By Zack Cimini

notjustagame23@gmail.com

News this afternoon of Peyton Manning under going a third neck surgery can not be good news for football enthusiasts. From Colts fans to dynasty league owners that thought they were excluded from needing depth because of his starts history. This has all possible not goods to it. It doesn’t sound good, the fact that he hasn’t been able to participate and hasn’t been cleared for anything, doesn’t look good.

If the Colts kept news of Manning being declared out for Sunday’s start until just a few days ago, then how long do you think they’ll let the real information linger? Lately former NFL experts have been more up front about the difficulties coming back from a neck injury. Steve Young, Howie Long, Sterling Sharpe, have all disclosed pertinent information on this. The main forthcoming notes is that each successive issue makes it harder and harder. This could be a career ender.

Being a quarterback you have to be even more concerned for Manning. It has to be treated with extreme caution similar to a player returning with a concussion. As Kordell Stewart stated Wednesday, all functions start from the head down. Even if Manning is able to return, there are many variables to consider. His age, the teams age, and the rust of Manning missing an extended period of time.

As far as 2011, Kerry Collins is the quarterback for now. Think of the last 40 year old starting quarterbacks in the NFL. Of course Brett Favre tops the most recent list. Then you can date back to Doug Flutie and Vinny Testaverde. As the season goes on, the body beating takes it’s toll on the delivery of the football. The proper reads they see, there arm is a tad bit slower in delivering the football. Throw out Favre’s 2009 season, and think of those quarterbacks out their on display.

This brings a hot topic to the front of discussion. With the season in jeopardy, how will the Colts front office manage the year? Will they try and sign veteran David Garrard to see if they can make a run? Manning for years made this average team above average. So quarterbacks that are on the cusp of average will expose this team all out. Defensive coordinators will finally be able to attack freely without worries of getting burned over the top or across the field.

Remember Kerry Collins had the Tennessee Titans off to an 0-6 start out the gate, and basically forced the Titans to start Vince Young. As bad as Young is and was, he managed to get the Titans on a win streak. The season is not looking bright, but being in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes is highly probable.

If Manning is out for the season, there is only the Seattle Seahawks that look like they would have a similar horrible record when the season ended. Even if some of the teams that are starting rookie quarterbacks end up towards the bottom of the NFL, they already have their signal caller for the upcoming years.

Wouldn’t that be something if the Colts were able to nab Luck, and Manning came back in 2012 fully recovered? Luck already showed patience in returning for his senior season, so sitting behind Manning would likely not be a problem. This would be awfully similar to what happened with the San Antonio Spurs. Aging veteran David Robinson was the heart and soul of the Spurs, and when he missed an entire season the team felt it 100%. Landing with the number one pick as a result, they built a formidable wall in the interior and Robinson had a wing man to dominate the paint.

Colts fans down right now have this other side of the spectrum to look at for the year, because it’s going to be an ugly one.