Friday, March 9, 2012

What if Peyton Manning had been a Panther?

You may have heard this. Or not. You may have forgotten it. But it's true, and I was reminded of it this week when the Peyton Manning sweepstakes began (Miami, Denver and Washington are apparently among the front-runners among the many suitors hoping to get a chance at Manning, whom the Colts parted ways with this week).

The Panthers once tried hard to make a trade that would have netted them Manning before he ever played an NFL down.

This was in early 1998 before that year's NFL draft. Carolina had Dom Capers as its coach (and he did double duty as the main personnel guy, too). The pre-flameout Kerry Collins was the quarterback (this was six months before the "My heart's not in it" fiasco of the 1998 season, which led to Collins leaving the team and Capers being fired).

By then, Bill Polian (architect of the Panthers' team that made the NFC title game in 1996) had left Carolina to become president of the Colts (in December of 1997). Polian was always enamored of Collins, having drafted him in Carolina out of Penn State. In fact, Polian finally did get an aging Collins again in the 2011 season for the Colts for a brief and unsuccessful tenure as the Colts' starter this past year.

Anyway, back in 1998, the Panthers wanted to trade Collins to Indianapolis and were willing to give up several other assets -- starters, draft picks, basically whatever the Colts wanted within some reason -- to acquire the No.1 pick of the 1998 draft. The two teams had conversations.

And Carolina had its heart set on drafting Manning out of Tennessee with that No.1 pick if the deal could be worked out.

Ultimately, of course, Polian wisely didn't pull the trigger and the trade never happened. The Colts kept the pick, grabbed Manning and had an incredible run during the first decade of the 2000s with Manning as their quarterback.

Instead, Carolina was the one with the itchy trigger finger. After being unable to trade Collins for anything substantive, the Panthers instead shipped two No.1 picks to Washington for the rights to defensive tackle Sean Gilbert in April 1998, which goes down as quite possibly the worst personnel move in Panther history (drafting Rae Carruth in the first round is also a contender).

But what if Carolina had somehow convinced Polian and gotten Manning? What would have happened next?

First of all, I think Capers would have stayed the head coach a lot longer -- there would have been no Collins drama.

Secondly, the whole George Seifert "experiment" might have never happened. A player like Muhsin Muhammad -- who had a very fine NFL career already -- could well have had a Hall of Fame career instead. If Steve Smith had still gotten drafted by the Panthers in 2001, there's no doubt he would have already had a Hall of Fame career (although he might still get there).

And on and on and on. Manning would have transformed the Panthers in many ways and a thousand different decisions would have been made if he had had a 14-year run in Carolina instead of having it in Indianapolis. And maybe Carolina -- which made a Super Bowl in that same decade but lost it -- would have won one (or two) instead.

18 comments:

Ryan Leaf said...

...or maybe Peyton Manning would've turned out like me.

Spencer said...

PEYTON MATTING?! I CAN'T GET WORK COPY EDITING BECAUSE THE STUFF IS GETTING NIXED AND OUTSOURCED, AND THIS IS THE STUFF THAT GETS POSTED?!

Anonymous said...

Who is Peyton Matting?

MartyHurney said...

What if the Panthers used draft picks on Jimmy Clausen, Tony Pike and Armante Edwards all in the same draft. Hmmm.

Wiley Coyote said...

IF...a frog had wings he wouldn't bump his rear everytime he jumped..

Rboggs81 said...

Better question would be what if the Panthers had a REAL GM instead of a tool sports writer playing GM? I will always believe Hurney has dirt on Richardson, there is just NO logical reasoning behind him still being the GM.

JohnFox said...

If Peyton Manning had been a Panther, he wouldn't have a Super Bowl ring.

Anonymous said...

The Gilbert trade is the worst deal in NFL history, not just Panther history.

Anonymous said...

I just pooped skittles.

Anonymous said...

What if the Panthers hadn't traded a second round pick to NE for stupid Armanti Edwards? Probably would have gotten a player actually worthwhile.

Anonymous said...

Since the Colts have cleared out their entire roster, would it make sense for the Panthers to go after any of them (especially Dallas Clark if Jeremy Shockey retires)?

Anonymous said...

Sorry, previous comment should read "since it seems like the Colts have cleared out their entire roster..."

Anonymous said...

What if the moon was made of cheese?

Anonymous said...

HE STILL CAN BE.

Anonymous said...

Looks like 9 teams are going after Peyton Manning and the Panthers stand idly by and do nothing? Zero teams went after Newton or wanted to trade.

Apparently somebody is clueless as hell even Chud couldnt get hired anywhere.

Such incredibly conceited smug arrogance and stupdity. A Manning just won the Super Bowl too. You people are hopeless and your record proves it.

Anonymous said...

Well... getting back to the article.

I thought this was actually very interesting. If I ever heard about our attempt to trade Collins back in '98 I definitely had long since forgotten it (while still a Panther fan, I was pretty young at the time). It is fun to wonder what might have been every once in a while, fascinating really, as at the time Collins' stock was still pretty high and he was still quite young.

And Moose very well could have made a run at the Hall, and who knows what else.

Anonymous said...

WOW, ANY moron who thinks the panthers need to try to join in and try to get manning now are not smart people. C'mon idiots. By the way this is in response to some comments, not the article which was awesome by the way.

Anonymous said...

"9 teams going after Peyton manning and the Panthers aren't one of them "

I'm having trouble fathoming the amount of stupidity required to make such a completely retarded and outlandishly ignorant statement such as that. I hope you're an adolescent teenager or younger and have your whole life ahead of you to smarten up a bit.