Can Titans Offer Peyton Manning A Contract for Life?

Eighty-nine year old Titans owner Bud Adams has gone on the record as saying he will do whatever it takes to sign Peyton Manning. According to Michael Lomabardi from NFL.com, that could include making Manning a Titan for like by promising him a position with the team after he retires.

This begs the question: are the Titans allowed to offer Manning a front office job as part of his deal?

Yes and no. If it were included as part of his contract, that could constitute a circumvention of the CBA since all of a player's compensation must be included within the four corners of his contract. Remember there is a salary cap and it must be respected. How do you quantify non-monetary compensation against the cap? To entice a player to sign with a promise of a job after his career is done would raise circumvention eyebrows.

Still, the Titans could offer Manning an executive job now. However, that deal would need to be captured by a second contract separate and apart from his player contract. As well, that contract would need to be approved by the league.

What would the league want to see before it approves the two deals? In part, it would want to make sure that Manning's player contract is worth fair market value and not undervalued as a result of the second contract. So there can't be a shortfall in Manning's player contract that is made up by the second contract. The Union would also likely take a look at the contracts before the league does to make sure the player contract does not constitute a step back for its membership (i.e., it's undervalued thereby altering the marketplace).

The Broncos already have Elway ensconced in the President's position. So unless Manning is happy being the Broncos ball boy post-playing career, the Broncos can't offer him a substantial exec position.

Would be interesting to see Manning in the same division as the Colts.

Would it be odd to see Manning as a Titan and not a Colt post-retirement? Would Manning even want to go back to Colts and Irsay - assuming Irsay doesn't move the Colts to Canada in the middle of the night?