One of the best in the game. Amazingly, probably the 3rd best tackle in the 1997 draft. Watch your ass Peyton, I dont think Ugoh is the answer.

Damn. Colts homer, and this is a huge blow to our title defense hopes. He's been the LT for Peyton's entire career, so the replacement will not only be a downgrade in terms of talent but also in terms of familiarity with Manning and the offense. I hate to see Tarik go, but I can't imagine the toll 10 years of fending off defensive linemen would take. I can see it making sense to leave on a high note and in relatively good health.

Having just read FO's O-line rankings, I'd guess the Colts drop down at least 5-7 slots. We'll see in this upcoming season just how much Peyton aids the line and vice versa.

This is a massive blow to the Colts, losing a starting lineman before the season is bad, your LT is bad, your Pro Bowl LT is terrible. How are they planning to replace him? Diem sliding over? Ugoh? I guess we will find out how good Howard Mudd is.

They don't have another Tarik Glenn I don't know about do they?

The Colts trade of next year's first round pick makes more sense now. It looks like a better move for the niners too.

Ugoh had better be good, he'll have the health of the most valuble player in football to look after. Things could begin to snowball for the Colts, if another lineman or Addai get injured then they could face an unexpected slump.

Someone from FO, please feel free to comment on how this affects Joseph Addai's draft position.

Oh crap! This hurts more than all the other off-season losses combined. I'd guess this makes LT a battle between Charlie Johnson and Ugoh,as I just can't see Ryan Diem moving over to the left side.

Oh crap.

Aw, too bad. Life sucks. Get over it. Nowhere near as damaging as, say, Jimmy Smith retiring after the Jaguars' draft a couple of years ago.

It's pretty clear the Colts knew he was seriously contemplating retirement before the draft.

PFT is reporting an interestng angle; that Glenn is annoyed at all the cash Freeney got and is trying to leverage his own piece of the pie.

This is a serious loss but it seems like the Colts were prepared for it as best they could be. From Glenn's perspective the handwriting was on the wall that he certainly wasn't going to be back in 2008 anyway. (Don't however dismiss the notion that this could be simply a way to avoid the first few weeks of training camp.) The real issue for the Colt's will be to get Ugoh into camp on time if they expect to use him this season.

Howard Mudd may well be the best offensive line coach in the NFL, he has been doing it forever it seems. Also their blocking scheme is actually fairly simple from a technical prospective. It was just a couple of years ago when the Colts lost both guards and had rookies starting and never missed a beat. There may be some early issues but expect that the Colt's offensive line will get it together fairly quickly no matter who they put in there.

#7: Agreed. Its not as bad as having your Pro-Bowl RB decided he'd rather smoke dope than play football the day before training camp. Cry me a river, Colts fans.

Karl - That may be true, but I can't see the threat of retirement being an effective negotiating tool in this particular situation. The Colts don't exactly have cash to go around THIS year, and they're not going to give a big long-term deal to someone on the fence of retirement, especially when they have a replacement in the wings. I'd say he either wants to skip camp or this is for real.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2007-06-11-notes_N.htm
a whole article full of quotes from Glenn about how he's not worried about his contract situation and isn't going to throw a fit. It suggests he'd play out the last year of his deal (this year) then cash in in free agency.
I normally don't like seeing players try to skip out of training camp but I'll be happy if that's what he's doing now. I like Ugoh for the future but I'd rather have him play a year as a backup first.

Someone's bitter...

The PFT story is 100% horseshite.

Florio hates the Colts, he really hates Polian and he has been blabbering about the Freeney deal in his typical over-the-top hyperbole and this is just another opp to pull more crap out of his butt and stick in BP's face.

Florio says it himself...if he uses the retirement card to try to get more cash, the Colts will still hold his rights, therefore it won't matter.

If he were holding out or demanding a trade...totally different story...but that's
not the case.

Hard to tell what's going one here. He might be irritated at the Freeney money, he might, correctly, think that this is a good way for a veteran to miss the drudgery of the first three weeks of camp, and hell, who knows, he may have told the Colts right after the Super Bowl that he was thinking of retiring, and decided that was the path to take. I'm a cynic through and through, and even I sometimes think that we dismiss the possibility of sincerity far too frequently.

Given, post football career health problems, I often wonder if there are many, many, guys who would be living better lives right now if they had stepped out a season or two earlier. Is it possible that a lot of the life-long damage is incurred for many players in their last couple of years?

OMO:

At least Florio is careful enough to qualify his rumors, rather than state them as fact. Your opinion that this is horseshit is simply your opinion, unless you have sources. In which case, you should credit them.

Sam:

Did you read the story linked by JoeB? Looks like direct quotations from Glenn, unless the USAToday is making stuff up. I'd consider that much more factual than the rumorings of a fringe blogger.

18:

No, I didn't. I read Joe's summary and noted the date of the article is about 6 weeks ago.

But I also didn't say I believed Florio over USA Today. OMO stated what amounts to his opinion (that Florio is making his story up). Only, as far as I'm concerned, that is a rumor until OMO gives some evidence that PFT's story is made-up.

Florio notes that "[no] one from the Colts would confirm the news, and the Star was unable to reach Glenn."

He is also clear about which parts of the story he attributes to other sources, and which part are his conjecture. Unlike OMO, who simply states his opinion as fact. With nothing to back it up. Which is ironic, considering his statement, don't you think?

#15 I agree. This is a 1000% HS.

Glenn has nothing to prove after winning the SB and as he said, he doesn't need to make any more money. This is all about his health. Good for him.

My feeling is that he told management about his retirement shortly after the superbowl. They agreed to keep it hidden so as to not reveal their draft strategy.

