Peyton Manning is the Browns' new version of Bill Cowher.

We're not sure if the retired quarterback is looking for a house in Strongsville, but this much is a given: Unless things drastically change for the winless Browns in the next seven weeks, the rumors that Manning will be hired to oversee the Browns' front office aren't going away.

Monday morning, in the wake of the Browns' 24th loss in 25 games under Hue Jackson, and the 27th in 28 contests dating back to the final three games of 2015, The Fan's Daryl Ruiter teased that something big could be on the way, which, of course, ignited more Manning chatter.

A week earlier, Tony Dungy appeared on Dan Patrick's show and was asked where Manning would be in five years. Dungy replied that he thinks the pitchman extraordinaire will be "in the front office somewhere."

Asked specifically about the Browns, Manning's former coach said, "Um, I don't know that. Somewhere. I've talked to Peyton about what he wants to do, and he's balancing TV and going into what we do vs. (working in a) front office. He loves football, he loves that day-to-day interaction. I think in his heart he knows if he goes to a team, it's going to be 20 hours a day."

A few hours after Dungy spoke with Patrick, Sashi Brown was asked about the ongoing Manning rumors. The Browns' vice president of football operations said the team wasn't going to "comment on it," then couldn't help but laugh and give a wide grin.

And since we're now in the business of chronicling Manning-to-the-Browns chatter, The MMQB's Albert Breer brought up the possibility on Colin Cowherd's FS1 show Nov. 1 — the day after the Browns' nightmarish Halloween.

"Jimmy Haslam has a very, very, very close relationship with Peyton Manning," Breer said. "So I'm not saying that they will blow it up after this year. I think Jimmy Haslam's intention has been to give these guys at least three or four years to build it up, but if coaching and scouting isn't aligned in the right way, the answer will be to bring in a football czar.

"We know Peyton Manning has a desire to play that kind of role," Breer added. "I'm not sure whether or not he's ready to jump out of retirement back into the football world again, but I do know that's a very close confidant of Jimmy Haslam's. Jimmy Haslam is a huge University of Tennessee booster. Peyton Manning would probably be the first guy on his list if he were looking to bring a guy in to head the organization and set the agenda."

Breer isn't overstating how tight Manning and Haslam are.

It's no secret that the two are close friends and are in frequent contact.

Heck, Manning was mentioned as a possibility for the Browns' front office in 2015, before his playing career had even finished.

Last month, Jim Donovan, who knows the Browns almost as well as anyone, reported on WKYC that the former QB had recently visited Northeast Ohio.

And when Tennessee kicked off a search for its next athletic director in January, the search committee included both the legendary former Vols QB and the Browns' owner and huge university booster.

But the owner being close to Manning doesn't necessarily make the Browns the favorites should Manning decide to make the leap from retirement to running a team.

MMQB's Peter King, who has a good relationship with Manning, told a Denver radio station in October that while he believes that Manning eventually will run a team, he doesn't think Manning is ready just yet.

"As he said to me, he said, 'It's an all-in job and I know what the commitment is, and it's just not right for me right now,' " King said during an appearance with Mile High Sports hosts Nate Lundy and Shawn Drotar. "So, I think he's probably going to take a couple more years and help raise his kids and then maybe at some point move to some other city and become an NFL czar of some sort."

To lure Manning out of retirement, Haslam would likely have to offer the 41-year-old a piece of the team, and we think he'd be willing to do so.

The $50 million question, though, is will Manning want the job?

If he does, then it should absolutely be his to take.

The Browns, as we noted earlier, have seven weeks to make all of this go away.

The results — things are so bad that a 14-point loss, after blowing an early 10-0 lead, Sunday at Detroit is chalked up as a bit of a moral victory — indicate that it isn't going to get any better by late December.

Which means we're going to be hearing a lot more about Peyton Manning.

We wonder if he'll be an East or West sider.

Maybe Cowher can show him around.

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