That said, I was at Colts camp last summer and wrote a story about what its like to be Mannings backup. In it, I spoke with several of his backups over the years and found some consistent themes they almost never took snaps in practice, and they didnt even have a chance to approach Mannings depth of understanding of the offense.
Mark Rypien, who played behind Manning in 2001, called it probably the best and worst job in the NFL.
You know you're never going to see the field, but you're going to get a paycheck," he said. "If you want to be a competitor and you're a young kid waiting in the wings, it would be hard.
"For an old guy like me who was just there as an insurance policy, it was great. I got a chance to be around a lot of young kids and had an opportunity to be in an organization that was heading in the right direction."
Rypien, a former Super Bowl MVP with the Redskins, added: "You really couldn't learn the offense quite like Peyton does because you're only going to get a small percentage of what he has in his head. And most of the things he has in his head, you'll never be able to learn."
