Aside from shooting an endless stream of commercials that are sure to run all football season, what has Peyton Manning been doing with himself since announcing his retirement?
We know he's not planning on working in television and likely won't find a high-end front office gig at this stage of the year. In the meantime, it seems Manning has been playing tutor.
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that Manning visited Dolphins headquarters earlier this spring to meet with his former offensive coordinator Adam Gase and help instruct quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
"It was really cool," Tannehill said. "A guy that had his career, the living legend he is, coming off a Super Bowl winning season -- it was really cool just to be able to sit and pick his brain about things he's done in this offense and football things in general: snap counts, things you like, the way you want guys to run routes, little details about the game. We really just got to talk the game, which is something we both love."
Per Jackson, the tutoring session was entirely Manning's idea. It was a boon for Tannehill -- learning another new offense -- who, because of collective bargaining agreement restrictions, wasn't allowed to meet with coaches.
"At that time, we weren't able to meet with the coaches or anything, so I didn't really have a great handle yet," Tannehill said. "So I wasn't really able to dive into the playbook too much. So I had a few questions (for Manning). If he comes back now, we can have a completely different conversation."
That Manning was willing to voluntarily instruct Tannehill speaks volumes for what he thinks about Gase -- is Manning coaching up Paxton Lynch on Gary Kubiak's bootleg?
It could also have been a trial run for the meticulous Manning to see how much he enjoyed it and how good he might be at coaching. If he reveled in the tutoring session, maybe he'll never pursue a TV career or a front-office job.
Coach Manning has a nice ring to it.
