Peyton Manning is under contract through 2016, but coming off a quad injury and a disappointing divisional playoff loss to the Colts, the Broncos signal-caller has yet to commit to playing another season. As Field Yates of ESPN.com writes in an Insider-only piece, Manning’s decision will be one of the biggest stories to watch this offseason, since his retirement would signal wholesale changes in Denver, not just on the coaching staff but at the most important position on the roster as well.
Here’s more on Manning and the Broncos:
- According to Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com (Twitter link), Manning’s decision will come down to returning to the Broncos or retiring — he won’t play for another team. However, that didn’t stop Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk from identifying eight potential suitors for Manning, if the future Hall-of-Famer decides he doesn’t want to play in Denver.
- Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link) hears that there’s some mutual interest between the Broncos and Mike Shanahan, who has kept in touch with GM John Elway recently. Cole also notes that when he mentioned Shanahan as a head coaching candidate to Manning, the quarterback’s interest seemed “piqued” by the idea.
- While Adam Gase is meeting with the 49ers today, Elway plans to speak to the Broncos offensive coordinator afterward, per Jeff Darlington of NFL.com (Twitter links). A source tells Darlington that the Broncos are confident they’ll get a chance to make a pitch to Gase, but the team doesn’t have a sense of which way he’s leaning at this point. While Darlington doesn’t explicitly say it, the implication here is that Denver is interested in Gase as a head coaching option.