Well at any rate, if we have the first overall pick, we can trade down and get extra picks in the process. I've been wondering if that might be the smarter thing to do.
Would be the smart thing to do. Colts already screwed themselves over for Peyton's reign by putting all their eggs in his basket. Best way to win multiple championships is to have an actually decent
team, and such a team that doesn't revolve around one player. The patriots fell into that trap after their last Superbowl by putting too much stock in Brady and not enough back into the defense.
Drafting Luck would likely mean Manning 2.0, but I don't see another player, Luck included, ever being as MVPish as Manning was.
IMO the Colts best shot at another Superbowl in the forseeable future would be to trade the #1 pick and give weapons to Manning.
Although if they want to be relevant on into the distant future, it wouldn't be crazy to trade Manning as well and just start building a powerhouse from scratch with the insane number of picks they'd be guaranteed. Wouldn't need Luck then, you could easily settle for a Barkley or whomever as they'd be chock full of top talent that way and far less reliant on the success/failure/well being of one player like they have been with Manning, and would likely be with Luck.
It's week 10 and the Colts have Luck locked up already. If Manning can get around 5-6 picks, with 3 1sts, the Colts might think about trading him to save some money since the Colts haven't really been doing so well in the last few years before his current injury.
Raiders already traded away their 1st round picks, and I don't see any other team dumb enough to trade that many picks away for an iffy Manning who has at best maybe 5 years left, not all of which are where he's certain to be a top 5 QB.