INDIANAPOLIS -- In the city where Peyton Manning won four NFL MVP awards, Head Coach John Fox was asked about the Broncos signal caller's continued recovery.

"A lot was made of the neck and the surgeries and all those things," Fox said. "The reality is that it is kind of a nerve situation and it takes a while for nerves to grow. He's getting better every day. I think he'll be health-wise, even better this year."

Fox recalled researching the possibility of adding Manning through free agency when there were "rumors that the Colts might go in a different direction."

"(There are) not too many times a Hall of Fame quarterback becomes available," he said.

From that point to when the team watched Manning throw at Duke University and throughout the 2012 season, Fox said he was continually impressed by Manning's progress.

"I just knew he would get better," Fox said, noting "a drastic change" in Manning's arm from free agency to the season. "He got stronger and stronger. The rehab, the nerve kind of regenerating, the whole nine yards, he got better. That's how the body does – it healed. And he got better for it."

And Fox believes he'll only continue to get better with a healthy offseason.

"I think this year he'll have a full offseason to really use his whole body to get ready -- not just the arm and the neck and some of those rehab things," he said. "He can actually work out now. I think he'll just get stronger and better, and hopefully our whole team does."