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.

The career backup has an expiring contract, and it’s unclear whether he’ll be back with the Colts or another team next season. For Orlovsky, and all those other potential free agents, the season finale Sunday at Jacksonville is about more than draft position. It’s one last chance to make an impression.

“Every week is an audition in this league,” Orlovsky said Thursday, one day after the arrival of his three sons. “There are 32 teams that watch, so it’s important to have a good body of work and Sunday’s game is the last piece of that body of work for this season.”

Things might be looking up for the seven-year veteran, who was unemployed until re-signing with the Colts on Sept. 29.

After losing his first nine NFL starts, Orlovsky helped Indianapolis (2-13) avoid a winless season by winning twice in five days. Another victory would give Indy its first season-ending, three-game winning streak since the Super Bowl-title season of 2006.

Orvlosky isn’t the only one facing an uncertain future in Indy.

More than a dozen players are set to become restricted or unrestricted free agents in March, including a small cadre of 30-something former Pro Bowl players — Robert Mathis, Jeff Saturday and Reggie Wayne.

The Colts also must decide whether to pay four-time league MVP Peyton Manning a $28 million bonus, let him become a free agent or work out a new deal with the franchise quarterback. Team owner Jim Irsay has said that if Manning recovers from neck surgery, he will be back in Indy, no matter the cost.

Questions also surround coach Jim Caldwell, team vice chairman Bill Polian and general manager Chris Polian.

Caldwell went 24-8, won two division titles and an AFC championship in his first two seasons with the Colts but without these last two wins, he could have seen his record slip to .500 this weekend.

After an 0-13 start, some fans openly criticized Caldwell for everything from his style to game management and called for a change. Finishing strong would be evidence that Caldwell did not quit on the season and that the players, who are in his corner, did not quit on him.

“I think Coach Caldwell has done a very good job this season. He has gotten the most out of his players,” Saturday said. “There have just been times that we haven’t played well, so from that standpoint that will be up to Mr. Irsay and whatever he decides to do. But I think Coach Caldwell did a good job, and you’ve just got to keep battling and playing. You just go in, play as hard as you can and hope you get a win.”

Caldwell, who was fired in 2000 at Wake Forest and lost his job again the next season when the Buccaneers got rid of Tony Dungy, already has seen defensive coordinator Larry Coyer fired. More changes could be coming in the offseason or Irsay could bring in a whole new staff.

“Whether you are coaching or playing, it is always the same, and that doesn’t matter if it is in Week 10 and you’re 9-1 or whatever it might be,” Caldwell said. “Nothing is promised to you and there are no guarantees. So I think everybody that has played the game understands that, particularly at this level, and everybody that has coached it, we all coach on one-year contracts for (our) entire career.”

The Polians aren’t entirely safe, either, not with concerns about the inability to groom an adequate backup to Manning. On his weekly radio show, Bill Polian acknowledged the front office was to blame for the lack of talent.

“Should we have done a better job? You bet,” Polian said in October. “But we have to make sure we do a better job going forward.”

Who will be around for the rebuilding project? Nobody knows..

Some contend the Colts should lose Sunday, thereby winning the Andrew Luck sweepstakes rather than winning the game and losing the No. 1 overall pick to St. Louis.

But for players and coaches fighting for their jobs, that’s not the issue.

Playing well enough to win Sunday could make all the difference between getting a job, keeping a job or being out of work in 2012.

“Honestly, I think you’re fighting for your job every single week in this league and it should be that way,” Orlovsky said. “It’s a very privileged job. But you can’t think about it that way. You just have to go out and prepare for each game and do the best you can.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

INDIANAPOLIS — Colts defensive end Robert Mathis couldn’t care less about the No. 1 draft pick. All he wants is another win.

Some of Indianapolis’ die-hard fans are urging the team’s brain trust to take a different tack, benching starters and losing Sunday’s season finale at Jacksonville so it can get the top pick.

