The Indianapolis Colts fired general manager Chris Ballard on Monday, a day after a 26-20 home loss to the previously winless Tennessee Titans, which dropped them to 2-4. Shortly after, Dan Patrick linked the opening to the franchise’s Hall of Fame quarterback, Peyton Manning, who won the Colts their only Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

However, when asked how good Manning would be as a general manager in Indianapolis, Denver columnist Troy Renck had an answer that said more about the Colts than Manning.

Why Troy Renck Thinks Money and Ownership Would Limit Peyton Manning as Colts GM

On “The Dan Patrick Show,” Patrick said a source told him, “The Colts’ first call will be/has been to Peyton Manning,” and that the call would “explore whether or not Peyton would be interested in being a general manager of the Colts.”

Whether that call has been made is another matter. Mike Chappell of Fox59/CBS4 has since reported that the Colts had not yet reached out to Manning, though he noted that doesn’t mean they won’t.

Either way, Rencks said: “If it’s with the Colts, I think the ceiling’s low.”

He laid out his reasons soon after, saying, “I think he’d be at best good. It’s a hard place, the money, the family ownership. I don’t know that he could be great there.

“I mean, I trust him, but there’s a money issue involved here. To be able to get free agents, to be able to get the right guys, it’s hard to get free agents to go to Indianapolis.”

Then he came back to where he started: “I would think his work and everything around him would be great, but I don’t know that he could be anything but good in Indianapolis because of just some of the restraints that they deal with, and their ownership isn’t deep-pocketed.”

That ownership is now in the hands of the late Jim Irsay’s daughters, with Carlie Irsay-Gordon serving as the Colts’ owner and CEO. Whoever replaces Ballard, who had run the front office since 2017, also won’t have the team’s next first-round pick to work with, because it went out in the Sauce Gardner trade.

Patrick had pitched the homecoming as a package deal: “So now you have an opportunity to put Peyton back in Indy as a GM and part owner. And he gets to pick his quarterback. So now all of a sudden, the community is going to love this. The league would love this. Would Peyton love this?”

Those two roles are distinct, though. As Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio pointed out, the rules bar the Colts from offering Manning equity as part of his compensation as general manager, though he could separately be invited to buy a piece of the team at a below-market price.

Patrick had also flagged a hurdle: “Now my source says the only question will be Peyton’s family. They enjoyed Denver quite a bit. His kids are getting to the age where moving has implications, difficulties. But it would seem all involved owe it to themselves to explore it and consider it.”

When Irsay-Gordon announced Ballard’s firing, she set the bar for his successor: “Our standard is to compete for championships, and I believe a change in leadership is necessary to meet that standard. We will conduct a thorough search for our next general manager and take the time necessary to identify the right leader for the future of this organization.”

More talk has also centered on whether Manning, despite being a Colts legend, would return to the franchise that cut him, which led him to join the Broncos and also win a Super Bowl before ending his career in Denver.