Questions about the future of Peyton Manning continue to circle.
Teammates have remained steadfastly confident the quarterback will return. Tom Brady, Manning's biggest rival throughout his career, joined the chorus in hoping that the Denver Broncos' signal-caller continues his career.
"What a great player he's been for this league," Brady said on Thursday. "He's a great competitor, and I've been fortunate to play against him a bunch of times. I certainly hope he comes back, 'cause the league will miss him if he doesn't. But those decisions are up to him. I'm sure it's up to whether he's mentally and physically -- that's what he wants to do. But I certainly hope he's back."
Manning has yet to address his future publicly, and his father, Archie Manning, told NFL Network's NFL AMÂ on Thursday that the quarterback hasn't let on to his family either.
"Well, Peyton evaluates things; he's pretty good at that," he said. "I can't tell him what to do, and he hasn't told me what he's going to do. But I do know that he's really giving a lot of things a lot of thought. He's thinking about where he is physically, he wants to see how he can do this some more, trying to get over an injury."
There are concerns about whether Manning wants to start over with a new coach in Gary Kubiak and a new offense.
"Yeah, but he loves Gary. He likes Gary," Archie Manning said. "He liked John Fox. He liked Adam Gase. All those things, I think, are considered with. But my deal is he's always made good decisions; he's pretty thorough. He's going to evaluate a lot of things, and I think he'll make a good decision."
Until that decision is made the questions about the future Hall of Fame quarterback will continue to be asked.
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