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INDIANAPOLIS -- **The waiting continues for the Broncos regarding Peyton Manning and whether he will return for an 18th season and fourth in Denver, but Head Coach Gary Kubiak made it clear that he wants the perennial Pro Bowler back.

"No doubt I want him to be," Kubiak said as he met national media at the National Scouting Combine on Wednesday "I think all indications are that [through] everything he said and through his conversations with [Executive Vice President/General Manager] John [Elway] he feels good.

"He's had his self-assessment or however you want to label that and he feels good about moving forward. We'll just continue with the process."

The "process" has also involved multiple conversations between Kubiak and Manning -- none of which specifically focused on football, per NFL regulations that prohibit work on tactical matters until organized teem activities begin.

"We visited about a lot of things, but no football," Kubiak said. "He's very positive in his talking to me; he was very positive with John when he came to town last week. So we continue to move forward and I'll let him and John work that out.

"We just talked about family, talked about his health and talked about where he is," Kubiak added later. "I talked about my excitement toward wanting to coach him [and how] I'm looking forward to being a part of this organization. That's about as far as it's been."

Although football conversations with Manning are out, Kubiak, Offensive Coordinator Rick Dennison and Quarterbacks Coach/Passing Game Coordinator Greg Knapp are still immersed in the offense, watching film and working on the nomenclature the offense will use going forward.

When Manning came to Denver in 2012, he and the Broncos' coaches at the time translated the offense to which he was accustomed into the language that the Broncos began using in 2009, when Josh McDaniels arrived from the New England Patriots, bringing the nomenclature used there since the 1970s. Kubiak's offensive language has been that of the West Coast schemes. And Manning's checks and calls add another dimension.

"What we've done is taken what they've done, and taken Peyton's verbiage, and taken what I've done, which, there's a lot of cross already," Kubiak said. "We're meshing two things together, and that's a great challenge. I know that's something that Rick and Knapp, those guys are enjoying, and I'm enjoying being a part of.

"It kind of gets your juices flowing again as we put all this together, but, yeah, that's what we're trying to do as we speak."

The language will be different in some ways, but Manning's role will be the same. And Kubiak's arrival does not necessarily mean that Manning will be rolling out more than at any point since his college days.

"You do what your players do best," Kubiak said. "It's interesting to me --I've been asked over the course of the last month since I've been in Denver about the bootleg and those types of things. We had Joe [Flacco] in Baltimore last year and I think we booted maybe 25 times in the season.

"You do what you players do best. We're going to run the Denver Broncos offense. That's a big challenge for me right now--meshing things together and getting ready to go do the things that Peyton does so well and has for many years."

That includes making some calls at the line of scrimmage. Kubiak said that Knapp will relay the call from the sideline to the quarterback, with Kubiak, Knapp and Dennison all involved in the sideline play-calling process.

But if Manning returns, he can expect to make plenty of calls and reads at the line of scrimmage.

"Obviously, at the line of scrimmage, he's as good as there's ever been in the game. You don't ever take that away from your players," Kubiak said. "It's something that I really look forward to talking to him about, his mindset, his philosophy.

I've been a part of both, where, they said, 'Hey, you can call every game for me,' or, 'No, I want to do more at the line of scrimmage.' With [Flacco] last year, the further we went, the more we did at the line of scrimmage, so, obviously, Peyton's as good as there's ever been doing it."

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