Broncos quarterbacks coach Greg Knapp opens up about his "special relationship" with Peyton Manning

You’ve heard the narrative a million times now: Peyton Manning is the real coach, he’s the coach on the field and on and on, the message is often construed that Peyton is not easy to coach. That might be true, but coaches don’t always see that as a bad thing, in fact, Denver Broncos quarterbacks coach Greg Knapp feels quite the opposite.

“It’s a great challenge,” he said of coaching Manning. “Most of us coaches see ourselves as teachers and when the pupil challenges you as a teacher, you find it rewarding as long as you’re not too thin skinned.

“I love the challenge, both of my parents were teachers,” he added. “I love when a player doesn’t just say, ‘Okay, Coach,’ I want the player to say, ‘Why?’ or, ‘Should we do it like this?’ and it’s my job not to get defensive about it, it’s my job to think of it from that viewpoint, there has to be a mutual respect, though. I have to earn his respect for him to say,’ He does have some knowledge about some things I’ve never thought of,’ and the same is true for the quarterback, he has to back up, why he has those questions. To me, it’s the challenge that makes it so great.

Knapp and Manning have developed a very close relationship since 2013 when Knapp took over as the QB coach in Denver. After Manning went down this season, missing six and a half games, Knapp was in contact with him as much as anybody.

“They were challenging because of his frustration of not being able to play,” Knapp said of the weeks Peyton was out. “A lot of it was communication, I was trying to keep him in the loop of what was going on, even though he might not have been on the practice field, even though we gave him the week off to get the foot right and not be in the meetings, I made sure to stay in touch with him. Whether it was before practice, after practice, before meetings, after meetings, just keeping in constant communication.”

If you’re wondering the state that Manning was in at that time, think about the fact that his position coach felt the need to lift him up emotionally.

“[I was] reminding him of all the positive things he had done to help us get to this spot,” Knapp told. “When he did get hurt we were still doing very well as a team, it was definitely a challenge from off of the field, but the communication thing that we had built up already just carried over.”

Even at the lowest points, though, the Broncos quarterbacks coach never counted out The Sherriff.

“I don’t think I ever thought that,” he said of ever feeling like Manning had played his last game. “It just felt like at some point it was going to happen, no matter what reason why and that was a constant reminder I gave him.”

Despite being out and sometimes down, Manning took the chance to maximize the time, seeing the game from a bird-eye view, an outside perspective.

“He took advantage of his down time studying some of the changes we did with Brock from the offensive perspective,” Knapp explained. “He’s always evaluating what do defenses see from us, how to defenses judge us? He saw the benefits of, ‘Okay, if I’m back under center that’s something they’re not used to seeing, if I’m not checking at the line as much that means they can’t check with me.’ So he is definitely a chess master when it comes to competing in a game and he saw the benefits of some of the things that other coordinators that have faced him in the past won’t be used to seeing.”

You hear it so often, Football is about family, the best teams are the most connected. You also hear about Manning being a stickler to his teammates, leaving notes in lockers, etc. but Knapp will tell you that Manning, especially this season, loves just being one of the guys, too.

“He enjoys the day-to-day relationships with his teammates and coaches more than anything else,” explained the 30-year football coach. “It’s the sarcasm in the quarterbacks room, it’s the one line comments from the movies while we’re watching tape, to reference some joke. It’s really been enjoyable for him. I can attest to that because when he wasn’t playing because of his injury, he was still there to help Brock and help give him some guidance whether it was on game day or game week, I could see it really is about the team for him, that’s what made this year so special.”

All week, the talk has been about this potentially being Manning’s last ride, if that’s the case, there’s one thing that Knapp will miss the most.

“Our friendship, the speciation for each other’s skill set — me as a coach, him as a player,” he said. “What we brought for each other, I’ve learned from him just as much as I’ve hopefully taught him. That friendship, that ability to take the highs and lows together in unison and move on, learn from it has been very special for me. It’s a special relationship.”

Peyton Manning may be tough on his teammates and he may be tough to coach but there may not be a player in the NFL that’s as respected as he is in the locker room.