INDIANAPOLIS — On Jan. 2, 2018, a dejected John Elway faced a horde of media in the Denver Broncos team room, facing questions about his team’s abysmal season and what went wrong.

Never before had we heard the hall-of-fame quarterback so down and out. After all, the buck stops with him when things go wrong in the world of Orange & Blue.

The 5-11 season had Elway going from “Super Bowl or bust” to, “We hope so. You never know,” when asked about if he thought the Broncos could return to the to the playoffs in 2018.

The “I don’t want to raise the expectation level” version of the ever-confident quarterback undoubtedly stuck fear in the hearts of Broncos Country. It was kind of like the first time you see your dad cry and you’re like, “Oh, this is really serious.”

Less than two months later, though, on Feb. 28, John Elway strutted to the podium at the NFL Combine with an extra pep in his step, looking like he could pop into Lucas Oil Stadium and strap the pads on—something he said he wished he could have done in 2017.

Why the big smile?

“Because 2017 is over and we get to go into 2018,” he said, his back monkey-free.

The old John was back. And his tune on the playoffs? Changed completely.

“I still think we’re not too far away,” he said with confidence. “Obviously we have to get better at that [quarterback] position. We didn’t play well there last year. That doesn’t all go on the players. There were some things that we should have done that we should have done differently that we didn’t do. I feel like we can get right back in the thick of the things rather quickly. I think we still have a good defensive football team. I think, on the offense, we’re going to get better with Bill Musgrave being the coordinator this year. Guys are coming back to the same offense because they were with Bill for the last half of last year. I think we’ll be a step ahead and figure out what we do at the quarterback position. I’m excited about where are and think we have a chance to get back into the thick of things rather quickly.”

Only a quarterback could bounce back so fast. Quite the turnaround from all that rebuild talk, eh?

“I didn’t say [rebuild], and I’m not going to say it,” he asserted with a smile. “Life is too short to rebuild in the NFL.”

Ah, “Plan A” Elway, quite the refreshing sight.

While he joked that he was digging to try and come up with things to tell the media without giving much away, it was his demeanor that spoke 1,000 words. The Broncos are heading into the fourth quarter of a big game, and they are trailing, they need No. 7 at full-strength and it sure looks like they’ll have him.

Like any true gunslinger, Elway is locked, loaded and unafraid of failure.

“Believe me, I’m not done swinging and missing,” he said with a laugh. “Misses don’t bother me.”