Peyton Manning To Retire After Playoffs?

The Broncos announced Thursday morning that Peyton Manning would be the starter for their divisional playoff game on January 17.

While Brock Osweiler said it’s hard to hear the news because he wants to be out on the field competing with his team, he supports Coach Kubiak’s decision.

FILE – In this August 29, 2015, file photo, Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) Brock Oswei …

Osweiler went 4-2 in Manning’s absence, including an overtime victory over the Patriots in Denver. “It’s a little disappointing”. “I’ve played every single game that I’ve been in football except for four years ago [when he missed the 2011 season while recovering from a neck injury]”. Woulda, coulda, shoulda – who knows?

What are you expecting from Peyton’s first start of the playoffs next weekend, in decent weather coming off a week of rest?

For Manning and the Broncos, they will face the lowest seeded team to advance out of the Wild Card round.

“I’d be lying to say I’ve never thought-I know people say I’m not thinking about that, I’ve never thought about that”, Manning said.

“I’m just trying to get everybody as fresh as I can as possible as we head into next week”, coach Gary Kubiak said.

The road to the Super Bowl goes through Denver this year, thanks to the Broncos locking up the No. 1 seed on Sunday.

He also suffered no lingering effects from a textbook helmet-to-chest hit from Damion Square of the San Diego Chargers on Sunday in what the 39-year-old quarterback called his welcome-back-to-football moment.

For his part, Osweiler said Sunday night: “As long as this football team wins games, that’s all I care about”.

“I feel OK”, Osweiler said.

Kubiak said Osweiler didn’t do anything to deserve a demotion but he felt the team needed a jolt. Manning does have the most postseason appearances among QBs (15), thrown for the most yards (6,800) and has a record nine 300-yard passing games. “You’re going to see the same exact guy out of me as you’ve seen the whole season”.

If Manning is healthy enough to play, Manning will play. However, he has been overall the better of the two quarterbacks for Denver this season. The most recent evidence suggests that Manning is better than he was the last time he took the field. With the play makers on the defensive side of the ball, there is a very real opportunity for the Broncos to do something great in their playoff run. Kubiak said he’s not concerned that benching him will be detrimental to their efforts to re-sign Osweiler nor is he anxious he’ll crater now that he’s been benched.