We are in the third week of the NFL preseason, the time for teams to figure out their final cuts, the time for teams to decide who their starters will be.

The time for Brett Favre's annual un-retirement.

Recent tweets by Indianapolis Colts' owner Jim Irsay have suggested that the Indianapolis Colts may be interested in signing Favre. Irsay tweeted the following on Sunday:

"Brad, I'm in Hattiesburg [Brett Favre's hometown]...is it right or left at the Firechief?"

While Irsay does not mention Brett Favre's name explicitly, why else would an NFL owner find himself in Hattiesburg, Mississippi two weeks before the start of the NFL season when roster moves are being made every day?

The reason for the Colts' presumed interest in Favre is very clear: they are concerned about the health of Peyton Manning.

Peyton Manning has started every game for the Colts since being drafted in 1998, a streak of 208 consecutive regular season games (227 total games if you include playoffs). However, Manning also had surgery on his neck in May and the recovery process has taken longer than anticipated.

Now, nobody is really sure when Manning will be ready, including Manning himself. This is what Manning had to say when asked if he was going to be ready for the season opener:

"I'm going to need every bit of the next two weeks, and then I can give you more of an update with where I am."

If Manning does miss the start of the regular season, then one of the Colts backups must be ready to step in. Currently, the Colts backups are Curtis Painter, who has a career quarterback rating of 9.8 in two NFL games, and Dan Orlovsky, who has a career quarterback rating of 71.3 in nine NFL games.

These two quarterbacks combined have an underwhelming win-loss record of 0-11 when given meaningful playing time.

If the Colts start either player for any significant period of time, the Colts could dig themselves into an early season hole that even Manning cannot dig them out of.

If Manning is not healthy enough to start the season, then the Colts need a veteran quarterback who can hold down the fort until Manning is ready to go.

Now that free agency has settled down, most of the Colts' options for a legitimate backup quarterback are no longer available. Marc Bulger and Kerry Collins have retired. Vince Young and Matt Hasselbeck have found new teams.

This means that the Colts could try to talk Bulger or Collins out of retirement.

Or Jim Irsay could take a trip down to Hattiesburg to visit Favre.

There is some risk in signing Favre. As most people know, he suffered through his worst season as a starter last year and had to deal with several injuries that eventually ended his consecutive starts streak at 297 games. Favre also has a tendency to be turnover-happy. Brett Favre has thrown the most interceptions in NFL history and has six seasons where he has thrown 20 or more interceptions (he also threw 19 last year in only 13 games).

Despite the risk, Favre is leaps and bounds better than Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky and would provide a huge upgrade to the Colts' backup quarterback situation.

If the Colts are confident enough that Manning will start the season on time, then there would be no point in signing Favre. However, if there is any doubt within the Colts organization, then this would be a smart move for the Colts. 

The question is: does Favre want to come back?

This offseason, there have been various rumors that Favre would come back. The Philadelphia Eagles were rumored to be interested in him at the start of free agency, and Miami Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano said that he "can't rule anything out" when asked if the Dolphins were interested in Favre, but Favre himself has never said that he wants to make a comeback.

Even if Favre does sign with the Colts, everybody that knows anything about football knows that Manning will be the starter the second he is ready to go.

Will Favre be ready to accept being the second string quarterback, a role he hasn't held since 1992?

Will Favre come back another year, go through all of the practices, just to back up Peyton Manning and hope that he can ride the bench to a Super Bowl title?

It does not seem likely that Favre will want to come out of retirement yet again, but with Brett Favre, you can never say never.