Report: Peyton Manning Still Dealing With Nerve Damage That Could Affect Throwing Strength

by NESN Staff on Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 2:06PM

Peyton Manning has a contract, a new team and receivers eagerly crisscrossing the field, waiting for his passes.

Whether he has his arm may be the question.

While Manning is throwing hard and accurately in training camp, he doesn't have the same torque and distance on his passes as before he had a series of surgeries on his neck, Peter King of Sports Illustrated reports.

While his neck is fine after missing last season and having four operations in two years, he is still battling through the effects of nerve damage from the surgery, which has sapped some arm strength from his shoulder.

"Where I'll be, percentage-wise, I don't know," Manning told King. "I don't know if I'll feel the way I've always felt again. Everybody wonders, 'Can he get back to where he was?' That bar was set pretty high. Now, my goal is to feel as good as I possibly can — right now."

No one doubts that Manning will be able to make a variety of throws, whether they be long or short or in tight spaces. King said he talked with a former coach of Manning's, who said "he'll figure out a way" to get the job done.

But, seeing as the lingering nerve damage once imperiled a career that seemed destined to break all barriers, the recurrence of limitations has to be discouraging for Manning's fans as his next foray into the NFL begins.