Did anyone else notice that when Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was released two weeks ago, his signing was going to set off a domino effect to where other quarterbacks were going to go?

As it turns out, the opposite was true.

On Monday, Manning was set to sign with the Denver Broncos, one of the teams not on the horizon in early March.

Teams such as the Washington Redskins, Miami Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals looked to be the front-runners early. Then they started to see the writing on the wall and began to look elsewhere.

In two weeks, the Dolphins have fallen flat in trying to pick up Manning — who resides in Miami — as well as took a run at white-hot, yet unproven quarterback Matt Flynn and have now turned their attention to San Francisco 49ers’ Alex Smith, who got a “vote of confidence” by head coach Jim Harbaugh two months ago, but that didn’t stop the 49ers from starting to gain momentum in at least trying to sign Manning.

Smith hasn’t responded on a three-year, $24 million contract offer by his team and since the 49ers started to look to Manning, despite Smith coming off his best season, is looking elsewhere.

San Francisco picked up free agent receivers Randy Moss and Super Bowl hero Mario Manningham of the New York Giants, perhaps to entice Manning.

The Niners already had one of the top defenses in the NFL and offensive weapons running back Frank Gore, tight end Vernon Davis and receiver Michael Crabtree.

But that wasn’t enough to lure Manning.

The Redskins traded three first-round picks and a second-round pick to move up to second overall in April’s draft.

With the Colts all but ready to take Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck with the No. 1 overall pick, the Redskins leapfrogged over the Browns in hopes of getting Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III, who won the Heisman Trophy over Luck last December.

With Flynn signing with the Seattle Seahawks over the weekend, only the Cleveland Browns, Tennessee Titans, Kansas City Chiefs and Cardinals are left looking for a quarterback upgrade.

The Broncos have Tim Tebow, but now will most likely try to move him to another team unless the Broncos management thinks he could be a good understudy to Manning and give the offense a few wrinkles.

The Cardinals have Kevin Kolb and the Chiefs have Matt Cassel, so those teams aren’t as desperate. Tennessee could have been the winner as Manning played college ball for the Volunteers and his father, Archie, played with Titans coach Mike Munchak in the early 1980s for the Houston Oilers.

Again, that fell by the wayside.

It took Manning quite a long time to make his decision. And instead of his decision setting the wheels of the quarterback carousel in motion, the calliope didn’t want to wait.

And, it seems in the NFL these days, no one wants to be left waiting, even if it means for a Hall of Famer like Manning.