Former general manager Bill Polian, who was fired during the off-season, says that if the NFL had the trade deadline longer, he would have considered trading for Denver Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton.
“I think the deadline being moved last year would have made a difference for us,” Polian told Sports Illustrated. “We would have rekindled our interest in Orton. In Week 6, we knew our quarterback situation wasn’t great, but after a couple more weeks, we realized the situation was bad. We probably would have called Denver, who’d gone to [Tim] Tebow by then, and said, ‘Hey, we’ll give you a three [a third-round draft choice] for Orton.’”
Even if the trade deadline was up to Week 8 or longer, I don't think it would have made much of a difference trading for Orton. Also, if Polian was that interested in Orton, why didn't he pick him up off waivers when he was released during "Tebowmania"?
Maybe if Polian ever considered picking up an actual, quality backup in any of the past 14 years of Manning's existence with Indianapolis, they wouldn't have been in any of this mess. Along with that, they could have considered drafting better players and signing some instead of going after guys who wouldn't make most of other's teams roster or end up being third-stringers.
It's no wonder he was fired.
Josh Dhani is the founder of FootBasket. He also contributes at Hoops Authority and Eight Points Nine Seconds. You can read more about him at his website. Follow him on Twitter @joshdhani.
