There now seems to be palpable concern that Peyton Manning may not be ready to play when the Indianapolis Colts open their regular season Sept. 11. Manning is rehabbing after January neck surgery, his second such surgery in 15 months. The lockout didn't allow him to work with team trainers, which has slowed his recovery.
Colts owner Jim Irsay wrote Saturday on Twitter, "We r evaluating the QB sitch, #18 healing but we must 2 b prepared 4 early season possibility without him, defense has 2 pick it up,big time!."
Colts president Bill Polian also had some comments Saturday and didn't do much to stop the masses from worrying about one of the all-time great NFL QBs.
"Bottom line, we truly do not know when [Manning] will be ready," Polian told ESPN's Chris Mortensen. "Once the nerves regenerate properly, he'll be ready. When that happens, he'll be ready to ramp up immediately. It's impossible to predict."

Fantasy Analysis:

Curtis Painter is Manning's backup right now, but the team would much rather like to sign a veteran and hand him the reins if Manning is out.
We've all expected Manning to miss some portion of training camp, maybe even all of it. But a possibility now exists that he will do something he's never done in his career -- miss a regular-season game. Colts players have said he'll be there when it counts in recent days, and we're still three weeks away from the regular season. A lot could change. I still put him among the top seven at quarterback. I'm not ready to panic and lower his draft ranking yet.