How convenient for Irsay and his father that his team just happens to have the first overall pick whenever there is a generational QB available to draft... I’m sure it just didn’t enter their mind *at all* when old man Manning’s neck surgery went down. mmmkay.
I really don’t know why you give a rich cokehead like Irsay any benefit of the doubt when it comes to something like this.
This is all wishful thinking by you. Old man Peyton (he was 35 in 2011) received an extension by the Colts after his injury in 2011.There was never the thought of replacing him with some made up BS like suck for luck. I go even further that if Manning would not have been due a 28 Mill roster bonus in March of 2012 he would have stayed in Indianapolis and retired with the team who drafted him and if the Colts would have drafted Luck then Luck would have rode the bench for a couple years.
Peyton was not done after that season. he had a couple pro bowl seasons, MVP awards, Superbowl appearance, passing yard leader etc.
It was clearly stated back then that the Colts did not decide what to do in the upcoming draft until they decided to release Peyton. They had three options:
Keep Manning as the starter and draft Luck to be groomed
Release Peyton and draft Luck
Keep Peyton and trade the #1 pick for a boatload of draft picks
Most people thought and most Colts fan wanted to keep Manning and draft Luck and create a scenario like Favre/Rodgers or Montana/Young where eventually Manning retires and Luck takes over or Manning gets hurt and Luck takes over.
The decision to release Manning and go full Luck was not made until shortly before the deadline. It was a money issue at the end.
Everything else is just speculation and stupidity by people who think that NFL teams can easily tank seasons.
The only case you could ever make for an NFL team to tank a season would be the Raiders case in which they be moving to a new city in a couple years and have no clue where they play the transition year (next year). But even then it is far fetched because Carr was asked that question this year if the Raiders are tanking the season. He clearly responded (paraphrasing) that coaches and players always want to win. They owe that to themselves and the remaining faithful fans in Oakland.
Like I said before the only thing the Colts season proves is that incompetence by the FO and coaches not to have a decent backup QB can kill your season and it showed the importance of the QB position. If you suck at QB you will never have a chance even if you have a playoff capable tem surrounding that QB. The QB is the most important position on offense.
And that incompetence got them all fired.