Listen, I understand that a lot of Broncos fans are frustrated with the amount of coverage given to the so-called conspiracy theories floating around Dove Valley, but let me say this: Where there’s smoke, there’s flame.
And while we here at Mile High Sports may have been one of the first to ask the question “Do the Denver Broncos really want Peyton Manning to be their quarterback,” we certainly haven’t been the last.
Whether it’s the Denver Post’s Mark Kiszla, Mile High Report, or Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, everything we’ve heard in the last week has only pushed forward the belief that something fishy is going on down at the Broncos facility; the belief that Manning’s injury is simply the perfect excuse for John Elway and the Broncos to move on to Brock Osweiler.
And today, after informing the media that Manning would indeed miss his second consecutive game, Gary Kubiak did not put the speculation to rest. In fact, he probably raised even more questions.
So let’s read between the lines, and see how today’s press conference was only more bad news for Peyton Manning:
On the decision to start Brock Osweiler:
“We said that we would go back and review the entire situation at the beginning of this week, which we have done. Basically nothing has changed. We made the decision we made last week. We think this is best for Peyton and for our football team right now. That’s the way we will proceed. Like I said, we’re all in on the next football game.”
While it doesn’t really come as a surprise that Brock Osweiler will be starting his second straight game for the Denver Broncos, it does raise another question: If Manning still isn’t healthy enough to play after a week’s rest, how in the world was he healthy enough to play against the Chiefs?
If the Broncos thought that there was even a chance Manning could further injure his foot in the Chiefs game, they should have shut him down right then and there. Instead, they let him play, the injury got worse, and now we have no idea when (if) he’ll play another game for the Denver Broncos.
After last week, at least you could have made the case that Manning just needed a week of R&R before gearing up for the Patriots; now, who knows?
