Peyton Manning: How the 'Peyton Effect' Could Kill 'Tebow Time'

There is no higher-profile free agent this year than Peyton Manning. Perhaps in no other year has an 11-time Pro Bowler been cut loose and dangled in front of NFL teams on the open market.

As prospective clubs maneuver their assets to create opportunity and cap space to lure Manning onto their respective rosters, other prospective signees and current players are feeling the "Peyton effect," a far-reaching ripple through the waters of this offseason's free-agency period.

While some signings have already happened in the infant stages of the free-agent period, many teams will make their pitch to Peyton first, only to alter course whenever they get him or decide that they can't.

The Miami Dolphins were considered the front-runners to lock down Peyton when he was released from the Colts last week. The team opted to free up as much money as possible for him, going as far as bypassing the franchise tag, only one of 11 teams to do so.

Defensive tackle Paul Soliai was expected to get that tag, but instead of getting that guaranteed one-year deal, he's waiting for his old team to pitch themselves to Peyton.

And that hasn't gone according to plan, either. After the Dolphins announced plans for a lavish presentation for Peyton, he all but blew them off, opting instead to meet with first-year head coach Joe Philbin and a few other members of the coaching staff in Indianapolis in a quasi-secret six-hour meeting last night.

Manning also took a six-hour meeting with Denver over the weekend, and they appear the be the unlikely front-runners in this Peyton Preakness, if you will. It makes sense for Peyton: The Broncos are an AFC team with a great defense in a weak division.

And as their 2012 schedule lays out, he'll still face Drew Brees and Tom Brady, but he won't have to play against his brother Eli unless both reach the Super Bowl.

But does it make sense for the Broncos? They won the AFC West last season and seem poised to compete for the division title again this year. Plus they have that magical unicorn of a quarterback. If the Broncos were to sign Peyton and send those MANNING 18 jerseys to stores in the coming days, that would be the end of the road for Tim Tebow.

Whenever any team looks to upgrade from "good" to "very good," it puts the ugliness of the NFL on display. No other sport treats its talent force so interchangeably or so disposably. Many despise the comparison between playing football and soldiering in war, but one would be hard-pressed to deny that the career arcs of both vocations bear a similarity.

Let's be clear: Tebow was not proficient last year. At times, he was comically awful. No quarterback that finishes a game 2-for-8 passing should have a reasonable expectation of returning the following year.

But the great thing about Tebowmania was, well, the mania. That suspension of reason kept an otherwise below-average Broncos team on national television throughout December, and their games delivered amazing finishes and ratings. That is to say, Tebow was not a good QB as much as he was good TV.

Peyton Manning joining the Broncos would certainly shore up the passing game, but it would also inflate the fanbase's expectations. For Broncos fans, the days of jumping up and down on the couch might be over.

With Peyton under center, the Denver area would be talking Super Bowl well before Week 1. Tebow would be shipped out of town before then, most likely for pennies on the dollar. Tebow Time would be over, and Peyton's implicit promise of postseason glory would be on the clock.

That may not be the best carrot to dangle in front of a prospective season ticket holder.

The Broncos' best wide receiver is still just a white guy named Eric Decker, and the Broncos will play, statistically speaking, the second-toughest schedule in the NFL next year. Of the 16 games on the schedule, only five will be played against opponents that had losing records in 2011. That's far from a cakewalk.

Consider the Ravens 11 years ago, another team that overachieved with an exceptional defense and middling offense. Baltimore won Super Bowl XXXV and promptly dumped Trent Dilfer to make room for...nobody.

Such a supplanting of pretty good players isn't exclusive to quarterbacks, nor has it gone out of style. Reggie Bush had his first 1,000-yard season ever in 2011. For his trouble, the Dolphins have already signed another running back. From the CFL.

Peyton has done a nice job of learning from the mistakes of another high-profile free agent. When LeBron James made The Decision to leave Cleveland, he was met with an avalanche of ill will that only recently has begun to subside.

With Peyton's ties to his current team already severed, the quarterback is free to gallivant around the country, dangling his legacy to whomever he feels might be the highest bidder.

The league is a Manning World and the rest of the NFL is just living in it. How can one hate Peyton here? There's no quarterback "bro code" for trying to find the best situation for one's career, and so few football players are ever faced with such an opportunity to seize.

Tim Tebow has no such avenue to market himself, and no billboard in the greater Denver area will provide one for him. To say that he "deserves" that opportunity—or to even keep his starting job in Denver—seems misguided, like saying a boxer in the 12th round of a fight doesn't deserve another punch in the face.

It's the business of the NFL, of football in general, to be constantly reminded of how unfit one is to be on a team, only to be cast off it when that actually becomes true.

If Peyton 2.0 goes online in Colorado, then the clock will strike midnight on Tebow Time, at least as far as the Broncos are concerned. That's a loss for NFL fans that enjoyed watching the Broncos offense win games with just a single-wing and a prayer. The Broncos seem to think that a Lombardi Trophy, or even the promise of one, will make up for that.

I respectfully disagree.