It's starting to sound like one of those Wonderlic problems. "If a plane departs from Denver just as a veteran quarterback travels from Tennessee to North Carolina, how long will it take for a number of NFL teams to be very disappointed?"
Well, here's what we know as of Friday morning, in the seemingly endless Peyton Manning Free Agency Saga. Jeff Darlington of the NFL Network reports that the Miami Dolphins are out of the picture -- Manning contacted the team personally to let them know that he would not be taking his talents to South Beach. The Arizona Cardinals are awaiting news, because they soon have to make a decision whether to release quarterback Kevin Kolb, or pay him a $7 million roster bonus later Friday. The Denver Post reports that Arizona is out of the picture as well, but it needs to know quickly if there's still a shot.
After putting on a full-court press that included a "lifetime contract" offer from owner Bud Adams, the Tennessee Titans can but sit and wait while Manning retreats to a North Carolina compound (which we're assuming looks a lot like Brett Favre's compound) and weighs his options.
Here's the interesting wrinkle -- according to the Twitter account of ESPN's Adam Schefter, "A plane is flying to Durham from Denver. Peyton Manning is in Durham. Broncos coming from Denver." Schefter reported on Friday morning's "SportsCenter" that Manning will work out Friday for the Broncos -- most likely at Duke University, where Manning has been working out for a while -- but this development doesn't automatically put them in the lead over the Titans.
Schefter also reported that the "traveling party" includes Executive VP John Elway, head coach John Fox, offensive coordinator Mike McCoy, quarterbacks coach Adam Gase, general manager Brian Xanders and a medical team.
So, yeah -- they're not headed down there to swap recipes.
Stay tuned, folks. We could have a conclusion to this story sooner than later.