{"id":18695,"date":"2015-11-17T09:01:24","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T17:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/kubiak-benches-manning-for-bears-game\/"},"modified":"2015-11-17T09:01:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-17T17:01:24","slug":"kubiak-benches-manning-for-bears-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/kubiak-benches-manning-for-bears-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Kubiak benches Manning for Bears game"},"content":{"rendered":"

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. \u2014<\/strong> On his 25th birthday, Brock Osweiler will make his first NFL start, replacing an injured Peyton Manning in the Broncos\u2019 much-anticipated game against the Chicago Bears.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be an awesome birthday present if we can go get a win,\u201d Osweiler said Monday a few minutes before a somber Manning stood at his locker a few feet away and spoke about his various ailments and the pain of being benched.<\/p>\n

Broncos coach Gary Kubiak decided to make the switch Monday in the aftermath of Denver\u2019s 29-13 loss to Kansas City in which Manning was picked off four times and had a rock-bottom 0.0 passer rating in 2 1-2 quarters of work. Osweiler relieved him and drove Denver to two late touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Kubiak was kicking himself for letting Manning play against the Chiefs after he\u2019d been limited during the week by a torn plantar fascia in his right foot, a mysterious ribcage injury that announced itself over the weekend and a lingering sore throwing shoulder. Manning went for an MRI on his ribs Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our full attention is going to be to getting Peyton back and healthy,\u201d Kubiak said.<\/p>\n

Manning wanted to gut it out again and see if he could practice during the week and play Sunday. But a day after Von Miller called Manning \u201cthe Sheriff,\u201d Kubiak made it clear he was the one calling the shots and wasn\u2019t going to acquiesce again to Manning\u2019s wishes out of deference to the five-time MVP.<\/p>\n

Manning accepted his coach\u2019s decision with grace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to try to get healthy this week,\u201d Manning said. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed that I\u2019m injured. I\u2019m disappointed in the game yesterday. I will try to take advantage of this week and try to get to feeling better and getting healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kubiak said he met with Manning for an hour Monday morning and told him of his decision \u2014 which he said Manning didn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never met a player who agreed to that,\u201d Kubiak said. \u201cI mean, no, he\u2019s up there today and he wants to go, he wants to do everything he can for his football team and I knew that and I expected that. I tried to express to him my concern to getting him back to himself and feeling better. And I think he understands the position I\u2019m in and I sure as hell understand the type of person he is and the player he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manning won\u2019t practice this week nor will he suit up against the Bears, when rookie Trevor Siemian will be Osweiler\u2019s backup. Manning will spend lots of time with team athletic trainer Steve Antonopulos.<\/p>\n

Kubiak wouldn\u2019t speculate how long Manning might be out, saying, \u201cour focus is not going past today or the Chicago Bears. We\u2019re all-in this week as a football team to get better and get ready to go play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only time Manning ever missed a start in his 18-year career came when he sat out the entire 2011 season following a series of neck surgeries that ultimately led to his departure from Indianapolis and his signing with the Broncos.<\/p>\n

Osweiler is a fourth-year pro from Arizona State who GM John Elway selected in the second round of the 2012 draft with the explicit intention of serving as Manning\u2019s protege and eventual successor.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, it\u2019s very exciting,\u201d Osweiler said. \u201cBut at the same time, Peyton is still our guy. He\u2019s one of the best ever to do it. He\u2019s been extremely supportive of me ever since Day 1. He\u2019s taught me so many things. So, I\u2019m going to continue to support him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the starter for this week at Chicago, but that\u2019s all it is. We\u2019re focused on this week, then we\u2019ll re-evaluate next week. But I stand by Peyton and support him 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osweiler\u2019s first start comes against former Broncos coach John Fox and his staff, who know all about his strengths and tendencies.<\/p>\n

Manning had the worst game of his career Sunday when he completed 5 of 20 passes for 35 yards with four interceptions and had a 0.0 passer rating. This season he had just nine TD passes and a league-high 17 interceptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it\u2019s the grind of the season, a bunch of bumps and bruises,\u201d Kubiak said.<\/p>\n

Manning was very limited at practice last week but felt he could play, especially with the Broncos short-handed on both offense and defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was doing everything he could to play for this football team,\u201d Kubiak said. \u201cAnd he would do it again this week, too. I can tell you that. … but I feel like I need to make this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news didn\u2019t really catch players off-guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know he seems like he\u2019s Superman, but he\u2019s banged up,\u201d Aqib Talib said. \u201cSo, he\u2019s got to get healthy like everybody else who\u2019s banged up.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com\/AP_NFL<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http:\/\/twitter.com\/arniestapleton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. \u2014 On his 25th birthday, Brock Osweiler will make his first NFL start, replacing an injured Peyton Manning in the Broncos\u2019 much-anticipated game against the Chicago Bears. \u201cThat would be an awesome birthday present if we can go get a win,\u201d Osweiler said Monday a few minutes before a somber Manning stood at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-18695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18695"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}