Wooing Peyton May Be a Fool's Errand

Can Jim Irsay and Peyton Manning just cut to the chase. Give Manning his freedom and let the wooing begin. But the Redskins, Cardinals, Dolphins, Jets or some other mystery team better be careful what they wish for. A 36-year-old quarterback coming off three neck surgeries is damaged goods.

Of all the teams the Jets make the least sense for Manning. Does he really want to steal Eli's thunder and play in the same market? After spending almost his entire career playing for the low-key Tony Dungy, would Peyton be comfortable with Rex Ryan's side show?

And from Peyton's perspective, the Jets don't have the caliber receivers he is accustomed to working with or the featured running back to take some of the pressure off. 

It's also a bad fit for the Jets when you think about it. They just hired former Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano as offensive coordinator and everyone knows that Peyton is his own offensive coordinator. Sparano also promised the Jets would return to a ground and pound approach and that isn't Peyton's game.

It's one thing to have Mark Sanchez throw the ball 20-25 times a game; Peyton Manning will throw from 30-35 passes. The Jets defense is aging and a conservative ball-control offense will keep the defense off the field. With Peyton at quarterback, the Jets defense will be on the field more often and they already have shown how they wear down at the end of games.

The Jets need to add some youth on defense and find a running back who can provide more than the three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust that Shonn Green does now.

The Jets aren't built for Peyton Manning and while signing him would be headline grabbing news, it is a bad fit. Here's something to consider: If Peyton were 100 percent healthy, it would probably make more sense for the Colts to trade their No.1 pick (Andrew Luck) for a bunch of draft choices to restock their team. But that doesn't even seem to be an option.

What does that tell you?