Steve Cook continues his team-by-team look at the NFL’s best quarterbacks, and makes his next stop in Denver!

If for some reason you’re wondering how important it is for a franchise to have a great quarterback at the helm, look no further than the Denver Broncos. The Broncos are generally respected as one of the top franchises in the league, but a closer look reveals a pretty damning indictment…

If the Denver Broncos don’t have one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time leading them, they’re pretty much a nothing franchise.

Sounds harsh, but it really can’t be denied. We all know the top two on this list, I’m not even going to act like there’s surprises coming there. What you’re probably aware of but don’t think about too much is just how lowly the Broncos have been throughout their history without those two men. John Elway’s Broncos went to the playoffs ten times in sixteen seasons. Peyton Manning’s Broncos were four for four. Without them, the Broncos have seven playoff appearances over forty-one seasons. I’m not a math major, but that’s not a great percentage.

I don’t mean to totally bury Denver though. After all, two of the absolute Greatest Quarterbacks of All Time have played for them! There have been some other solid chaps as well, who we’ll take a look at right now.

5. Brian Griese

We’ll certainly be talking about Brian’s father later in this project, who’s still the only man to quarterback a team to an undefeated NFL regular & postseason. Not only did Brian have to follow in the footsteps of the great Bob Griese, he also had to follow John Elway as starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos.

Who in the blue hell was gonna pull that off?

To Griese’s credit, he did have a pretty darn strong 2000. In ten games, he had the highest QB rating in the NFL, threw 19 touchdowns versus only 4 interceptions, and led the Broncos to a 7-3 record. It marked the only Pro Bowl selection of his career. A separated shoulder ended his season, and shoulder issues would plague Griese through his career. As would interceptions & random injuries where he would fall in teammates’ driveways or trip over his dog. Griese didn’t quite live up to expectations, but still rates pretty highly compared to many other Denver QB1s.

4. Jake Plummer

I tend to remember Jake the Snake more as an Arizona Cardinal, but his most productive time was his final four seasons with the Broncos. He set career highs for passing yards & touchdowns during the 2004 season, and was selected to the Pro Bowl after his 2005 season, where he led the Broncos to a 13-3 record & their first AFC West title since 1998.

Plummer led the Broncos to a 39-15 record during his four seasons with the team. His career came to a bit of a random ending after the 2006 season, where he was benched in favor of Jay Cutler & traded to Tampa Bay after the season ended. Plummer opted for retirement instead of Tampa due to the general pain caused by years of football, but apparently the CBD has him feeling pretty good these days.

3. Craig Morton

To say the Broncos struggled early on as a franchise would be an understatement. They went their first seventeen seasons without making the playoffs. 1977 finally saw some progress. 1977 also saw the arrival of veteran quarterback Craig Morton, who started his career with the Dallas Cowboys before going to the New York Giants and seeing his game go into a state of decline. Morton went 8-25 over three seasons with the Giants, and his acquisition by the Broncos didn’t exactly inspire confidence in the hearts of fans, who were used to not having much confidence in their team anyway.

Something about the thin air revitalized Morton and led to the best stretch of his career. He led the Broncos to a 12-2 record, their first playoff appearance & their first Super Bowl appearance, where Morton’s new team would come up short against his original team, the Cowboys. He was named Comeback Player of the Year for his return to relevancy, and the Broncos would remain relevant in playoff contention for the rest of his time with the team. He was inducted into the Broncos’ Ring of Fame, and his number 7 would later be retired.

(in honor of somebody else, but we’ll get to that later.)

2. Peyton Manning

By the time 2011 rolled around, Peyton had already had one of the greatest careers in NFL history. Unfortunately, he would miss that entire season due to a neck injury. The Indianapolis Colts decided it was time to move on from a QB in his mid-thirties with neck issues, and cut him from the team so they could draft Andrew Luck. Seemed like a decent idea for the Colts, and Peyton certainly had no trouble finding work. The Broncos won the fight for him, and it turned out that the QB in his mid-thirties with neck issues still had a bit left in the tank.

Manning reeled off three straight seasons that were as good as anything he had done in Indianapolis. 2013 saw him set NFL records for passing yards (5,477) & touchdowns (55) that still stand after the 2020 season. The Broncos won the AFC West each of Manning’s four seasons with the team, and won the Super Bowl in his final season. At that point, Peyton finally began to show his age, and the defense was able to hold up their end of the bargain.

Winning the Super Bowl was an ending that Peyton Manning deserved, as did the top man on the list.

Honorable Mention: Frank Tripucka

Tripucka spent most of his career in the CFL with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He & one of his coaches there, Frank Filchock, went to Denver when the new franchise was established in the AFL, and his 1960 season was notable for being the first 3,000+ yard season by a quarterback in a major United States-based football league. He retired in 1963, and his number 18 was the first retired by the Broncos. In 2012, he gave the Broncos permission to re-issue the number if they were able to sign Peyton Manning. Game recognize game.

Honorable Mention: Tim Tebow

He had one really fun season!

1. John Elway

Elway was considered one of the greatest prospects ever seen when he came out of Stanford University. Did he live up to that hype with the Broncos? I’d say so. His nine Pro Bowl selections were tied for second-most upon his retirement. Elway won the MVP in 1987 during a strike-shortened season, one of five seasons where he led the Broncos to the Super Bowl.

Even though Elway had many classic game-winning drives in big moments, he garnered a reputation of not being able to win “the big one”. Three losses in the Super Bowl would do that. He set things right by leading the Broncos to two wins in the big game at the end of his career. Super Bowl XXXIII saw him pass for 336 yards & win game MVP. It was as good a note to go out on as has been seen in sports history.

Thanks for reading! Join us next time when we look at the Detroit Lions!