Signing Peyton Manning doesn't preclude the team from acquiring a potential 'franchise' QB.
It simply reduces the urgency to acquire a QB of the future
this draft, thus allowing the top draft choices to go directly towards adding young talent to the roster. (OL, WR etc)
It allows the team the choice to develop and groom a QB of the future at
their pace.
Sure they could draft a QB with the 6th pick or in the second round or 3rd round.
But I think the team would be better served adding talent for Peyton with this draft class top picks.
Then they could draft a mid-round QB prospect or they could draft a 1st round QB in future drafts if neccesary.
Now if they choose to draft a QB in a future draft while Peyton is under the center we likely/hopefully won't be picking in the top half of the draft.
But we all now that franchise can come from anywhere in the draft they're not relegated exclusively to the top 10 picks.
A recent example is Joe Flacco who was drafted with 18th pick in the same draft where Matt Ryan was drafted with the 3rd pick.
I think its fair to say that both QBs have proven themselves their respectives team's 'franchise' QBs?
The Ravens moved up from the
26th pick to the
18th pick by giving up a only a 3rd round pick and a 6th round pick.