He said, "OK, so Peyton Manning was a tremendous MVP quarterback, but he's been injured. If that injury comes back, Denver will find itself without a quarterback. And in my opinion, it would serve them right."
In my opinion if you say something would "serve them right" you are saying you hope it happens.
Not how I'd interpret it. Tebow is a QB in good health with no injury concerns. Now if Manning remains healthy, he will do a better job, but not by much. With either Tebow or Manning as the starting QB, Denver was looking at likely going into the playoffs next season because they are in the insipid AFC West. But either way, they'll likely be a one and done playoff team. Tebow because he's not as good and Manning because Denver will have to rebuild a new offense since Manning and Tebow play the position completely differently and I don't think they be able to do it in just one season. If Manning is going have a noticeable effect it'll be starting in the 2013 season, and that's if Manning can stay healthy for two more years. That's a big gamble Denver is taking.
Of course it's clear that Elway and Fox were not comfortable with building a Denver team suited to playing up Tebow's strengths. I'm convinced Fox started Tebow last season solely because he hoped he would fail and give him the excuse he wanted to clean house and rebuild the Broncos in his image. Indeed, Fox may have hoped that with Tebow at the helm the Broncos would win the Andrew Luck sweepstakes.
That said, Tebow is better off with the Jets since the management there has an offensive philosophy suited to his style of play. If the Broncos hadn't signed Manning, Tebow would have been stuck with a management that didn't really want him.
The real loser in all this is Frank Tripucka. He gets to have his number 18 unretired just so Manning can play with it. That's why I rather than saying having Manning get injured would serve them right, I would say what would serve the Broncos in general, and Elway in particular right, is if they have to unretire the number 7 for their next past-his-prime quarterback.
