NEW YORK — The nation won’t have to wait long to see Peyton Manning in a Broncos uniform.
Manning’s first game as Broncos quarterback will come in prime time as Denver hosts Pittsburgh on the opening Sunday of the NFL season. The four-time MVP was released by Indianapolis after missing the 2011 season following neck surgery. After conducting a four-city lottery for his services, Manning landed in Denver, which hasn’t won a Super Bowl since his new boss, John Elway, was behind center.
“We’re excited about that. Anytime you have a guy behind the center named Peyton Manning, you’re going to get a lot of attention,” Elway said.
Manning won’t have an easy assignment against the Steelers, who ranked first in overall defense and against the pass last year.
“The opening game in Denver obviously will be an interesting way to start the season,” Steelers President Art Rooney said. “There will be a lot of attention paid to Peyton Manning’s first game with the Denver Broncos, so it’ll be exciting to start out that way.”
Pittsburgh’s season ended in Denver in January when Tim Tebow threw an 80-yard TD pass to Demaryius Thomas on the first play of overtime in their wild-card playoff game. Manning presents a whole different challenge.
“Hopefully we can back up the playoff game that we had last year,” Elway said.
Steelers at Broncos is one of four prime-time games in the league’s kickoff week, Sept. 5-10. The schedule, released Tuesday, has the Super Bowl champion Giants hosting the Cowboys in the first Wednesday NFL game since 1948; the league moved the game to avoid a conflict with President Barack Obama’s Thursday night speech at the Democratic National Convention.
“We will have a week-in and week-out challenge, not only in who we play, but with the different elements of our schedule,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “We play on four different days and we have five night games. Our first three games are Wednesday-Sunday-Thursday. We play two road night games early, come home for a week and then go to San Francisco. Our people are going to have to be really good about it.”
The now-traditional Monday night opening doubleheader has Cincinnati at Baltimore, followed by San Diego at Oakland.
A juicy opening-day matchup features San Francisco at Green Bay; the teams combined to go 28-4 in 2011. New Orleans, still awaiting league punishment to its players for the bounty program that targeted opponents for dangerous hits, hosts Washington.
The Saints have a bye after their fifth game, which means interim coach Joe Vitt will actually miss seven weeks during his six-game suspension for his role in the bounty system.
A 14-week package of Thursday night games begins in Week 2 with Chicago at Green Bay. All but one of those games will be on NFL Network, which now has games from September until December instead of just the second half of the schedule.
The other Thursday night game is on Thanksgiving on NBC: New England at the New York Jets, Tebow’s new team. Earlier that holiday, Houston is at Detroit, then Washington at Dallas.
Two Sunday games will be played outside the United States. St. Louis hosts New England on Oct. 28 in London, while Buffalo hosts Seattle on Dec. 16 in Toronto.
Jones-Drew skipping
Jaguars’ minicamp
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Jaguars opened a new era Tuesday without their star player.
All-Pro running back Maurice Jones-Drew skipped the opening day of the team’s voluntary orientation for veterans in what appears to be a contract dispute.
Jones-Drew is scheduled to make $4.45 million this season, considerably less than fellow running backs Chris Johnson, Arian Foster and Marshawn Lynch.
“It would’ve been nice to have Maurice Jones-Drew here,” new coach Mike Mularkey said. “I can’t ask any of them to be here. We want them to be here … just to kind of get a feel for how we are, what they can expect from us and he just was one of the no-shows.”
Jones-Drew was one of two players under contract not on hand for the start of the three-day session. Defensive tackle Terrance Knighton is sitting home following eye surgery. Place-kicker Josh Scobee also is not attending, but he has yet to sign the team’s franchise tender and is hoping to get a long-team deal done.