INDIANAPOLIS — Romeo Crennel could have said Peyton Manning is a great talent, but the Chiefs are set at quarterback.

Instead, the coach’s Saturday statement that he would be “crazy” not to consider acquiring Manning, were he to become available, raised eyebrows, in light of a recent report that Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli and the Colts QB’s agent have spoken twice.

Crennel actually said: “I’m not supposed to talk about anybody else’s players, and he’s still a player with Indianapolis. But with a talent like that, I would be crazy not to consider it, if he were available. So I’ll leave it at that.”

That quote certainly is worth noting. But for now, Matt Cassel can rest easy… that is unless the Chiefs re-sign free-agent QB Kyle Orton, whom Crennel also spoke fondly of at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“If it were not for Kyle, I would not be standing here either, so I’m very appreciative of what he’s done,” Crennel said, referring to Orton’s late-season heroics that made the interim coach the full-time guy. “But until we get another quarterback on the team, Cassel is the guy. Now, if we get Kyle on the team — if he comes back to us — then we’ll see how it works out and we’ll play the best guy.”

That “best guy” also could end up being Robert Griffin III. Though the Chiefs, who pick 11th overall, likely would have to maneuver up the draft board to pick RGIII, Crennel said his Friday night meeting with the Baylor QB “went very well.”

“You only have 15 minutes to talk to guys (in combine interviews), and that goes pretty quickly when you’re talking to the entertaining man like he is,” Crennel said. “He is very sharp, he’s well thought-out. He gives great answers. We could have talked to him for an hour, you know, but in the 15 minutes that we had, we came away very impressed with him.”

– Aron Angel

Posted in: Combine  | comments  |