Will Peyton Manning be ready by week 1?

[tk13]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/68...s-opener-doubt

Colts eye opener sans Peyton Manning

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay says his team must be prepared to start the season without injured quarterback Peyton Manning, and the club might need to find a veteran backup.

Irsay posted his comments Saturday morning on his Twitter account, less than 12 hours after the Colts lost their eighth straight preseason game.

"We r evaluating the QB sitch, (hash)18 healing but we must 2 b prepared 4 early season possibility without him,defense has 2 pick it up,big time!," Irsay wrote.

During a conference call with reporters, coach Jim Caldwell was asked when he expected Manning to be back. Caldwell hasn't provided a timeline for Manning's return and says he hasn't been cleared to practice.

"Bottom line, we truly do not know when he will be ready," Colts president Bill Polian told ESPN senior NFL analyst 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."

Curtis Painter, Manning's backup, has started both preseason games.

"Our whole focus is to be as good as we can be until he's back," Polian said of Manning. "That's all there is to that. We're going through the tape of (Friday night's) game right now. We've had a lot of problems the first two games that had almost northing to do with the quarterback. We've got to get some things straightened out with our O-line and our defense has been bad so far."

Polian gave no indication whether another veteran quarterback was under consideration.

As to Irsay's public tweets about suggestions about a veteran backup quarterback, Polian said, "Our owner is the owner. I can't speak to that."

Former Colts backup Jim Sorgi is a free agent should the team opt to sign another quarterback. Sorgi lives in Indianapolis but has not been contacted by the Colts.