All that this does to the Colts trade for Ugoh is make it a riskier transaction. If Ugoh was drafted to replace Glenn, as is the current thought, then it was smart finding a replacement now. However, there is now a greater risk the Colts will have a bad season and now they won't have a high first rounder next year. Also, another aspect is that this could keep Anthony Gonzalez off of the field because I expect the Colts to play more 2-TE sets to help out the new LT.

I suspect that following the Superbowl Glenn told the Colts that he might play one more year, and that he had thought about it. Now he has decided that he has gotten everything from the game that he can and wants to walk away. Fair play to him.

If they knew he was definitely retiring before the draft, I suspect that they would have traded up to take Staley. Ugoh probably won't play all that well this year, Staley might have served them better.

MDZ:

Please. You think that losing Glenn is going to significantly change the Colts' draft position in 2008? They might not go far in the playoffs in 2007 for various reasons, and they might not even make the playoffs (even though they have made the playoffs for each of the past 5 years, and 6 of the last 7), but I think it's going to take a lot more than the loss of one player to make them have "a high first rounder next year." That's pure hyperbole on your part.

Now, will this hurt them, of course. If they hadn't taken a OL with a top pick, what would you have said now?

I don't think they would have planned on starting a rookie if they knew about his retirement in advance, unless that rookie was a top 5 pick. Even then, there figures to be a learning curve. I think they would have made some kind of run at a free agent left tackle if they knew this was coming.

I remember the huge difference it made to Drew Bledsoe after Bruce Armstrong retired. I'm not suggesting that Peyton Manning will sink so dramatically but I do think it will hurt him a lot. Manning seemed to improve his footwork last year (damn it ;) which made him even harder to get to. This might counter balance that.

Sorry, but I had a bad hotel wifi signal before so it took me 4 times to post. I don't think losing Glenn will make the Colts a bad team, but if Manning goes down early the Colts could struggle to a 5 or 6 win season. If this happens (which I don't think is appreciably more likely with Glenn gone, but it's always a concern for every team) then the Colts would have a bad season without the opportunity to select a possible difference maker in the first round because of the Ugoh trade. That part was left out of my previous post, for which I apologize. It was never intended to be a strong argument (or an argument period), just a statement about the Ugoh trade. Also, for what its worth I personally don't think Freeney's deal had anything to do with this, and I use Glenn's previous statements, especially in response to Alan Faneca's contract demands, to form this opinion. As a Colt fan I don't like to see him go, but he's been a very good player, by all accounts a good teammate and he's been good to the community in Indy. I'm happy for him that he's able to leave on his own terms and before suffering serious injury and as a Super Bowl champion.

Well that settles it, the Colts aren't doing anything this year. You can only lose so many guys before the team goes down like a lead balloon. And without the Colts at full strength, who's going to stop this season from just being one depressingly long Patriots' coronation?

You're right, DolFan! Now, if the Colts could only trade for Rodney Harrision, they could properly play the role of "defending SB Champs who get no respect."

norv turner? lol

I'm not all that suprised by the move. Glenn thought about retirement last year when the Colts wouldn't let him practice because he couldn't get his weight down. I think it is a definate loss for the Colts, but I think Harvey Mudd has a plan in place, there have been plenty of other injuries and players leaving via FA. Will the new line be better, probably not, but hopefully the drop-off won't be huge.

My only request is that the new LT not false start as often as Glenn. It had become come a running joke in Indy. A local radio station made a Christmas song compilation. One of the songs was O Christmas Tree, but the lyrics were changed to:

O Tarik Glenn,
O Tarik Glenn,
Pleas don't false start again.

Well that settles it, the Colts aren’t doing anything this year. You can only lose so many guys before the team goes down like a lead balloon.

Funny, all the pundits and many fans were saying the exact same thing about the Patriots after the '03, '05, AND '05 seasons. The result--two deep playoff runs and a SB.

Much as I root against the Colts, and love it when the Patriots squash them, I have to give them credit--they still have a great many very good players, a very skilled coach, and an obnoxious but skilled personnell guy. They'll be back in the thick of things.

But it is nice to see them now have to deal with the negatives that come with finally winning the SB. :-) It remains to be seen now how well the organization adapts to them.

And without the Colts at full strength, who’s going to stop this season from just being one depressingly long Patriots’ coronation?

While I admit that that would be great, I think the Chargers, re-tooled Broncos, re-tooled Steelers, possibly the Jags, and probably at least one other darkhorse team that will come out of the woodwork (any thoughts on which one that might be, raiderjoe?) to give the Patriots some competition, even if the Colts don't.

Oops, screwed up the italics in the last post...

Dammit! They should have signed Leonard Davis when they had the chance!

Something Peyton and Eli have in common this season: Both of their competent-but-false-start-prone left tackles are being replaced this season by players without a proven track record at the position in the NFL.

Sam, here's more BS from pft.com

"The source says that the decision has nothing to do with any desire by Glenn to pressure the team to give him more money, or to extend his contract."

So PFT's source says it's not about money, it's not about his contract...but yet Florio can't help but get this "dig" in that is 100% contrary to "their source"

"With all that said, an offer of a short-term raise or a long-term deal could, in our estimation, be something that makes Glenn miss football."

Right. And I "could" tomorrow go from a 14 handicap to a top 50 spot on the PGA tour.

Once again...Florio uses the "could" line to say anything he pulls out of his butt and then when it is 100% wrong...he can plead..."well I said could".

C'mon it's not as bad as your allpro first round DT, refusing to sign a franchise tender, get cut, and sign a big money deal with an another team!!

Hey, I'll take Florio/PFT over Fat Len the Vick sycophant any day.