Colts’ Irsay Takes the Nuclear Option

Bill and Chris Polian? Gone! Jim Caldwell? Gone! As Indianapolis Colts’ owner Jim Irsay has gone with a total facelift for his franchise going into the 2012 season, it only makes sense that he will complete the makeover by trading away Peyton Manning.

It’s obvious that the Colts want to take Andrew Luck in this June’s draft. It’s also pretty well known that Manning and Luck don’t want to play together so instead of trying to incorporate Luck into the system that Peyton built, the Colts have opted to start over with Luck as its centerpiece.

This could be a telling sign that either Manning is more of a damaged good than the Colts have let on or they just feel that Luck provides them with their best opportunity to restructure the franchise the way they did back in 1998 when they were able to draft Manning.

Whether Manning is healthy or not, you can’t totally disagree with Irsay’s logic. Manning is well advanced in age and this was a very serious injury. Any setback to Manning could put the Colts back in the position they found themselves in this season: vying for the top pick in the next draft.

So with that in mind Irsay has decided to err on the side of caution and rebuild the franchise on the broad shoulders of Luck. The Colts are also fortunate to be able to bring in a young talent that can excite the fan base the way Cam Newton and Andy Dalton did their respective teams last season.

It also benefits the Colts to be able to trade Manning while he still has value. They should be able to get a few draft picks in return for Manning, plus his large salary will come off of their books giving them a lot of cap room to bring in players that can help turn this franchise back into a winner.

This is a calculated risk that Irsay is taking though and there could be some drawbacks to trading Manning. Similar to when the Green Bay Packers were looking for a trade partner for Brett Farve, the Colts don’t want Manning to go to a team in their division or even their conference where he could face them on a regular basis.

They know Manning’s competitive nature and they would rather face him as few times as possible so it would help if an NFC team like the Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings or Seattle Seahawks expressed interest in Manning’s services.

So let the rebuilding process begin. Over the next few months there will be a new head coach and a new starting quarterback in Indy. Give Irsay credit for having the guts to make the tough decision to blow up his team. Let’s just hope that going with the nuclear option doesn’t blow up in his face. 

Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and also writes for both The Penalty Flag and Outside The Redzone. He can be contacted at RHall_TPFB@Yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @Sportmentalist.