[So Who Haven't We Cut Yet?]

i cant wait to find out who are next running back is gonna be..because replaceing addai will be one tough cookie..

I like Addai, but we've survived without him for multiple games, and he's pretty easy to tackle once you get a hand on him given how small he is. Remember when we lost Marshall Faulk, and then when we lost Edge? Both were very productive players, but we managed to find good replacements eventually.

[So Who Haven't We Cut Yet?]

This is a trying time for Colts fans, but like or hate it, these moves will help define a new Colts era. A lot of these notable players we're cutting are our beloved old-reliables, but they are older veterans and not part of the new rebuilding plan.

number28 - these players being released aren't necessarily considered unwanted or unproductive (well, Painter is, but that's an exception), but they're older and a liability with the amount of salary they carry. We need a younger crew that we can carry around for years to go with the new Andrew Luck era.

At this point with the amount of players being released, the more we release now, the easier it will be going forward. Expect a poor season for the next year (or two/three), but we should hopefully have a very solid team in 3 or so years once we have the new talent and some experience playing together as a team.

Hmm - so if the Colts did not end up with the top pick, would any of this have happened? Irsay signed Manning to a 5 yr deal just a year and a half ago. He knew that there was a salary cap. So, if we didn't get the top draft pick and Manning came back, would we have still cut all of these players. We were 14-0 just 2 years ago and in the Super Bowl. I don't believe talent drops off that quickly.

If we didn't have a high draft pick where we could get Manning's eventual replacement, no I don't think this would have happened. For one thing, we wouldn't have the opportunity to get that new replacement (and that salary that would go against us).

Second, a better record would indicate that our team's performance was not as bad as a 2-14 team and not shown as many issues as ours did this past season (which ultimately was the big wakeup call that Irsay saw this year).

[I Don't Get Argument For Rebuild]

2. This is my opinion, Irsay's ego says he can beat the rebuild jinx. NFL history show that if you go into full rebuild mode, your are putting your franchise in purgatory. As PeytonGirl so aptly stated, "Scorched earth" does not work. That is proven fact (i.e. Lions, Rams, Buccaneers and others).

Perhaps not the Rams or Bucs, but the Lions are on the up and up currently after their recent rebuild.

In the end, it wasn't the Bonus or questions about Peyton's playability post-surgery that brought about today's decision. This is about the numerous holes that need to be filled that were made very evident with Peyton out this year. I think it was a very big wake up call for Irsay; he probably realized we had various issues (most teams have something that want to fix), but the extent of those issues weren't realized until we saw what happened throughout the season. If Peyton was retained plus we kept the #1 pick, we wouldn't have enough salary cap room to make substantial movement in fixing those issues.

I've been wishing all along that they would find room in the salary cap to keep Manning and also take Luck - a little Manning mentorship to a (hopefully) future star. But in the end, the multiple issues with the rest of the team were too great to ignore.

This is a sad, depressing day for Colts fans, but ultimately the best call given the situation. That darn salary cap which helps make the sport more even-sided and interesting amongst teams shows its bad side today in Indy.

[Who Will Be Buying A New Luck And Manning Jersey In A Month?]

Never had a Manning jersey (like JustAColtsFan above, always thought his jersey was overpresented in the crowds), so I'm thinking of picking up a Colts Manning jersey now for legacy reasons. My current (only for now) jersey is a Harrison one that I picked up a year before he left - I'd rather go with legacy players rather than risk picking one up on a new guy that could get cut/traded in a year or two.