Peyton Manning and Jon Gruden running the Colts? It almost happened

Kalyn Kahler of Bleacher Report wrote a story on Monday morning about Peyton Manning having a big influence on the National Football League while detailing that he already has teams wanting him to run their franchise.

A source close to the Mannings told Kahler that “there have been offers to run teams.”

One of those offers was from one of his former employers.

In 2017 after Peyton Manning had already retired after winning a Super Bowl in Denver, Jay Glazer reported that Colts owner Jim Irsay tried to get Manning as his head of football operations and pair him with Jon Gruden as the head coach, who at the time was still ESPN’S Monday Night Football analyst.

Peyton Manning is a very smart and curious guy, as he reportedly has routinely visited a number of facilities and war rooms to see how GM’s and head coaches run their franchises and prepare for the draft. He carries a notebook with him everywhere he goes in case he learns something new to strengthen his football knowledge.

So without a doubt he would be a solid general manager in the NFL just like John Elway has been and is continuing to be a successful executive for the Denver Broncos.

And to see him paired with Jon Gruden and what would have been a talented quarterback in Andrew Luck at the time would have been something spectacular to see.

Manning has that competitiveness in him so it is easy to imagine that he will either be an owner of a team or run its football’s operations rather than be in the broadcast booth.

Now we will just wait and see.