Peyton Manning Rumors: Why Miami Dolphins Should Avoid 4-Time MVP

The mainstream media has already decided to create the Peyton Manning soap opera this offseason. There's one team that needs to avoid the 35-year-old potential free agent: the Miami Dolphins.

Yes, you can read. The Miami Dolphins need to take their name out of the race for Manning. Let him focus his sights on a franchise that needs championship dreams, not realities.

Even though Stephen Ross is infatuated with the idea of Manning in a Dolphin uniform, I've come to give the antidote to the love potion the Dolphins owner has consumed.

Here are five reasons why Peyton Manning is the wrong fit for the Miami Dolphins franchise.

History Does Not Favor Quarterbacks over 35

Peyton Manning claims that he still has good years of football ahead of him. History would say otherwise.

Age 35 has become the tipping point for regression for many of the game’s greats.

Miami Herald columnist Armando Salguero summed it best in his column:

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He's 35 years old now and will be 36 next month. That's about the time Dan Marino started his precipitous and sudden decline. Montana, too. Troy Aikman was done by age 34. Steve Young was done by 38. Warren Moon had his last excellent season at 36 although he hung on a couple of more years, toiling in mediocrity.

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Sure, there are a few exceptions to the rule. Kurt Warner stands out as a recent example from that miracle playoff run with Arizona in 2008. But Warner had a unique career arc, with only seven years of experience at 35. His arm was as fresh as ever.

Brett Favre is another outlier. He had some deep playoff runs (and media circuses) in his final years with the Packers and Vikings, but his gun-slinging mentality cost those teams Super Bowl trips. Favre could probably suit up today, but he was always reliable for that stubborn throw down the stretch, because at 38, he didn’t have to play it safe because he knew what was best for the team.

We could be seeing a similar Favre-Vikings situation unfold once Manning gets older, hungrier for a ring and more stubborn. If that time comes, it will be an offensive coach’s nightmare.

Peyton Manning Has Too Many Injury Questions

Nerve damage. Spinal regeneration. Multiple neck surgeries.  Put those at the top of the list for terms you want to avoid with your quarterback.

The jury is still out on the health of Peyton Manning’s neck, as it probably should until he takes the field for a full season. There are just too many questions aboard the Manning Resurgence bandwagon.

A healthy neck heading into training camp does not close the door on his health issues. In fact, the door will never be fully shut. Wait until he gets hit. Wait until teams clock his throwing shoulder. Will he still be able to throw darts between defenders?

A rehabilitated neck also will bring football rehab for Manning’s golden arm. He will be reintroduced to the physical nature of the game, and it will be a steep learning curve making throws at full speed. 

Also, I will be surprised if there's no tweaking of Manning’s throwing motion by year’s end. It will be hard to expect Manning to have the velocity and touch on his passes that he once had. An excess of potential issues label him a stay-away prospect. 

Neck issues are a red flag for athletes. It is impossible to tell if they’ll ever amount to what they used to be.

 If Manning signs with Miami, he will be getting on Dolphin fans' nerves.

Robert Griffin III Is the Ultimate Prize of the NFL Offseason

You’re the general manager of a franchise. You have to choose your franchise’s field general. You have two choices:

A former four-time MVP coming off of his third neck surgery in five years. He has a chance to catapult himself back into superstardom with a new team. However, he hasn’t thrown a football under NFL conditions in eight months and will be seeking a significant contract in order to commit.

Or… 

A dynamic college prospect who has pure mechanics, can throw bullets between the numbers and has top-end speed to boot. He won with less at an obscure college football program, collecting awards galore. The closest comparison to a five-tool player in baseball, he has all the tools to change the game of football as we know it today. 

I would choose the rookie too.

Peyton Manning revolutionized the quarterback position in his day. Robert Griffin III will follow in his footsteps. The Dolphins will need to make a similar commitment to get him.

Picking up the aging veteran to turn around the undisciplined offense? This franchise has gone that road too many times. Time to change the route.

There will always be risks with any transaction. I’ll take the face of the future over the a blast from the past.

Peyton Manning Has Trouble with the AFC East

The AFC East hasn’t been very kind to Peyton Manning. Comparing the AFC East to the division Manning ruled over for years is comparing filet mignon to bottom sirloin.

Peyton won’t be winning any division titles in Week 11 with the Patriots and Jets hanging around.

In addition, Manning has not fared well against AFC East foes in the past. His teams are 24-19 against them since moving to the AFC South, including a 6-10 mark against New England, the class of the division. Even the Dolphins were successful against Manning over his career; No. 18 holds a 5-7 record all-time against the Fins.

The AFC will present a regular season grind for Manning than he hasn’t seen since the late Steve McNair left the Tennessee Titans in 2006. There are no domes to give him the comforts of Indianapolis. He’ll face complex defensive schemes from Rex Ryan’s Jets and Bill Belichick’s Patriots. The Bills could be a young team on the rise that will always be competitive when they face Miami.

The AFC East will get more looks with the addition of Peyton Manning into the division. But this will not be a short visit to the daunting division; rather, a full season that calls on Peyton’s elite form.

The Dolphins Will Disregard Long-Term Solutions

Signing Peyton Manning would continue a Miami Dolphins 13-year tradition: continuing to ignore the quarterback position in the draft.

Regardless of the front office in place, each regime has been convinced there were enough pieces in place to reload at QB than rebuild.

All they have to show for it? Four years of mediocrity, then an organizational change. Rinse and repeat.

Manning would join a tragic list of Dolphin free-agent pickups looking for immediate returns: Culpepper, Frerotte and Green, to name a few. The last page ended the same way for each of them, not how they envisioned it.

Let the Washington Redskins sign the inane free-agent deals. The Dolphins still have time to save face.