The Colts earlier this week released a statement saying the quarterback was doubtful to play and was told not to practice as he tries to recover from offseason neck surgery.
Sunday's game will be the the first time the NFL's active iron man and four-time MVP has missed a meaningful game after 227 consecutive starts including the playoffs.
His 208 consecutive regular-season starts are the most among active players. When Manning sits Sunday, Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Ronde Barber, who has started 179 straight games, would take over the top spot if he starts Sunday against the Detroit Lions.
Manning has been the Colts' only starting quarterback for the last 13 years. Over that span, the Chicago Bears have started 17 different quarterbacks, the most of any NFL team. Every team other than the Colts has had at least three different starting quarterbacks during that span.
Manning's triceps strength has plateaued and he doesn't have the arm strength right now, sources told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen. Manning also had some back soreness that worsened during the weekend.
The only time he missed a regular-season snap because of injury, against Miami in 2001, backup Mark Rypien fumbled. The Dolphins recovered, then drove 59 yards for the winning score. Manning returned on the next series with a bloody mouth. He was later diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his jaw.
Manning had surgery to repair a nerve May 23, but the recovery has taken longer than the expected six to eight weeks that would have put back on the field for the start of training camp. Instead, Manning started camp on the physically unable to perform list and wasn't activated till last Monday.
He did limited work at practice last week, which led to complaints about back pain. No additional surgery has been scheduled.
Manning sat out one week of training camp in 1998 before signing his rookie contract. It was a decade later when he missed all of training camp in 2008 because he underwent surgery twice to remove an infected bursa sac from his left knee. The only other time his playing status was in doubt was 2001 after he was injured at Minnesota in a preseason game.
The last quarterback other than Manning to start for Indy was Jim Harbaugh, now the San Francisco 49ers coach.
Author: Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Source: ESPN.com
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