QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if it feels any different attending training camp this season after missing last year's) * *
"Yes, absolutely. It feels a lot better to be able to drive up here as opposed to getting driven up here last year laying down in the back seat and being confined to my dorm all year last year. I certainly hope that won't be the case this year. I was excited to drive up here healthy, and I'm looking forward to going to work."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if he felt giddy driving to training camp)
"I was, which is a good thing I think going into my 12th year. But probably, especially because of the scenario last year, it just wasn't a fun time for me last year, rehabbing and not being able to go out on the field with all the guys. That's what I'm most excited about, to get back on the field and go to work. I've always believed that training camp is when you form the foundation of your team and truly iron out the little details that you're going to need to be on the same page with as you go into the season. I definitely think it had an effect on the way I started the season last year. So, I'm looking forward to going through the entire camp hopefully healthy this year, and hopefully we can get off to a faster start."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on what it means to have Senior Offensive Coordinator Tom Moore and Senior Offensive Line Coach Howard Mudd rejoin the team)
"Hopefully it just means good continuity. Obviously, the defense has a new system to learn and special teams have a new system to learn. It's a luxury offensively for us to be able to have the same system in, but we still need to go out and execute it."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on what he missed about not being able to participate in training camp last year)
"Like I said, just being able to get around, to be able to walk around normally. It's something you kind of take for granted, being able to move around. I kind of felt guilty not being (out there). All these guys were going through two-a-days and being out there in the heat and here I am kind of laid up in the bed, even though I wasn't having any fun, believe me. I kept going through the rehab process, but you'd rather be out there with the guys, mixing it up and going through the heat and sweating it out. I think it's important to do that as a team, and I'm looking forward to doing that this year."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on how his offseason was)
"I had a good offseason. I thought our team had a good offseason as far as our offseason workouts and conditioning, exercises, our OTAs I thought were productive. I had a little time to get away in July before we started up today. I feel good. I feel recharged. I talked to a number of guys on the way up here and everybody is ready to go. That's what you want going into the season. Everybody has the same goals. All 32 teams are feeling good about themselves, but our team is charged up, and it's a group that likes to work. I think we're looking forward to doing that this training camp."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if there's been any changes that lets him know it's Jim Caldwell's team)
"I think we'll have to go through training camp. I think anytime you have a new coach or a new player, whether it is the media or the players, they try to get to know him in stages. For us, we've gotten to know Coach Caldwell through the draft and through mini-camp and through our OTAs and now training camp and then, of course, there will be the first few real regular season games. I think everybody is trying to get to know him as a head coach and I'm no different. I certainly know him as my quarterbacks coach, but when he's in a new role as a head coach there is always a transition there and some things that are new. I think we'll get to know more of his leadership style throughout training camp for the next three weeks and then as the season unfolds. I think it kind of comes in stages."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if he thinks it is fair or unfair that people will compare Jim Caldwell to former head coach Tony Dungy)
"No, I've tried not to. Like I said before Coach Dungy's prints will be on this team throughout training camp and the regular season. His philosophies and words of wisdom that he invoked upon the team, I think players will carry that with them. I think Coach Caldwell will continue to preach some of the same principles that Coach Dungy coached us from. So, even though he won't be here I still think his coaching philosophies will be present in the building and on the practice field. Comparisons are always going to be a natural thing. I think Coach Caldwell is his own man, and he's going to establish his own identity and coach the way he wants to coach. But there is no question – and he's already said this – that Coach Dungy and some of the other coaches he's been with have all had a big influence on him."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if this is Jim Caldwell's team)
"Sure, absolutely, it has to be. I don't think he'll ever come out and say that right away. I think it will happen over the course of the season."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if he brought his wife's cookies to training camp)
"Yes, I do. I do. That's probably the only thing that has remained constant with me in all 12 training camps. I do have those. You talk about Coach Dungy and Marvin ( Harrison) and part of that kind of makes me sad. Driving up here I sent both of them a text on the way up here telling them that the whole team will miss them, that I will miss them. You always take time to let that sink in a little bit. That's not something that you can get over right away, (not only) what both of those guys have meant to this team but to me. Coach Dungy, what he has meant to all of us, all of our players and coaches, both professionally and personally and then Marvin, what he has done for my career. Like I said, it will be different. Marvin's room was always right next to me and Dallas' room. So, it'll be (different) when I walk in here in a few minutes to see whose room has taken his place. I know nobody will be wearing 88, but who will be in that locker spot? That's the toughest part about it. It's happened through the years here with guys like Edgerrin James, Marcus Pollard, Tarik Glenn, Ken Dilger, guys that you get to be good friends with, and you've been in a lot of deep trenches and battles with. But that's part of it. I think when it happens, I think what you do is remember the good things that happened while you were here together."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on starting practice Monday and not seeing Marvin Harrison)
"That happened a little bit in the mini-camps, but you have different guys that are healthy here in training camp. I think it will probably sink in even more, probably the most when we play that first preseason game against Minnesota, because that's really all that I've ever known is that 88 will be out on the right. There's competition for some jobs there. At this point it looks like (Anthony) Gonzalez will be on the right, and I think he'll have a great year. I think my head will be turning the other way a little bit more to the left toward number 87 (Reggie Wayne). Dallas will have a big year for us. I'm looking forward to seeing the healthy competition at that third spot, whether it be Pierre Garcon or Austin Collie, who has big shoes to fill playing in the slot. Competition is good, and I think it will make everybody better at the position."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if he ever reflects on what he and Marvin Harrison have accomplished)
"It's funny, I was talking the other day, I was saying I just leaned on Marvin so much early. I remember my first preseason game we were playing in Seattle. The first pass of the game, the first pass of my NFL career, and Tom (Moore) thankfully just called a three-step drop – no progression, it was just three-step drop and throw the ball to Marvin – and he ran 48 yards for a touchdown, and I was thinking, 'Man this NFL is pretty easy. All you do is throw the ball to Marvin Harrison and he catches touchdowns.' And for the most part that's what he and I did for 11 years. Just about every time I threw it to him it seemed like it was a touchdown. It is impressive what he has done for me in the 11 years. Like I said, all I did was drop back and let the ball go. He always made a play on it, it was impossible to overthrow Marvin because he was so fast and just the way he got us into the endzone so much. I never took it for granted. People would always say you're so lucky you have Marvin Harrison, and I was lucky but he and I put a lot of time into making it not luck and to making it what our job was to do. I've always been proud to call him a teammate."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if he has talked to Brett Favre)
"I really didn't talk to Brett. I've talked to him a couple times in past offseasons. I remember talking to him two years ago after he played Eli in the playoff game, and he was real nice reaching out to Eli. But I haven't had much contact with him and have been following it from afar, and if it is really over then maybe I'll have a comment or two. But I'll wait to that first regular game to see what happens."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if he's sent Brett Favre a letter like he has to other quarterbacks when they retire)
"I haven't mailed it out yet. We'll see."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if he's surprised no team has signed Marvin Harrison)
"Yes, a little bit. I still think it will happen it's just a matter of when and what the right team and situation will be for him."
