More than a month has passed by and everyone and their brother were speculating as to Peyton Manning’s whereabouts and whether his knee was worse than originally expected. According to the Associated Press, the Indianapolis Colts activated the quarterback Tuesday and will initially be limited in practice after being taken off the physically unable to perform list.
Colts head coach Tony Dungy said that Manning would be cautious with Manning during this short week as Indianapolis played the Buffalo Bills on Sunday and host the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday – before giving him a full allotment of snaps starting next week. To recap, Manning was instructed not to report to training camp with his teammates July 24, 10 days after having surgery to remove an infected bursa sac from his left knee. At that time, team officials said that it would take Manning four to six weeks to recover – and the 6-week period came on Monday, the day when the Colts did not practice. But despite that, local media, bloggers and fans alike constantly specualted on Manning’s whereabouts and readiness despite Dungy stating that Manning had arrived at Colts camp on July 29.
Right now, for all intents and purposes, the Colts are down to 2 QB’s – Quinn Gray and Jared Lorenzen. Which makes the return of Manning all that more important. Manning’s normal backup QB, Jim Sorgi, didn’t dress for last Sunday’s game due to a gimpy knee. But at the same time, Manning being activated doesn’t guarantee that he will start in the season opener against Chicago, either; however, if everything goes to according to plan, expect Manning to be behind center during Week 1.
