Here's tweet just posted by Jim Irsay, and unlike the stupid Brett Favre stunt, this does not read like a joke:
We have agreed to terms with Kerry Collins...more details to come
[UPDATE]: Phil Wilson reports Jim Caldwell confirmed Collins signing. --bbs
Collins is 38-years-old, and was the first draft pick Bill Polian made for the Carolina Panthers in their inaugural season of 1995. Polian was general manager in Carolina from 1995-1998.
Collins played for the Panthers and took them to the NFC Championship Game in 1996, but alcohol addiction and inconsistent play clouded his image in Carolina. He was eventually traded to the NY Giants. He sobered up, turned his life around, and guided the Giants to the Super Bowl in 2001. After the Giants crumbled in 2003, he left and signed with the Oakland Raiders before moving on to the Tennessee Titans. While in Tennessee, he was the calm, steady presence at quarterback which Vince Young was not. When Vince quit on the team early in 2008, Collins stepped in and captained them to a 13-3 record.
The positive here is that, with Collins, the Colts have a legit backup quarterback who can start in a pinch and help the team win games.
The negative is that with this signing, the odds of Peyton Manning starting Week One just dropped significantly. The signing also comes three weeks too late.
[UPDATE NO. 2]: A tweet from Adam Schefter:
@mortreport reporting Colts' braintrust does not believe Peyton Manning will be ready for regular-season opener in Houston. Manning hopeful.
For me personally, I've always had tremendous respect for Collins as a person and as a player. Pretty much for the last ten years, he's stepped onto bad teams and helped make them better. This past summer, he retired following the lockout. Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean gives us some insight why:
Collins said back in summer he had retired, saying he wanted to go out on his own terms. But I suspected then it had more to do with #Titans
Collins' longtime cheerleader, head coach Jeff Fisher, was jettisoned after the 2010 season. Without him, and with the front office drafting Jake Locker, the writing was on the wall for Collins. In Indy, he has the man who drafted him in 1995 (Polian) and the man who coached him in college as his position coach: Jim Caldwell.
The writing is also on the wall this year regarding Peyton Manning's health and the way management has dealt with it. To quote Nate Dunlevy from 18to88, in a tweet that just about made my jaw drop:
If the Colts were going to bring in Collins, they should have done so three weeks ago. Waiting to do it now is incompetent to say the least.
In my opinion, no one makes more excuses for Colts front office idiocy than Nate Dunlevy. To this day, the man refuses to call Tony Ugoh a 'bust.' For him to call Colts management 'incompetent' for waiting to make this move is the equivalent of the Kennedy family calling out the Pope.
And in this case, I agree with Nate 100%.
Sure, I like this signing, but it should have been done in late-July, or early August. It should have been done during camp. It's clear now, after months of backtracking and bulllsh*tting, that the Polians pretty grossly mismanaged Peyton's injury. That's my opinion. And Nate's.