Culver City Observer -

How about Payton Manning playing quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams next season?

What? Isn’t the 39-year-old Manning going to retire?

Maybe. Maybe not.

If you read this column regularly you probably realize my best sports are basketball, baseball and sometimes college football. I don’t pretend to claim I’m an expert on pro football.

But since the Rams have moved to LA from St. Louis I’m paying attention to what NFL experts who I know in other cities are saying and writing.

It so happens quite a few of them expect Manning to keep playing and most of them think he won’t be back with the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos.

Last week the Broncos applied the franchise tag on defensive star Von Miller.

That means Miller is assured of getting a one-year contract for the average salary of the league’s five highest paid players at his position.

It also means Manning isn’t getting that deal, which leads NFL experts to believe he won’t be with the Broncos for the 2016 season.

Manning has one year remaining on his contract for $19 million, so the Broncos would have to release him if he doesn’t retire.

The decision is due this week because the 2016 contract becomes official on March 8.

Miller can still sign a long-term contract by sometime in July and general manager John Elway says they’re working on it.

Elway says the Broncos didn’t rush Manning to make a decision.

“We’ve talked and he needs more time to decide,” Elway said last week. ‘He’s entitled to that.”

Tom Condon, Manning’s agent, said Manning has told him “I really like to play.”

As for the Rams, they’d like to make the playoffs as they return to LA, their original home and they might be good enough if Manning becomes their quarterback.

The Rams have a very good running back, Todd Gurley, the former Georgia star. He was the tenth pick in the 2015 draft and ran for more than 1,100 yards in his rookie NFL season.

As the Rams didn’t make the 2015 playoffs quarterback wasn’t one of their strongest positions.

Ironically, the Indianapolis Colts released Manning under the same conditions four years ago.

The Rams received 50,000 requests for season tickets after recently announcing they were coming back to Los Angeles.

They’ll play in the Coliseum for the next two seasons while their new Stadium in Inglewood is being constructed.