Another day, another rumor about Peyton Manning to the Cleveland Browns front office.

Last Sunday (October 8th), Fox Sports NFL insider Jay Glazer reported that the Cleveland Browns could be one of three teams the former NFL quarterback could end up with as part of the front office.

Monday night, WKYC (NBC Cleveland) sports director and Browns play by play radio announcer Jim Donovan reported that Peyton Manning was in Cleveland last week but it was unknown why he was in the city.

Now today, longtime Cleveland radio host Mike Trivisonno who once had connections to the organization through former Browns owner, the late Al Lerner added on to the Manning rumors.

He explained to his listeners that Donovan wouldn’t just make that report up considering he works for the team. 

Trivisonno said that Manning has the offer on the table and is considering taking the job as team president of the Cleveland Browns.

He also added that Sashi Brown would remain as executive vice president due to his excellent work with the legal issues of the organization such as contracts and working the salary cap.

Manning would get to run the football operations and hire a general manager and a head coach to work with the talent Brown and company have already accumulated including first overall pick Myles Garrett. There’s also the possibility that he’d get a small percentage of ownership.

Trivisonno said this potentially could’ve been in the works dating back to when Manning retired from football almost two years ago and that Haslam gave Manning the time to relax and take some time to think it over.

Manning told Peter King on a podcast recently that he knows he can be a front office executive, he just isn’t sure he’s ready to commit to it because it’s a 24/7 type of job.

If this is all true which I’m still sort of skeptical of it all, then Jimmy Haslam is a genius. 

The team president and general manager role has been left vacant since Brown has taken over as head of football operations in January 2016 and many questioned and still question those decisions.

Brown along with DePodesta have come in and stockpiled draft picks and freed up cap space to the point where it’ll be over $100 million dollars in cap space for this coming offseason.

Yes they have made some critical decisions such as passing on quarterbacks who are winning with other franchises but they’ve added talent to both sides of the ball.

DePodesta at this point isn’t necessarily needed and with Manning potentially coming in, he can walk away and go help another football franchise or go back to baseball. He’s helped set up the future of this organization through the draft and free agency.

Now I have a potential general manager candidate that could help bring in talent and he’s done been before as a general manager, coincidentally with the Browns.

Tom Heckert was the general manager here from 2010-2012 when Jimmy Haslam and Joe Banner fired him to start the new regime in Cleveland. Heckert has since been part of the Denver Broncos front office as a Director of Player Personnel and currently as a Senior Personnel Advisor.

I don’t know if Heckert would want to come back to work under Haslam but I think everyone can agree that he added talent here when he was general manager.

Pro Bowl/All Pro talent like Joe Haden, TJ Ward, Josh Gordon, Jordan Cameron and Mitchell Schwartz as well as solid contributors like Buster Skrine, Jabaal Sheard and Travis Benjamin.

He also has the Manning connection as both were apart of the Denver Broncos from 2013-2016.

Tony Grossi of ESPN Cleveland stated on the air today that Manning’s visit to Cleveland wasn’t related to the Browns while Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 the Fan tweeted out that he was in Cleveland to help with a political fundraiser which was former Ohio State and Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez who is running for congress.

Maybe Manning isn’t coming to work for the Browns but the smoke is starting to get thicker as each day passes.