I Guess This Means Peyton Manning No Longer Has A 'Laser Rocket Arm'

A few nights ago, you might have noticed Broncos back-up quarterback Brock Osweiler warming up on the sidelines late in the fourth quarter of the MNF game. The Falcons had a 27-21 lead at that point, and if the Broncos got the ball back with a little time left on the clock, their best bet was the Hail Mary pass.

According to Osweiler, via the Denver Post, he was warming up specifically to do just that: Throw a long, deep pass 50-something yards down the field, and hope for a miracle.

"I was going in for the Hail Mary," Osweiler said. "I'm not sure what the dividing line was as far as me going in, but I was getting ready to go in."

This begs the question, Why wasn't Peyton Manning getting ready to make that throw? Isn't he their multimillion dollar quarterback with the laser rocket arm?

Before we jump to any truly stupid conclusions about Manning's arm strength, let's all agree that if Denver needed a long, "Hail Mary" throw, it's just smart football to have a guy like Osweiler toss it up there. The kid might not be accurate, but he has a gun attached to his right shoulder.

That said, if you watched the MNF game, it was clear from the beginning that something was wrong with Peyton. Balls did not zip. Passes looked flat. It seemed as if he was having arm strength issues. We're two games into the 2012 season, and we have yet to see him really gun the ball deep. Even though it's a new fad now to say Manning was "never known as an arm strength guy," (I respect Barry Petchesky, but line that is completely full of crap), the pre-neck-issues-Peyton could drive the ball down the field. He wasn't Brett Favre, but Peyton forced defenses to defend every square inch of turf.

Today, not so much.

I bring this up as another not-so-subtle reminder of why Peyton was released back in March. I genuinely hope he has success going forward in the NFL (except when he plays the Colts), but I also understand the reasons why he was let go. In fact, the reasoning is so obvious to me that I have a very hard understanding people who are still mad about it.