The decisions over the next few months will likely shape the future of the Colts’ organization for years, but what happens next is anybody’s guess.

“There is no sugar-coating the fact that there are areas of talent that we need,” Irsay said. “The decisions that are coming up are crucial, and obviously, when you’re looking at a general manager, a head coach, having the No. 1 pick in the draft and knowing that you’re rebuilding in some areas, that is about as massive as it gets.”

As usual, all things in Indy start with Manning.

Irsay must decide whether to pay the four-time league MVP a $28 million bonus in March, allow him to walk away as a free agent or redo the five-year, $90 million contract to make it more salary-cap friendly.

Manning missed the entire season after having his latest neck surgery Sept. 8 — a procedure that has clouded his future in Indianapolis. Without him, the Colts collapsed, missing the playoffs for the first time in a decade and winning the Andrew Luck sweepstakes with a 2-14 mark.

Though Manning has started throwing with teammates and players believe Manning is improving, Irsay must determine whether it’s worth taking a significant cap hit to rebuild around a 35-year-old quarterback who has had neck surgery three times in less than 24 months. If he is healthy, a big if, Irsay has promised to bring back Manning and make another Super Bowl run.

“I think the key thing for me has always been, and particularly since the fusion, is it safe for him to go on the field? Is it something where he is healthy enough to resume his career, to go on the field and play at a high level but also to be in harm’s way in the physical game that we have?” Irsay said. “What he means to the franchise, what he means to the Colts and to the league, (his health) to me always has been the most important decision.”

Irsay said he plans to meet with Manning within the next week, and those answers could dictate which direction the Colts go in 2012.

Manning has good reasons to want Caldwell back. Aside from the franchise quarterback, Caldwell and offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen understand this offense better than anyone, and Caldwell helped Manning achieve his greatest successes. Before Caldwell became quarterbacks coach in 2002, Manning was an elite player with a losing record in the playoffs. With Caldwell, Manning won all four of his MVP awards, two AFC crowns and his only Super Bowl ring.

But there’s no assurance any of the coaches will be back next season. Receiver Pierre Garcon summed up the uncertainty best on Twitter when he posted this: “So what happens now?”

For Caldwell and the coaches, it’s business as usual.

Less than 24 hours after a season-ending loss at Jacksonville gave Indianapolis the No. 1 pick in April’s draft, Irsay fired the team’s vice chairman and general manager and decided to keep coach Jim Caldwell at least until he finds a replacement for the father-and-son team.

“It was a very tough decision for me,” the Colts owner said Monday. “I had a chance to talk to them both, I had a chance to express to them, and Bill in particular. You know how hard it was and the appreciation the franchise has for all that has been done by Bill, and obviously, him and I go back 30 years. So this is difficult, this is the tough part of this business.”

For more than a decade, the Polians and Irsays seemed to operate in lock step.

Irsay sided with Polian after the 2001 season when the then team president and coach Jim Mora clashed. He thought enough of Chris Polian to begin the transition from father to son and he repeatedly supported Polian publicly even when fans were unhappy with Polian’s decisions and reactions.

But after 13 straight losses, a 2-14 record without Peyton Manning and the second-fewest wins in the franchise’s Indianapolis era, Irsay had no choice.

“I’m grateful for all the support the fans have shown us in good times and bad,” Polian said in a statement issued by the team. “Indianapolis has been a wonderful place to live and work. Most of all, I would like to thank the players, coaches and staff who have played the pivotal role in this magnificent journey. I will miss them all.”

Nobody ever doubted how much influence the elder Polian had on the game or the Colts.

He helped create the league’s salary cap structure and was a longtime member of the league’s rule-making competition committee.

He was the architect of four Super Bowl teams in Buffalo, the rapid ascension of Carolina’s expansion team and the Colts’ resurgence. Six times, he was named NFL executive of the year by The Sporting News. He drafted the Colts’ career leaders in passing (Manning), rushing (Edgerrin James) and sacks (Dwight Freeney), and the No. 2 receiver in franchise history (Reggie Wayne). His teams won two Grey Cups in the Canadian Football League, played in eight NFL championship games and five Super Bowls, and the 10-game improvement from 1998 to 1999 set a league record. In 2006, Polian finally got his elusive Super Bowl ring.

