Former Indianapolis Colts head coach and current NBC NFL analyst Tony Dungy was a guest on ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike in the Morning on Thursday.
ESPN NFL analyst Mark Schlereth was sitting in on the show and asked Dungy if quarterback Peyton Manning would be able to work with Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck if the Colts do end up drafting him.
Dungy indicated that he doesn’t think there would be any problems when it comes to Manning being on the same team as Luck. He indicated that Manning knows he’ll play in Indy as long as he wants and as long he’s healthy.
Dungy mentioned that he doesn’t believe the attitude of the Colts is to draft Luck and dump Manning. He feels that Manning would love to win a couple more Super Bowls and help Luck develop as an NFL quarterback.
Dungy finished up the interview by admitting that he would also select Luck in next year’s draft if he was the Colts.
I’m sure Manning wouldn’t mind helping Luck get acclimated to the NFL, but is it really beneficial for him to sit for three years when he has the talent to start right away in the NFL? I don’t think so.
In the modern day NFL, rookie quarterbacks are more ready then people realize to start from day one. It would be a mistake for the Colts to make Luck wait a few years for Manning to step aside and let him take over.
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You’ve joeled that up a bit. Did it hurt Aaron Rogers to wait a few years and learn from a Hall-of-Famer? Or Matt Cassel? Or Tom Brady.
Did it hurt Warren Moon to play two years behind Hall of Famer Tom Wilkinson up north and then win 3 championships of his own before hitting the NFL?
It would be a mistake for the Colts to make Luck wait a few years for Manning to step aside and let him take over. Think at least a little before running your mouth off.
Did being thrown all-in help Michael Vick? or Vince Young? or JaMarcus Russell?
Or did it help Peyton Manning? QBs nowadays are much more prepared to come in and start right away. Let the kid take his lumps and learn on the fly. If anyone’s equipped to learn on the fly it’s Luck. Very few QBs have the intelligence Luck has and yet more are thriving than ever; so you know luck will do well. I’m not saying all Luck has going for him — we’ve all heard about all the other things he does really, really well — I’m just saying he’ll be able digest the playbook a lot faster than most, will be able to decipher NFL defenses faster than most, go through his progressions faster than most and adjust to the speed of the game… FASTER THAN MOST. All of this is not even mentioning he comes from a pro-style offense and handled it with ease even calling his own plays a lot of the time.
Trade Manning, play Luck and let the healing/rebuilding process begin in Indy.
As Steve Marucci said, ‘the best position for a rookie quarterback to play is ‘clipboard’. I couldn’t agree more. What is the rush? Let the rookie get acclimated to the NFL. Peyton Manning is the exception NOT the rule for rookie quarterbacks making the transition into the NFL.
There are advantages in both cases. But ask Luck: would you like to learn from one of the game’s best field generals? I’d be willing to bet Luck would leap at the chance.
Manning is perhaps one of the game’s best students; so while Luck might have the physical and intangible tools, there is a much about QBing at the NFL he doesn’t know. Understudying Manning would be a huge boost to his long-term career.
But … there is merit to the “take the hurt now and rebuild” approach too. We’ve seen what the Colts are without their “real” coach on the field with them, especially on offense. Luck is likely in the Ryan, Flacco, Sanchez, Bradford class of QBs: ready to play but need to take their first-year lumps.
If it were my choice, I’d let Luck understudy, pointing to the likes of Rodgers, Brady and Brees, taking the longer-term reward than the possibility of immediate success. All while the Colts rebuild, and should Manning go down, you’d have a more prepared, knowledgeable Luck because of the mentoring of one of the game’s greats.
As an aside, I am looking forward to the same sort of mentoring process this off-season between Elway and Tebow. If Tebow can grasp and implement what Elway knows, look out NFL, Denver will be a force again. I guess what I am getting at, having been a coach, is that one cannot ever under-estimate the value of mentoring and great coaching.
Fire Calwell and Christianson and make Peyton QB coach and OC.