Linsanity has started to crater, so it's a fine time for Peytonsanity to hit our fair city.
Peyton Manning was officially cut loose by the Colts on Wednesday, making him arguably the biggest free agent prize in the history of the NFL.
There's never been a quarterback nearly this accomplished on the open market, especially with recent reports about his health and throwing ability putting to rest some fears that a team would be following in the footsteps of the Rams when they signed a broken-down Joe Namath.
Namath left the Jets, of course, and it is the Jets that are going to be responsible for our friendly neighborhood tabloids coming up with headlines like "Peydey," "Pey The Mann" and "Mann of the Hour." The Post and the News both put Manning on the cover Wednesday morning and both are pushing for the Jets to bring him to town.
Figuring out why the Jets should do that doesn't require getting the brains behind the Manhattan Project back together. He's Peyton Manning and Mark Sanchez is Mark Sanchez.
You could go on and on with reasons why it makes sense, but there's not much reason to make things any more complicated than that. It appears the Jets agree since reports are that they plan to make a serious run for him once his release gets rubber stamped.
There are two real concerns about making a serious bid for Manning's services. The first is his health since the only stuff we've heard about him being fine have come from members of his camp and a look at a fairly grainy video of him working out on Duke's campus.
Until there's a firsthand look at Manning and at his medical reports, everything is just conjecture ginned up to force the Colts' hand and get the ball rolling on the next stage of his career. Going all in on a wounded Manning makes no sense at all, even if the alternative is the offense that drove itself into the ground last season.
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The other concern is that Manning won't want to come to the Jets. Let's face it, the team was a circus last year and it would be an even bigger on if number 18 comes walking through the door.
Maybe he doesn't want to play in the same city as Eli, although you could argue just as easily that Eli wouldn't care and the family would get to be closer than they've been in years. The state of the Jets family is much more worrisome than the proximity of Manning family members for a player who is going to want the best possible scenario to win come next season.
Other issues like the salary cap, what to do about Sanchez and Tony Sparano's offensive plans will be brought up, but none of them really matter if Manning checks out and winds up with the Jets. Those are minor things that will work themselves out in the blink of an eye.
Having said that, the Jets would be wise to take some advice from Omar Little of The Wire if they do decide to make a run at Manning.
"If you come at the king, you best not miss."
It's one thing for the Jets to kick the tires because even Sanchez would probably admit they'd be insane not to take a look at one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. It's quite another for them to make a real run at him, wind up losers and then go back to Sanchez to say that you had our support all along.
There'd be the blow to Sanchez's confidence, obviously, but the ripple effect would probably go beyond that in an already tenuous locker room. The Jets can't afford that so they better know what kind of chance they have at grabbing the brass ring before they leap off the carousel horse.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
