RICH MACLEOD: the blog

The Benefits of Peyton Manning

The Arizona Cardinals, to me, make the most sense for Peyton Manning and, let’s be honest, would quickly turn into the most exciting team in the league. You’d have a decent, young defense, Todd Heap, Beanie Wells, Stephens-Howling, LARRY FITZGERALD and maybe even Reggie Wayne. We saw what Kurt Warner did a few years ago and as great as he was, Manning’s even better. Yes, they are paying a lot of money to Kevin Kolb but last season he proved that he isn’t the guy and when he wasn’t stinking on the field, he was on IR. They play in a dome and are in a pretty open division. This makes a lot of sense.

The Miami Dolphins are a franchise that, other than 2008, have been a major failure since the departure of legendary QB Dan Marino. Coming off of consecutive under .500 seasons, Sparano’s out, Henne’s out, Philbin’s in and they’re looking to make another splash. While Matt Flynn is out there, he’s still a bit of an unknown and Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning. The Dolphins have an aggressive defense, play in a warm weather climate and have Brandon Marshall who can be a tremendous receiver when he wants to be. For the every day NFL fan, this would be great for the league because it would mean at the very least, two match-ups a year against Tom Brady. This move makes the AFC East a lot more competitive and would put a major dent in both the Patriots and Jets Super Bowl and playoff hopes.

Now, while Peyton’s already said he wouldn’t be open to going to Washington, it’s still a fun situation to talk about. With the weapons they have on offense with Fred Davis, Cooley, Santana Moss and running backs Tim Hightower and Roy Helu, coupled with a hard-hitting pass rush on the defensive side, the Redskins would make a major leap. Not only that but Peyton would face his own brother two times a year. This is one of the less likely places for Manning because he wouldn’t want to slight his brother, but it’s definitely an interesting talking point.

After a disappointing 8-8 season in which they missed the playoffs, the Jets are facing a lot of questions and controversy after some Jets players have brought up the point that Mark Sanchez may not be “the guy” anymore. Peyton and younger brother Eli in the same city, although they wouldn’t face each other in the regular season, would definitely be interesting. Not only that but, while he is a bit of a diva, but the Jets have Santonio Holmes who is a game changer in the receiving core plus Dustin Keller and the young slot receiver Jeremy Kerley. The real question is, can Manning and Rex Ryan co-exist and if they can, would Peyton even want to?

This is where things get interesting… No matter what he says, John Elway knows that Tebowmania can’t hold up and he wants out and this may the best escape clause he’ll find. It’s hard for a fan base or the media to get mad at Denver for dumping Tebow for arguably one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. While this would be an incredibly interesting pick-up, I’m not sure if it completely makes sense. The Broncos have virtually no weapons at receiver and yes, Peyton can turn anyone into a star but I’m not sure if he’d be willing to do that. Also, he’s aging and may not want to have to play in high altitude 8 regular season games a year. But, the AFC West is an unbelievably weak division and that could be a big time reason for him to sign.

Unlike the Broncos, this AFC West team makes a ton of sense. A few weeks ago, the Kansas City Chiefs would’ve never even been mentioned in the same sentence as Peyton Manning but when you think about it, it makes all the sense in the world. The Chiefs are a young team that dealt with a tremendous amount of injuries last season and now have major playmakers such as Jamaal Charles, Tony Moeaki and Eric Berry returning, along with stud receiver Dwayne Bowe. The AFC West is up for grabs with Denver and the mystery of Tebow, the Raiders who always figure out a way to mess things up and the San Diego Chargers who can never quite put things together.

The reason this photo of Peyton Manning in a Seattle jersey is from a video game is because this is just not likely. The last “major” accomplishment by the Seahawks was making the postseason in 2010 with a 7-9 record. Their offensive line is terrible, they don’t have many weapons and they’re not one piece away from the Super Bowl. The Seahawks and Manning just aren’t a good fit and don’t even deserve a conversation about it.

Honorable Mention: The Houston Texans. This has been one of the trendier landing spots for Manning lately but I just don’t see it. Houston was a tremendous team last year until the injury to QB Matt Shaub and even then they won a playoff game. Peyton Manning absolutely should be interested in heading to Houston but it’s the Texans who shouldn’t be interested. Matt Shaub is a young, superstar, franchise quarterback who was on a Super Bowl caliber team last year. In my opinion, adding Peyton Manning doesn’t improve the team all that much and it jeopardizes the future of the franchise.

Happy New Year?

As you all know, I live for sports. I’m not a fan of the greatest teams but they usually do pretty well and no matter how much I complain at my TV about them, I’m still a fan.

This month, however, has just not been fun. It’s felt like awhile since I’ve actually really enjoyed watching sports because of my teams losing and teams I dislike winning. Tonight I discovered the following results.

Since January 1, 2012…

• The Jets went 0-1 and were eliminated from playoff contention.
• The Knicks have gone 4-8, including losses to 5 teams under .500.
• The UConn Huskies Men’s Basketball Team has gone 2-4, all 4 losses are to unranked teams.
• The Patriots have gone 3-0 and clinched a Super Bowl berth.
• The Giants have gone 4-0 and clinched a Super Bowl berth.
• The Syracuse Orange Men’s Basketball team have gone 6-1 and are ranked #1 in the country.
• And finally, while I’ll always be excited about them, I’m not too sure about the Mets this season.

So yeah, in terms of sports, it hasn’t been that happy of a new year. But things change, team’s get hot, so I’ll wait it out, as always, and keep watching, cheering and, most likely, complaining.

Stevie Johnson Shoots Himself (and the Bills) Figuratively, Then Literally

After catching a touchdown pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick to give the Bills a 14-7 lead in the second quarter Sunday, Stevie Johnson celebrated by mocking Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg. Unknown to Johnson at the time, he would later really shoot himself and his team by dropping at least one sure game winning touchdown.

Johnson was not too happy after the game… Hey Stevie, why so serious?