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Colts have their Man(ning)
Posted: Wednesday September 29, 1999 04:00 PM
Click here to send your NFL questions to SI's Peter King. I have seen the future, and his name is Peyton Manning. Last Sunday, Manning, the 23-year-old savior of the Colts, threw for 404 yards in a 27-19 win at San Diego. It was the first real payoff on the marvelous draft job GM Bill Polian has done with this team -- because the Colts have won some games since drafting Manning over Ryan Leaf with the first pick in 1998, but they hadn't won a road game in a hostile place, against a top defense, since the rebuilding job started 18 months ago. Here's when I knew I was seeing something outrageously mature and talented with this team: With about five minutes left in Sunday's game, the Colts had a third-and-seven at their 45, nursing a 20-19 lead. If they convert, they might be able to run out the clock. If they fail, they have to punt, and then the Chargers need, say, a 50-yard drive to get into position to kick the winning field goal. So Manning throws a worm-killer to wideout Jerome Pathon -- only Manning never sees it because, as happened many times on this day, he is sandwiched and driven to the turf by a brutal San Diego rush. The officials rule a catch by Pathon, a 13-yard completion that keeps the drive alive. I describe in Sports Illustrated's Inside the NFL what happens next. You should read it, and get the feel of what Manning was thinking. Oh, I won't be a spoil-sport. I'll tell you. Almost from the moment he rises from the hit, Manning is rushing toward the line. I'm sitting in the press box, thinking, He's rushing toward the line because he doesn't want the Chargers to call for an instant replay. If they do, and it's overturned, the Colts will have to punt. And so what Manning does is get his team to the line, call out the next play for all to hear ("DRAW!'' he yells) and Edgerrin James struggles for two yards, with everyone on the field knowing exactly what he's doing. And it's true. I got Manning alone after the game, and he said he sensed right away (knowing the throw was low and hearing the crowd's reaction) that a replay might be imminent. Better, he thought, to waste a play and ignore offensive coordinator Tom Moore calling the next play in his ear than to risk having the drive stall right there. "It's just something I felt was right,'' Manning told me after the game. This, my faithful readers, is what it takes to be a great quarterback in the NFL. There's no book that tells you how to do these things. You just have to know. It's something, as Manning says, you have to feel. "That is beautiful!'' Phil Simms said the other day when I recounted the story to him on the phone. Simms is a riot. He gets jacked about the game -- particularly prescient quarterback play -- like some zealous fan. "Is that great? I can't wait to do one of their games.'' One other thing I really liked about Manning on Sunday: After the game, Indy's crack p.r. man, Craig Kelley, prefaced Manning's remarks to the press by reciting his stats and saying: "Peyton's 404 passing yards breaks the club's single-game record of 401 yards, set by Johnny Unitas. '' A murmur went through the small crowd of reporters. When I asked Manning about breaking such a significant record held by such a significant man, he was clearly in awe, and said all the right things. He also added: "I'd like to know how many throws Johnny had to make that day. I had an awful lot of opportunities.'' I know Manning, and he's not just saying that to be self-effacing. He's serious. He's saying, Okay, I broke one of Unitas' records, but I bet a hundred bucks he didn't have 54 throws that day, and this is a different time and a different game, and let's everybody settle down and not go putting me in Johnny Unitas' league yet. There's a constant debate in the NFL about how to handle young quarterbacks, and the Colts figured Manning was bright enough already last year to throw him in there. For every snap. All 982 of 'em. (For the record, he's played every snap of the first three '99 games, too.) After the season, Manning just had to ask coach Jim Mora about the low point of his season -- at New England, he threw three picks and fumbled once, but Mora kept him in the game -- and why Mora hadn't pulled him. "What seems better -- you standing on the sidelines feeling sorry for yourself, or going back out there and trying to find a way to avoid a fourth interception?'' Mora said. Manning drew confidence from that. The Colts had so much faith that he was going to lead them in the right direction that they'd never think of pulling him, not even on his worst day. Of course, Manning couldn't be doing this with a bunch of schmoes in the lineup. That brings me to my final point. The Colts have the best group of young offensive skill players in the game, and maybe the best young offense as a whole. The arrival in the last two drafts of a franchise quarterback (Manning) and promising young back (James) solidified it. "They're like a young Denver when Denver had John Elway, '' said Charger defensive tackle Norman Hand. Scary. Except while Denver's offense was getting ready for turnover with the aging Elway, the Colts' offense has only just begun: The average age of their five starting skill players -- Manning, James, tight end Ken Dilger and wideouts Marvin Harrison and E.G. Green -- is 24 years, four months. "The best thing is,'' said Harrison, who has 221 career catches already in just his fourth season, "we've all entered the league in the same offense, and we all know our roles so well, even at a young age.'' So I tried to rank the teams with the best offensive futures, with a few provisos. Players had to be 28 or younger to qualify, and, in some cases, if starry starters were old, we took able backups. Rob Johnson at quarterback for Doug Flutie, for example, in Buffalo, or Germane Crowell for 29-year-old Herman Moore in Detroit. Here are the teams with the youngest and brightest core of offensive skill players, with age in parentheses 1. Indianapolis: Manning (23), James (21), TE Dilger (28), WRs Harrison (27) and Green (24). 2. Detroit: QB Charlie Batch (24), RB Ron Rivers (27), TE David Sloan (27), WRs Johnnie Morton (27) and Crowell (23). 3. Buffalo: QB Johnson (26), RB Antowain Smith (27), TE Jay Riemersma (26), WRs Eric Moulds (26) and Peerless Price (22). 4. Tennessee: QB Steve McNair (26), RB Eddie George (26), TE Frank Wycheck (27), WRs Chris Sanders (27) and Kevin Dyson (24). Now on to your questions:
What's going on with the sale of the New York Jets? Sources close to the process say that of the 35 prospective buyers of the New York Jets, Cablevision owner Charles Dolan (beaten out by Al Lerner for Browns ownership) and Arizona realtor Sam Grossman (who lost the Redskins to Daniel Snyder ) will likely duel for the team. Grossman is very serious. He's already had a preseason meeting with coach Bill Parcells, who may or may not coach the team in 2000. Inside this secretive process, the league expects the winner to bid $575-$650 million -- and to immediately begin drawing up plans for a new stadium in New York City or Long Island. The Jets' ironclad lease at the Meadowlands does not expire until 2008. It's amazing that a team without a stadium -- and a team that, despite its great 1998 season, still takes a football backseat in Metropolitan New York to the Giants -- could be worth that much money. But consider that the new stadium would be largely financed by local government and personal-seat licenses, and then you see why it might not be such a bad investment. Speaking of NFL business, it's mind-boggling that owners continue to try to shoehorn a team into Los Angeles, a market that doesn't want the NFL. In their misguided zeal to inhabit the No. 2 market in the country, these allegedly smart businessmen are ignoring one of the cardinal rules of the business world: Sometimes the best deals are the ones you do not make. The NFL's 32nd team, the expansion team, belongs in a stadium-ready, sold-out-for-five-years market starved for it: Houston.