The cornerstone for all that success in Indy, though, was Manning, and the inability to find an adequate backup proved Polian’s undoing.

Manning missed the entire season with a neck injury after signing a five-year, $90 million deal in July. The Sept. 8 procedure was his third neck surgery in 19 months, and the Colts went through three different quarterbacks before getting their first win.

Players also became increasingly dismayed by the comments Polian made on his weekly radio show. The most vocal critic was Manning, probably the only person in the organization with more leverage than the team’s vice chairman.

TORONTO - 

Who knew that Peyton Manning’s pain in the neck was contagious? It’s turned into an injury that took down the big players in the Indianapolis Colts’ front office.

It’s been hardly a secret for the past decade that Manning’s brilliance as a quarterback was central to the Colts’ steady string of successes, including a Super Bowl title.

Nobody realized, though, how quickly the house of cards constructed by vice-chairman Bill Polian and his son Chris, the club GM, would fall apart without Manning. Both were dismissed Monday.

“It’s a new era,” said owner Jim Irsay during a late-afternoon press conference.

“We’re moving into exciting times by my estimation. The search for a GM begins immediately. We have not talked to any teams or potential GMs yet. This is not like ’97 where we replaced the GM in matter of hours. It will be a matter of time, possibly a couple of weeks.”

After a season without Manning, who has had three neck surgeries in the last year, produced two victories and a chance at the Next Big Thing — Andrew Luck — Irsay came to the conclusion that maybe it was time for some new blood in the Colts’ executive suite.

“It was time,” said Irsay. “It was the right decision to make. Fourteen years is a long time in this league. It’s an intuitive decision. A lot goes into it.”

And, once Irsay gets rolling on this franchise renewal process, the broom could get even broader. He said Monday that head coach Jim Caldwell’s status is still under review.

So, less than 24 hours after the Colts put the capper on a 2-14 season with a loss in Jacksonville, Irsay sent the Polians packing, with the potential for vets like Reggie Wayne, Jeff Saturday, Ryan Diem and Robert Mathis, (all free agents) to follow in the not-too-distant future.

You might even be able to add Manning’s name to that list. The Colts have to decide whether to pick up Manning’s $28-million option in March and if this turns into a total rebuild, then what would Irsay want with a 36-year-old superstar quarterback with health concerns?

That becomes especially problematic if he has Luck waiting in the wings to be the centrepiece of the next generation of Colt excellence.

As far as Bill Polian is concerned, he was the architect of many moves in the late ’90s and into the new century that created the framework around which Manning could work his magic. His hiring of Tony Dungy was a coup, along with the trading of Marshall Faulk and the subsequent draft of Edgerrin James. The Colts won at least 10 games in every season but one from 1999 through 2010.

Unfortunately, the last five Indianapolis drafts have not produced many impact players as the core of the team got older. Still, Polian can be proud of his record that has earned him NFL Executive of the Year honours six times.

He built Super Bowl teams in both Buffalo and Indianapiolis, with a stop in Carolina in between where he constructed a team that went to the NFC title game.

The Colts were a broken franchise when Polian arrived in 1997 but he ended up with the No. 1 draft pick that he used to select Manning, an immediate star, over Ryan Leaf, a massive bust.

It is difficult to predict how the Manning/Luck situation is going to play out. If Irsay, or his new GM, is able to confidently judge that Manning is going to be able to stand the rigors of regular NFL play again, then there is no reason why Luck couldn’t take a backup role for a season or two before growing into the role as Manning fades into the sunset.

Manning has suggested that he could work with a young quarterback.

“I think I can co-exist with any player I’ve ever played with,” Manning told reporters on Sunday. “I think I’ve always been a good teammate in that way.”

The elephant in the room is not so much Luck but the $28 million that must be paid to Manning early in March as part of his contract. There has been talk of a renegotiation — but not by Manning.

The alternative would be to cut Manning but it would be a very sad way to part company with somebody who was, and remains, an Indianapolis icon.

The futures of Wayne, Saturday and Mathis, as well as several other high-priced veterans, probably rest with Manning.

If he is back and ready to play, then the expectation will be there to contend. But if he’s not in the picture, then many of those veterans will not be there, either, as the rebuild begins.