NFL Notes: Peyton Manning, Jay Ajayi, Dwayne Haskins

Peyton Manning

• Per Dana Hunsinger Benbow of the Indianapolis Star, former NFL QB Archie Manning confirmed his son Peyton Manning is eyeing a future working for an NFL team’s front office either running or owning a team: “Peyton, somewhere along the line, would like to be back in football — in ownership or front office or something.” 
• Manning likely isn’t worth enough to buy a majority stake in a team, but he could find a role with a team similar to Broncos GM and part-owner John Elway who makes all the football decisions in Denver. 

Jay Ajayi

• According to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, free-agent RB Jay Ajayi is close to being fully healthy and could be game-ready as soon as next week. 
• Ajayi, 26, was allowed to leave as a free agent after tearing his ACL in 2018 with the Eagles. He’s reportedly had interest from the Eagles and Colts this offseason. 

Dwayne Haskins

Redskins HC Jay Gruden said he is not prepared to start first-round QB Dwayne Haskins because the “season is not lost” and doesn’t feel Haskins gives them “the best chance to win.”  

“Well, we’ve played three games, and there’s 13 games left in the season,” said Gruden, via ProFootballTalk. “This season is not lost. It’s not over. I know everybody wants to say, ‘It’s over, and the season is over, so go ahead and play Haskins.’ We feel confident we can turn this thing around. I’m out here at practice every day. We’re out here at practice every day evaluating everybody. If we feel like Dwayne gives us the best chance to win in a coming game, we’ll definitely put Dwayne in there. If we feel like it’s Colt [McCoy] when he gets healthy, it could be Colt. Right now, we feel like it’s Case Keenum, and we’re going to move forward with him this week.”

Gruden said Haskins is still learning and he has not been able to receive first-team reps in practice. 

“I think he’s still working,” Gruden said. “It’s hard to get him reps with the number ones because you don’t have as much practice time this time of the year. During training camp and OTAs, you can mix it up pretty equally, but when you’re trying to get a starter ready to play in a game, it is hard to get Dwayne a lot of those reps against the ones. What you’re going to see is he is mainly doing scout team right now, but he is learning in the classroom. It is new for him as it is for every rookie quarterback in the NFL that is playing right now. Some of them are doing fine, some of them are struggling a little bit, but right now I think Dwayne is on pace. He just needs to continue to sit back and learn and continue to develop.”