By Tom James
INDIANAPOLIS — Peyton Manning said Friday that he fully expects to be in the starting lineup Sept. 7 when the Indianapolis Colts open the 2008 season with a home game at Lucas Oil Stadium against the Chicago Bears.
Manning, who returned to practice on Tuesday and went through a pregame workout with the team Thursday prior to the Colts’ final preseason game, and the rest of the Indianapolis squad went through a short afternoon practice before head coach Tony Dungy sent them home for a weekend break.
The Colts’ quarterback, however, won’t be taking much time off. He intends to continue the same rehab routine that he began after undergoing a surgical procedure to remove an infected bursa sac from his left knee.
“I don’t really want to get into daily progress reports of how [his pregame work] went. But it was something that we decided to do last week,” Manning said. “We’re going to just keep progressing this weekend and going through next week. And hopefully we can just keep feeling better.”
He said that he felt good after going through his normal pregame routine before the Cincinnati game.
“It was good to get back there, doing the same things the rest of the guys were doing. Having to do rehab, having to miss practice, it’s not really the situation that you want to be in. It’s something that you have to do though,” Manning said.
“So it was good to get back out there, get in uniform, be around the guys. And hopefully that can be the sort of the norm from here on out. At least that’s the way I prefer it. But I’m still going to have to do some things to keep getting better.”
Now, he has little more than a week to get himself back on the same page, both physically and mentally, as everybody else. That won’t be easy.
“This is what we have to do in order to get ready. I can’t really predict [how he’ll do leading up to the Chicago game]. Like I said, this is kind of uncharted territory, uncharted waters for me [after] missing just about the entire training camp,” Manning said.
“But we’ll have to go with the time we have left. And certainly I’ve been preparing for the season opener for some time from a film standpoint. It’s good to get back out there on the field and do more physical activity. I was glad I was able to get in some work this week because next week won’t be the first time. I feel I got in some good practices this week. I thought that was important.”
In addition to getting himself ready from a medical standpoint, he must also prepare for the strong possibility that veteran center Jeff Saturday may not be around to snap him the ball. A week ago, in a preseason game with the Buffalo Bills, Saturday suffered what has been reported to be a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee. Team officials, however, have yet to confirm that diagnosis.
A pair of rookies, Steve Justice and Jamey Richard, appear to be the early front-runners to be Saturday’s replacement for the short term. Justice has been working with the first team offense during the preseason, but Richard has also gotten in some time with Manning during practice.
Offensive guard Ryan Lilja would be another option, but he is currently on the team’s physically unable to perform list as he recovers from offseason knee surgery.
“Yeah, I don’t know that Steve is going to be the guy. I have been doing some a center, Jamey Richard is the guy, that I’ve doing some work with. Certainly there are a lot of reports on Jeff and I’m not going to get into predicting other people’s injuries. But we certainly hope it’s not that long with Jeff,” the Colts quarterback said.
“Jeff is truly one of the old-school warrior kind of guys. I know he has not ruled anything out in his mind. But I visited with [offensive line coach] Howard [Mudd]. It could be a couple guys. Obviously with [offensive guard Ryan] Lilja’s [injury] situation still sort of uncertain, so Justice and Jamey Richard have been getting a lot of the work. But I think Jamey is going to be the guy. So yeah, I have been spending time, as soon as Jeff’s injury [occurred], Monday morning at 8 o’clock, Jamey Richard and I were taking snaps.”
Colts coach Tony Dungy, though, is not quite ready to name a starter at center if Saturday is unable to play against the Bears.
“We haven’t decided yet. Jamey has done a lot and did a good job. Steve Justice actually very, very well [against the Bengals]. He was one of the bright spots on offense with the way he handled things and snapped the ball well. So we still have a lot of possibilities,” Dungy said.
“I don’t want to say that I don’t worry about it or discount what Jeff has done. But we’ve got a number of guys that can play that position. And they’ll do fine whoever it ends up being. [Offensive guard] Charlie [Johnson] is a possibility. You know, Ryan Lilja when he’s ready to go. All those guys that have played some center for us. And the three young guys [Justice, Richard and Mike Pollak] all played center in college. Someone will emerge. Howard will figure out what it’s going to be the best. Again, it may be who’s the best center but what’s best for the whole group and how the guys have to learn it and everything. We’ll make a good choice and I’m sure we’ll do fine.”
The Colts’ coach said that Saturday is still weighing his options on whether to undergo surgery on his injured knee.
“I just spoke to him briefly in the training room and he was feeling good. I think he’s leaning against having the surgery. But we’re still evaluating that. We’ll probably make a decision in the next couple of days,” Dungy said, adding that he doesn’t think the team will place him on the injured reserve list.
“I don’t think, from talking to Jeff, I don’t think that will be a possibility right now.”
• • •
• Cuts coming today -- The Colts will announce the list of 22 players who have been trimmed from the team’s preseason roster sometime this afternoon.
All NFL teams must be down to the regular-season limit of 53 total players on the active roster by 4 p.m. today.
