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Adrian Peterson (football player)

Pelissero: Observations from NFL's first full week of OTAs include Peyton, Peterson

Tom Pelissero
USA TODAY Sports
Denver QB Peyton Manning is entering his fourth season with the Broncos.

Parting shots from the first week of NFL-wide organized team activity practices:

Peyton will survive

Important context to the Denver Broncos' loss of Pro Bowl left tackle Ryan Clady for the season: quarterback Peyton Manning is, in many ways, his own pass protection.

In the 16 seasons he's been on the field, Manning-led offenses have ranked fourth or better in fewest sacks allowed 14 times. That includes a No. 1 ranking in 2013 (when Clady missed 14 games with a Lisfranc injury), and another in 2014, when the Broncos shuffled line combinations and a quadriceps injury hindered Manning down the stretch.

Two driving forces behind Manning's brilliance are his knack for adjusting before the snap and getting rid of the ball quickly. He always has played above the level of his O-line, and he'll have to do it again this season.

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Losing a player of Clady's caliber never helps, of course — and pass pro is only part of the job description. The Broncos will plug in rookie Ty Sambrailo, a second-round draft pick from Colorado State, and hope for the best.

But even at age 39, Manning is as equipped as anybody to make it work.

Peterson had a point

Adrian Peterson's 17-tweet rant on league economics Thursday went off the rails so quickly, that one valid point got lost: When a team cuts a player, it's accepted as a matter of course with an overpriced or depreciating asset.

So why are players routinely crushed by fans and media for holding out if they want their contracts upgraded (or, in Peterson's case, guaranteed)?

The game is too brutal and careers too short not to cash in any time you can. And the only leverage a player under contract has is the threat of withholding his services. If a player wants to risk hefty fines, that's his right, just as it's a team's right to dump him and not pay another penny if the guarantees are up.

Peterson is 30 years old. The Minnesota Vikings star isn't going to find much sympathy when he's due $13 million in 2015, on the largest running back contract in football, after missing most of last season (while largely on paid leave) in the wake of a child injury charge.

But neither he nor any other player should hear the tired "honor your contract!" shtick. Very few are valuable enough to extract a new one anyway.

Jets have right idea

The New York Jets' insistence that their starting quarterback job is Geno Smith's to lose shouldn't be taken as blind faith from a new regime.

With a veteran behind him, it only makes sense to throw support behind the 24-year-old Smith, maximize his first-string reps in the offseason and see what they have.

Ryan Fitzpatrick has been in the league for a decade and made 89 starts. He's on his sixth team, including three seasons as a Buffalo Bill with Chan Gailey, who's now the Jets' offensive coordinator. If anyone is ready to step in with limited offseason turns, it's Fitzpatrick — and that's exactly what will happen come August or September if Smith fails to show enough signs he can leave his days as a turnover machine behind him in Year 3.

Fitzpatrick isn't the long-term answer. If there's even a sliver of hope Smith could be, this is the sensible approach.

Guarantee this

On the list of Philadelphia Eagles story lines, a high-paid newcomer making a roundabout Super Bowl guarantee may not even crack the top 10.

In a span of five months since they missed the playoffs, coach Chip Kelly has taken over the personnel operation; traded his Pro Bowl running back and signed two replacements; been accused of racism by the jettisoned running back; watched his top receiver leave town (again); traded his quarterback for another who's coming off a major knee injury; declared an open competition for the QB job even though the new guy is due almost $13 million; signed Tim Tebow … you get the idea.

So, when cornerback Byron Maxwell (signed in March to a six-year, $63 million deal that included an eye-popping $25 million fully guaranteed) tells The MMQB "we're gonna go" to the title game, it doesn't resonate quite the same way as Vince Young's infamous "dream team" remark about the 2011 Eagles.

Right now, nothing seems out of the realm of possibility in Philadelphia — including that somehow, out of all the madness, Maxwell will end up being right.

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Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero

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