If you consider a $16M dead cap hit in 2012 modest... They can also simply not exercise the option and his 2012 salary becomes guaranteed and the contract ends after 2012. That is the only way they could theoretically trade him because their dead cap would remain at $16M with all the salary going to the team they traded him to. Thing is you won't find a team willing to trade for him on a 1 year $28M basis even for middling picks because they will know that Indy is in a bind ($32M 2012 cap hit and $12M dead cap hit in 2013) and would not be parting with him if they thought he had more than a season left if that...
Peyton gave them an opt out to avoid a $54M cap hit if he was unable to play going forward. He still wanted and got $26M just for trying (because it was playing football for them that landed him in this predicament). He isn't going to cooperate with any deal that trades him because it was his intent in agreeing to this deal that he retire as a Colt. He also gave them a break in part with the understanding that Polian would use the savings to build a better team around him over his last 5 years in Indy. Saw no signs of that happening heading into this season. Now they have a chance to reap the rewards of sucking in his absence big time on draft day. If instead they choose to simply )draft his replacement, he will likely realize he got bs'ed (and Condon likely warned him that was always a possibility) so it's likely he will once again defer to Condon in managing what, if anything, remains of his career... Tom Condon's only loyalties lie with himself and his clients in and of the moment. One of whom will likely also be named Luck.
