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Originally Posted by Schneed10
From age 29 to age 33, those QB ratings are for all intents and purposes, the same. Nobody who watched Manning over that time would ever say that he fell off during that time. He was just as deadly. As for the 34 year old season, don't forget that was the year he played hurt the entire year with neck pain and numbness in his arm. Hence the neck surgeries and now the nerve regeneration.
People decline physically, yes. But it's typically fast twitch muscle that falls off as you age. RBs, WRs, and DBs are particularly prone to aging, they rely on agility and speed which requires fast twitch muscle. Arm strength can decline some, but that's typically more a function of mechanics. On Peyton's particular situation, spinal fusion surgery results in complete nerve regeneration over 90% of the time. It also results in vertebrae that are stronger and more resistant to injury than they were even before the surgery. Some range of motion can be lost, but this is insignificant to the sport of football. In other words, Manning is almost certain to be himself again. Those are just the medical facts.
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No, those numbers represent a consistent decline, with one outlier year. Because they aren't huge doesn't mean they are not happening. He has been slowly declining thru his 30s, which is hardly shocking.
Note my post above. QBs who had the same types of skills as Manning (Marino, Unitas, Fouts, Kelly) were falling off a cliff in performance after the age of 35. There is no basis for believing Manning will just chug along with no drop-off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Schneed10
Fair point. I will concede that I do believe free agency can still be successful in filling out a team. But successful forays into free agency do not include bringing in $35-$45 million worth of free agent talent. That's almost an entirely new starting lineup.
As for GTripp's breakdown, you probably don't realize it but you've stepped into my wheelhouse - salary cap analysis. GTripp's breakdown post is one I used to do for this site. He did it this year for whatever reason, I chose not to make an issue of it, but that doesn't mean I agree with the analysis. He's right in saying we need a portion of our cap space to resign our own players or replace them with other players. But I don't agree with the conclusion that there is only $15 million of flexibility. You may be able to assume same cap value when considering replacement cost of departing players, but that doesn't mean those replacements won't be talent upgrades.
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That's nice, and I'm not in total agreement with all his assumptions either, but it's a starting point. He also has us releasing players that I don't envision and doesn't seem to have outlayed cap space for draft picks. So, in those regards he is
overestimating the cap space we will have. My own guesstimates had us at 16-18 mil in cap space after re-signings and draft picks, assuming none of the Snyder/Vinny era back loading of contracts. That is a fairly modest amount of money to spend.
And all of that is kind of moot anyway, as apparently the ability to rollover cap space form year to year holds throughout the CBA. So, the money you're advocating spending on Peyton doesn't have to go to a spending spree, some of it could just be saved for the future.