It appears that the fallout of Peyton Manning’s slow recovery neck surgery continues in Indianapolis as the Colts have now fired head coach Jim Caldwell after the disastrous 2-14 season. The first move that was made after the Colts’ season was officially over was the firing of vice chairman Bill Polian and his son Chris (Colts’ GM) by owner Jim Irsay which reportedly shocked Peyton Manning.
Those two moves were apparently the beginning of things to come as it seems that Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay is determined to turn this team around immediately. The next move was the firing of head coach Jim Caldwell after going just 2-14 this season and failing to find an answer for this team’s problems on offense without Peyton Manning under center.
There is no question that this team has been leaning on Peyton Manning far too much throughout his time in Indianapolis and this season without him was a big indicator of that. Without Manning in the fold, the Colts were helpless on offense as the once high-powered scoring machine turned into arguably the worst team in the NFL.
Now the plot in Indianapolis will continue to thicken with the team in search of a new head coach and debating whether or not to trade the face of the franchise in Peyton Manning. The reason the team would even consider trading away the four-time NFL MVP quarterback is the fact that they will have the number one overall pick in the upcoming 2012 NFL draft with two promising prospects at that position for the taking in Stanford’s Andrew Luck and Heisman trophy winner Robert Griffin III out of Baylor.
With those two promising young quarterbacks available, the Indianapolis Colts will almost certainly pick one of them with Andrew Luck the more likely of the two rookies to end up in Indy. That being the case, the Colts have been seriously considering the future and an extensive rebuilding process that has seemingly already begun with the firing of Jim Caldwell and both Bill and Chris Polian.
If Colts owner Jim Irsay is really cleaning house the way it appears he is, the only logical move would be to start over by drafting Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III, trading Peyton Manning and starting over from scratch. This might not be a bad idea for the Colts as they really can’t get much worse from here on out and Peyton Manning may have very well either played his last game in the NFL or can no longer play at an MVP level every single season.
Needless to say, there are some big changes on the way for the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning may not be involved in the long-term plans of this once dominant football team. It will be interesting to see who the Colts target in terms of a new head coach.
