Colts vice chairman Bill Polian told Adam Schein and Rich Gannon of SiriusXM NFL Radio on Tuesday that he can't imagine trading the top overall pick. Indianapolis won their first game of the season on Sunday, but they still have the league's worst record. "I can't imagine that there are players that we could afford under the salary cap that would come in and help our team, veteran players that would be available in such a trade," he said. "And if you traded it for picks, which you probably would be wise to do, those picks would be very high picks, the highest picks perhaps, in a lot of future years, which means that they wouldn’t be on the team in the short run. "Somehow or other, that theory, people have asked me about that, but it doesn't hold water with me. I don't know what you get out of it. If you're assuming that you trade one of the top three picks in the draft for a bunch of second- and third-rounders in that same draft, I don't buy that one at all."

The concept of trading quarterback Peyton Manning would be a costly one for the Colts. The Indianapolis Star reports that if the Colts retained Manning for 2012, then shipped him to another team, they would absorb a $28.8 million cap hit that year. If Manning remains with the Colts through the 2013 season, and then is traded, the team would absorb an immediate $19.2 million cap hit. Any scenario that includes paying Manning his March option bonus and then trading him away would generate a $38.8 million cap hit.