peyton can’t make excuses. He needs to concede the point, recognize he is injured, and sit out for a while. And if it turns out the Chiefs’ game was his last game, he just needs to accept that’s his last game and realize he wasn’t the first legendary QB to exit on a poor outing and he won’t be the last.

I’ve been willing to give the guy a chance. But not this time.

Gut Reactions: Broncos Were Rousey, Chiefs Were Holm

On Saturday night, Ronda Rousey, considered to be the most dominant UFC women’s fighter around, was set to defend her bantamweight title against Holly Holm. If you believed what some said, Holm was a very good fighter who could do some things well, but she had no chance against Rousey, especially if you look at how some of Holm’s earlier fights went.

Today, the Broncos took on the Chiefs at home, and if you asked most people before the game, you’d say that the Chiefs can do some good things, but if you look at how some of their games went earlier this season, you’d say they’d have no chance of beating the Broncos in Mile High.

Well, today, the Broncos were Rousey and the Chiefs were Holm. Or to put it another way, Rousey got her ass kicked by Holm and the Broncos got their asses kicked by the Chiefs.
Continue reading Gut Reactions: Broncos Were Rousey, Chiefs Were Holm

Breer: Manning may be NFL front office executive in 2016

From Albert Breer this speculation.

Most believe Peyton Manning will hang ’em up after this season. Well, there’s also a widely held assumption in NFL circles that — with all the turnover expected to come across the league in January — Manning could well re-emerge as a leading executive in 2016.

The most obvious parallel is Peyton’s current boss John Elway. What Elway did, stepping in as head football operations executive with no previous NFL front office experience and being immediately successful, is pretty remarkable. Elway had the benefit of an existing front office infrastructure in place and an existing GM who was willing to take a subservient role. Peyton would need a similar scenario to have a good chance of success. What is certain is that Manning would instantly go from being one of the oldest and physically weakest players in the league to one of the youngest and fittest high ranking executives.

In other news, Peyton’s ribs are now injured too.

Peyton Manning injury status more significant UPDATE: Manning probable, Sanders questionable

The Broncos injury report lists Peyton Manning as limited for Thursday’s practice. While Manning has frequently missed Wednesday practices this season, this is the first time he has been reported as limited on Thursday. The Denver Post reported positive news for his status based on the portion of practice open to the media.

Quarterback Peyton Manning returned to Broncos’ practice Thursday and did not appear to be limited by a right foot injury that kept him out of Wednesday’s session.

Manning moved well on three- and five-step dropbacks not showing any favoring to either of his legs.

However, some of head coach Gary Kubiak’s comments were more equivocal:

Continue reading Peyton Manning injury status more significant UPDATE: Manning probable, Sanders questionable

Mike Tanier: Peyton’s Records Aren’t Merely A Runner-Up Award

We know that Peyton Manning will break the yardage record this Sunday against Kansas City. Mike Tanier talks about Peyton and other quarterbacks who were known for putting up numbers but all shared a similar trait.

They lacked what so many people want to declare is the be-all, end-all of what makes for the greatest quarterback of all time: RINGZ.

Manning has coped with a weird denier movement for his whole career, and not just from Patriots fans. Manning bashing practically spawned an industry. Modern media sports coverage—midday talk shows, blogs, comment-thread arguments, Bleacher Report—all grew up around the conceit of tacking Manning, the top draft pick with the famous name and gaudy stats who couldn’t even win the big game in college, to the ceiling like a pinata and taking lazy swings to knock him down as “overrated.” Manning provided the template for how we treat everyone from Jameis Winston to LeBron James, making the job easy by falling just short enough just often enough to keep the fire perpetually stoked.

Just remember, Broncos fans: Regardless of what happens this season, know how lucky you’ve been to had one of the all-time greats on your favorite team, and that the Broncos will eventually become one of those teams to have had two Hall of Fame quarterbacks take snaps for them.

Shaq Barrett: How A Diet Change Helped Him

Robert Klemko at SI.com has a good read about Denver Broncos LB Shaq Barrett, discussing how he helped improve his performance, in large part, by changing his diet.

“In college I put sugar on my spaghetti or lasagna,” Barrett says, drawing out the ‘ah’ sound in ‘college’ in a manner specific to Baltimore’s inner city, where he grew up. “That’s why I have to stay away from pasta, because the only way I can eat it is with sugar.”

Ok, but how much sugar?

“I think I used to put like seven packs of sugar on spaghetti to make it taste edible.”

Oh no.

“Yes.”

Barrett’s high body fat (24 percent) may have been the reason why he went undrafted.

But if you want another reason to thank those who run the Denver Broncos, ensuring players got proper nutrition would be another one.

That Barrett landed on an NFL team with the proper resources to remedy his particular shortcoming was something of a dice roll. By Snyder’s count, only 12 teams have full-time dieticians on staff (the group meets at each combine, when schedules permit). When Snyder got the job in 2009, the Broncos put Snyder in a small office far away from the cafeteria and continued to outsource meals to local caterers for five years, until the team built a kitchen space and hired chefs during the 2014 season.

“Before we had our own kitchen, we would lose guys,” Snyder says. “By November, 10 or 15 guys would be getting fast food for lunch. This year I’ve only seen outside food brought in one time, and I think it was a make-the-rookie-go-get-food situation. The credit goes to [team president] Joe Ellis and [GM] John Elway and Mr. [Pat] Bowlen to free up the resources to do it right.”