Minnesota as No. 3 with a 2-1 record? Are you watching the same league as the rest of us? I blew it in my Monday Morning Quarterback, originally listing their record as 2-1. My apologies. I continue to be amazed at the reaction to my ratings, by the way. A few years ago, I wrote the story I consider the best thing I've ever done at the magazine, a week in the life of the Green Bay Packers. I think I got six letters on it. Every week I get far more e-mail messages calling me a fathead for putting some team ahead of some other team. As far as the Vikings go, I don't think one incredible play by one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game should knock them down many pegs. The Vikings do need some offensive tinkering, but I still think they'll be one of the two or three teams to beat at season's end.
Interesting that you put Jacksonville over Tennessee even though Tennessee just won in Jacksonville. I agree, though, that the Jaguars are a better team -- they just had the heavy rain against them. Once again, here's how I do my rankings: I ask myself, Could Team 1 beat Team 2 on a neutral field? And if Jacksonville and Tennessee met tomorrow in Wichita, I say Jacksonville wins by a touchdown.
Based on what criteria do you think the likes of Kansas City, St. Louis and Buffalo have better teams than Dallas? Nice to hear from you Dallas fans again. And, yes, I still think that, on a neutral field, my teams tied for No. 10, St. Louis and Buffalo, would beat the Cowboys. (Is that the sound of more e-anger from Cowboyville hitting my mailbox?)
Just read your Monday Morning Quarterback for Sept. 27. I have a real problem with Packers fans and all the prognosticators who feel this team has gotten old when it's totally the opposite: they are too young in some positions. Three rookies get significant time in the defensive backfield, two in only their second year of starting. The offensive line is starting three players with two years of experience each. That doesn't sound like grizzled veterans to me. The Packers are a team of the near-future trying to reload with young players instead of old. With Brett Favre only 30 and Dorsey Levens and Antonio Freemen both under 30, Packers fans need not worry because they'll be good for several years to come. You're right. The Packers are not the ancient mariners that I (and the Green Bay fan in San Diego) have portrayed them to be. But the point is this: So many of Green Bay's Super Bowl contributors -- real contributors -- have aged out (or gotten too hurt) of the Packers equation. Reggie White, Craig Newsome, Robert Brooks, Mark Chmura, Keith Jackson ... three years ago, all but Jackson were among the Packers' top 10 players. I like how the corners played so big Sunday. That offset the big surprise of the game, as far as I was concerned: The Packers really stunned me by not blitzing. LeRoy Butler told me in the preseason they needed to hit Randall Cunningham in the mouth a lot in order to be successful. I thought they'd blitz, single-cover Randy Moss with centerfielding safety help, and try to rush Cunningham into throwing a lot of short stuff. The coverage was there so well that they didn't need to throw linebackers and the occasional safety at Cunningham.
How much more abuse will Steve Young take before he retires, and when do you see it happening? He's had his head bounced off the carpet quite a bit lately and I don't think he will finish the season. What do you think? That obviously is the hot topic of the week around the NFL. I don't think Young wants to consider retirement right now, because I think he'd like to play at least through the end of next year. Young has always wanted his kids to see him play some day, and although that's not going to happen, I hear he has a girlfriend about whom he's very serious. I just don't think right now is a time he'd like to consider retirement. As far as the number of concussions a guy has before he should think about stepping away, I don't think any doctor can tell a player that, say, six concussions mean you should leave the game.
Do you feel that the Patriots are for real or is their fast start a product of a weak schedule and timely injuries to their opponents? Obviously the Patriots benefited from the injury to Vinny Testaverde in Week 1, but they've played better in the first three weeks than anybody thought they would have, injuries or no injuries. Don't forget that the Patriots had a pretty valuable loss of their own in the preseason when middle linebacker Ted Johnson went down with a torn left biceps muscle. I think an enormous amount of credit should go to Drew Bledsoe, because, like Favre, he can win his team a lot of games that it has no business winning by the sheer greatness of his right arm. Send a question to Peter King, and check back Thursdays for his latest NFL Mailbag.
Peter King is a Sports Illustrated senior writer.
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