Von Miller bagged Super Bowl MVP honors.
Peyton Manning got the storybook ending (if he so chooses).
Demarcus Ware and Wade Phillips snared their long-sought-after Super Bowl rings.
And Chris Harris Jr. and Aqib Talib joined Miller and Ware as Pro Bowl selections.
Those were the headline grabbers, the main characters – the leading men, if you will – in what turned out to be a Super season for the Orange & Blue, but they had ample assistance.
After all, like miked-up Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly said to teammate Thomas Davis in a second-half Super Bowl soundbite: “These guys are pretty damn good.”
Of course Broncos Country knows most of the names, but we’re going to single out six relatively undervalued and overshadowed members of the supporting cast who deserve a little extra mention for their roles in helping procure the franchise’s third Lombardi Trophy:
Bill Kollar
There was a reason J.J. Watt and the rest of the Texans’ defense didn’t want to lose the guidance of the 31-year coaching vet. Still, the defensive-line guru left for the Mile High City to reunite with Gary Kubiak and Wade Phillips after six years in Houston and he oversaw the league’s best run defenses (83.6 yards per game during the regular season and 82.3 during the playoffs). Even more importantly, defensive ends Malik Jackson and Derek Wolfe made the leap from good to great players under Kollar’s tutelage and played up-front roles in the team’ smothering defensive success.
Brandon McManus
There was uncertainty with McManus taking over after an impressive 20-year-plus run of Broncos placekickers (Connor Barth, Matt Prater and Jason Elam) for his first full-time NFL gig. He made 30-of-35 field goals and 35-of-36 extra points during the regular season, but his most memorable kick was the brutally wide-left field goal that would’ve won the Week 16 slugfest with the Bengals in regulation. Like many of his teammates, though, McManus saved his best for last, drilling all 13 of his post-season kicks, including 10 field goals to account for nearly half (33 of 67) of the Orange & Blue’s post-season points.
Brock Osweiler
Of course, this list wouldn’t be much of a list if it didn’t contain the team’s most statistically-productive QB, who nonetheless didn’t get to take a single post-season snap. From celebrating his 25th birthday with a win in his first career start against the Bears in Week 11 through the Week 16 victory over Cincy, Osweiler won five of his seven starts during the most telling stretch of the regular season. And the 2012 second-round pick did far more than win games as he guided a pair of two-touchdown comeback victories in two of the Broncos’ most important regular-season tests, besting the previously undefeated Patriots and 11-3 Bengals with playoff berths and AFC seeding on the line.
Bradley Roby
As the nickel back, the 2014 first-round pick was anything but just the third wheel among the Denver cornerbacks. He finished tied for second on the squad with 10 passes defensed during the regular season and added 40 total tackles, an interception and a forced fumble. Most importantly, though, he was center stage in two of the Broncos’ most important plays of the season, scooping and scoring on Jamaal Charles’ fumble in stunning fashion late in regulation in Week 2 and punching the ball loose from Steelers’ running back Fitzgerald Toussaint with Pittsburgh driving in Denver territory and looking to extend its 13-12 lead with 10 minutes remaining in the divisional playoffs. Ware fell on the ball for the game’s only turnover, and the Broncos drove 65 yards for the game-winning touchdown – their only TD of the game.
Danny Trevathan
The fourth-year linebacker and third-year starter bounced back impressively after missing all but three games in 2014 due to leg injuries and led the team in total tackles in the regular season (109) and postseason (22). He also added two interceptions and six passes defensed, returning one of his picks 25 yards for a TD in Week 13 in San Diego. But perhaps no play exemplified Trevathan’s all-out, nose-for-the-ball hustle than his third-quarter Super Bowl recovery of teammate T.J. Ward’s fumble on an interception return among a group of pursuing Panthers at the Denver 7-yard-line.
Darian Stewart
The off-season signing of this sixth-year undrafted free safety wasn’t greeted with much fanfare as Stewart was joining his third team in as many years. But he solidified the starting job in training camp and wasted no time making a name for himself, intercepting a pass in the end zone to beat his former team, the Ravens, in Week 1 and finishing the regular season with 59 total tackles, 10 passes defensed and two fumble recoveries. He capped it off with an outstanding yet overshadowed Super Bowl showing with three tackles, a forced fumble and a sack.