“It’s better not to respond to that at all,” Mathis said when asked about the fans’ plea. “We play to win.”

The stakes are high.

Since moving to Indianapolis in 1984, only the 1991 Colts (1-15) produced fewer than three wins.

The Colts (2-13) have never finished with a losing record in AFC South play, and the last time anybody beat the Colts twice in the same season was 2007 when San Diego won at home in the regular season and in Indianapolis in the second round of the playoffs.

A victory over the Jags (4-11) would keep all of those streaks intact and allow the Colts to take a three-game winning string into next season, something they haven’t done since the 2006 Super Bowl-winning run.

The message coming from the top is simple: Keep on winning.

“We’re not going after anything but a win in Jacksonville, look at the last half century of SupBowl winners — how many had 1st pick,” Jim Irsay wrote on Twitter late Tuesday night.

Fans have a different view.

A win, coupled with a loss by St. Louis (2-13), would drop the Colts from the No. 1 overall slot down to No. 2, and likely out of the Andrew Luck sweepstakes. Most expect the Stanford quarterback to go in that top slot, whether the Colts or Rams have the pick or trade it.

The possibility of losing the No. 1 pick didn’t even seem plausible three weeks ago when the Colts were still winless. Two wins in five days, over division rivals Tennessee and Houston, and an extended break after last Thursday’s win have suddenly created doubts.

It’s not the first time the Colts have faced such a predicament. After going 0-10 in 1997, Indy won three of its next five, then needed a loss at Minnesota in the season finale to secure the No. 1 pick. It worked out with the selection of Peyton Manning, and the die-hards believe it would all work the same way again this year.

The Jags have a hand to play in this, too.

With Maurice Jones-Drew a near lock to win the league’s rushing title and an interim coach running the team, a Jags loss would not just help their draft position but could also prevent the Colts from taking another franchise quarterback they’d have to face twice a year for more than a decade.

“That’s not a part of my thinking at all,” Jaguars interim coach Mel Tucker said.

Indy’s players and coaches are saying the same thing.

Still, Colts fans point to 2009 when the team benched most of its key players early in the second half of Game 15, throwing away a chance at a perfect season. In the regular-season finale, most of the starters were yanked early at Buffalo. Back then, Bill Polian, now the team’s vice chairman, said the perfect season was not a goal but winning the Super Bowl was.

The Colts also lost to New Orleans in the title game.

Now, with seemingly nothing to gain and everything to lose, those who covet the No. 1 pick argue Indy should do the same thing.

Don’t count on it.

“In this locker room, everyone wants to be in there,” said Curtis Painter, who replaced Manning against the Jets in 2009. “Back then, I think the guys wanted to play then, too. Every guy wants to play and there’s certainly no difference this year.”

Notes: The Colts practiced Wednesday without starting quarterback Dan Orlovsky after his wife delivered triplets. That temporarily put Curtis Painter back in the charge of the starting offense, a tradeoff some Colts fans are willing to make given the circumstances. To their dismay, coach Jim Caldwell said Orlovsky, who has won two straight, should return to practice Thursday and should play Sunday.

Read More: Indianapolis Colts, Houston Texans

The Indianapolis Colts are actually moving up some of the weekly power rankings. Not only did they upset the division rival Tennessee Titans a couple week ago, they went ahead and beat the division winners, the Houston Texans on Saturday. On top of all of that, they looked good doing it. This is all nothing more than proof that the NFL does not and has never made any bit of sense whatsoever. It’s odd to see a 13-loss team suddenly winning games, but at the very least, they’re now moving up the rankings.

ESPN, for instance, bumps the Colts up one spot:

31. A painful/annoying week ahead for players and coaches dealing with the world asking them if they really want to win. (Kuharsky)

It’s also entertaining to see Kuharsky so obviously silenced by this, that nothing about the Colts themselves is actually written in the spot to give reasoning as to why the Colts are ranked there. Either way, that’s where they fall, ahead of just the lowly St. Louis Rams.