Peyton Manning Rumors: Why Arizona Cardinals Are a Perfect Fit for QB

Larry Fitzgerald’s face hurts.

The Arizona Cardinals wide receiver can’t stop smiling. Why? Because this season, he’ll potentially be playing catch with Peyton Manning.

On Tuesday, Chris Mortensen tweeted this breaking news that wasn’t exactly a shocker:

"

Colts and Manning will part ways, per team sources #NFL32

— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) March 6, 2012"

Manning and the Indianapolis Colts’ divorce is reportedly official. And according to ESPN, Jim Irsay won’t be using the future Hall of Famer as trade bait. Indy will release Manning in order to avoid paying him a $28 million bonus.

And on that note, the Cardinals, Washington Redskins, Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs and every other team that wants to stick their nose into the Manning sweepstakes celebrates. A celebration in the desert wouldn’t be in vain either. Ben Maller tweeted this rumor regarding the pursuit of Peyton:

"

Arizona Cardinals are new favorites to land Peyton Manning according to my guy @RJinVegas with MIA, WAS and retirement next.

— Ben Maller (@benmaller) March 6, 2012"

Yep, Fitzgerald is still in pain.

Zona is the perfect fit for the All-World gunslinger. Not just because he’d be throwing lobs to the league’s most effective vacuum at the wide out position, well, yeah, that’s pretty much the key.

Santana Moss, Brandon Marshall and Dwayne Bowe are all talented receivers, but they pale in comparison to Fitzgerald. They aren’t even in the same league. A Manning-to-Fitzgerald connection would be so dominant that it’d challenge Manning-to-Harrison in effectiveness.

And with their 13^th overall selection in the 2012 NFL Draft, Arizona is in prime position to pick Jonathan Martin or David DeCastro out of Stanford to bolster their protection.

The Cardinals are a stable organization—they boast recent success deep in the postseason and their head coach has been with the team for five seasons. No other team that’s after Manning is able to say the same.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

Follow @TheRealDDaniels