Manning shows he’s on target at Broncos camp
What Tom Moore saw this week was oh, so familiar. Short or long, the throws were potent and precise, smacking sternums with both authority and a loud thwack.
Peyton Manning is most certainly back.
The Denver Broncos wrapped up their three-day minicamp that capped their offseason work Thursday with another spirited practice marked by precision and power from their new 36-year-old quarterback.
On hand as a guest all week was Moore, Manning’s offensive coordinator for all but one season when the two were in Indianapolis.
“Watching these three days, he looked excellent to me,” said Moore.
Manning has shown no ill effects of the nerve issue that caused weakness in his throwing arm last year, required four neck operations, forced him to miss the entire 2011 season and led to his release from the Colts.
The biggest free agent in NFL history looks better and better every day as he regains strength and adjusts to his new team and new players.
“We don’t think about the injury anymore,” said receiver Brandon Stokley, who played with Manning in Indianapolis. “And I’m not sure he does, either.”
The Broncos took a chance by signing the league’s only four-time MVP to a five-year, $96 million deal in March, and with offseason on-field work out of the way and training camp seven weeks away, all indications are they’re getting the Peyton Manning of old.
Manning said he wishes he could have tripled the 13 offseason practices they were allowed to hold, but he cherished the time nonetheless.
Over the last two months, he’s shown both himself and John Elway, who recruited him to this quarterback-crazed town, that he still has plenty left in his right arm that has thrown for 54,828 yards and 399 touchdowns and hoisted a Super Bowl trophy.
Manning averaged 42 passes a game in his last full season, in 2010.
Suggs has his doubts
When he tore his right Achillies tendon in April, Terrell Suggs spoke optimistically about returning to the Baltimore Ravens as soon as November.
The five-time Pro Bowl linebacker had surgery on May 8 and recently discarded his crutches, yet the slow pace of his rehabilitation has made him realize that he will almost certainly be sidelined longer than originally anticipated.
“We’re just going to see where we land,” Suggs said after the team’s final minicamp session. “Maybe we were shooting too far. We’ll see.”
Around the league
The Houston Texans announced contract extensions for general manager Rick Smith and coach Gary Kubiak, rewarding them for taking the team to the playoffs last year for the first time. Texans owner Bob McNair wanted to maintain continuity with both men in the final years of their current contracts. Smith’s extension is for four years, which will keep him with the team through 2016. Kubiak’s is a three-year agreement which re-does the last year of his current deal and keeps him under contract through 2014. … The NFL will award $2.5 million in grants for new or refurbished football fields in 15 cities. The money will go to schools, parks and other facilities in Atlanta; Spartanburg, S.C.; Chicago; Alexandria, Ky.; Grafton, Ohio; Pueblo, Colo.; Detroit; West Allis, Wis.; New Orleans; Newark, N.J.; Philadelphia; Penn Hills, Pa.; Clearwater, Fla.; Madison, Tenn.; and Washington. … The St. Louis Rams and the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission are heading to arbitration over the Edward Jones Dome. The board that oversees the CVC voted to begin the process after the two sides remained far apart on plans to upgrade the dome.