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Telesco on Lessons Learned From Time With Manning

New Las Vegas Raiders General Manager Tom Telesco spent years in Indianapolis while Peyton Manning led the Colts and discussed lessons learned.

HENDERSON, Nev.--We've previously reported about new Las Vegas Raiders General Manager Tom Telesco working for the legendary Bill Polian.  

While with the Indianapolis Colts, he also worked with legendary QB Peyton Manning, and don't you think that experience didn't shape the young Telesco for one second.

Appearing on the Sunset Rewind, Telesco said of working with Peyton Manning, “Amazing. Really to see how he prepares Monday through Saturday. How the great ones do that, physically he is obviously very talented, his preparation was incredible. Probably like him, Phillip Rivers was probably really similar, but to watch Peyton. We would, the Pro Scouting Department, would do advanced scouting on a team we were going to play, and that would go to the coaches, and it would also go to the players, and if Peyton saw a typo in the advance report, he would come down to the Pro Scouting Department and kind of point it out.”

Attention to detail was a big reason for Peyton Manning’s success, and Telesco said, “It was great because those guys (Pro Scouting Department) knew he read every word of this. So I got to be on point the whole time.”

New Las Vegas Raiders GM Tom Telesco was shaped by Peyton Manning and Bill Polian, both NFL Icons.

New Las Vegas Raiders GM Tom Telesco was shaped by Peyton Manning and Bill Polian, both NFL Icons.

Telesco told a terrific story about Manning and his attention to detail, “We were in training camp, and we were going to open with the (Cleveland) Browns, that was my team to advance scout. But we were in the second week of training camp; we hadn’t played a preseason game yet, so I hadn’t even started doing my work on the Browns yet. Plus, it’s the first game of the year, so you don’t have a lot to go on. He grabs me and asks me about one of the linebackers and his depth on play-action passes. I wasn’t sure because I hadn’t really done them much yet, so I said I am not sure, but let me get back to you. So I go back to my office, and I am going through the tape from a year before; the next day, I find him, and he’s like, ‘Nope, I got the answer already,’ and he walks away. It’s like you have to be on, all the time.”

Telesco elaborated on what having truly great players can do for a franchise, “Players like him, Tom Brady, they just raise the bar of the organization. Just by things like that.”

From February 27 to March 4, 2024, the NFL Scouting Combine will be held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind.

The NFL Draft will be held in Detroit, Mich., on April 25-27, 2024. The Las Vegas Raiders currently hold the No. 13 overall pick.

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