As if there were any question that he would, not it’s official. Peyton Manning will remain a Colt, probably for his career.
ESPN’s Chris Mortensen broke the story that the Colts and Peyton Manning came to an agreement on a five-year, $90 million deal. Reports were that Jim Irsay was willing to go 5-years, $100 million but Peyton wants to add pieces to make another Super Bowl run so he accepted less money. This deal is the same average value ($18 million) that Tom Brady got when he signed his 4-year, $72 million deal with the Pats.
This deal was a cap friendly deal that will see Peyton’s cap number drop by over $10 million. Peyton will make $69 million over the first three years of this deal (average $23 million) and $21 million over the final two years (average $10.5). The final two years of this deal will be re-done when the new TV deal comes in 2014.
In separate but related news, the Colts released CB Kelvin Hayden which will save them a little over $6 million in salary. Hayden is talented but injury prone and not living up to his contract.