No Denver Bronco was ever tougher than Demaryius Thomas

No one ever made the Broncos’ second iteration of Mile High roar louder than Demaryius Thomas.

Oh, some have come close. Champ Bailey. Peyton Manning. Clinton Portis. The “No-Fly Zone.”

But the man who brought the fans to their feet, ever louder with every passing step toward the south end zone — that was No. 88 in the early evening of Jan. 8, 2012, running with a pass from Tim Tebow as though propelled by the sound he himself created — the sound of amazement, delight and delirium.

That moment to seal an overtime win over the Pittsburgh Steelers will echo for as long as there is a team named the Broncos that plays football and calls Denver home.

But not even 10 years after that magic night — and all of the great catches and runs that would follow in the years to come – Thomas is gone.

The man with more catches in a Broncos uniform than anyone not named Rod Smith and Shannon Sharpe, and more receiving yards and touchdown catches than anyone but Smith, was found dead in his home in Roswell, Ga. on Dec. 9.

FEW WHO CAME through the Broncos’ locker room ever displayed more kindness and humility. He had confidence, no doubt.It came with a soft smile and a heart for children and charity.

But he always seemed to be swimming in a tumultuous current.

That he accomplished so much in his football life is testament to the physical and mental strength he possessed — something which was evident from the moment he touched down in Colorado for the first time.

Thomas became a first-round pick in 2010 despite playing at Georgia Tech, which ran a triple-option offense that mostly used Thomas as a blocking decoy. In 2009 — his final season on The Flats — the Yellow Jackets passed on just 18.7 percent of their snaps.

But Thomas made the most of his limited opportunities. Despite catching just 46 passes, he scored eight times and averaged 25.1 yards per catch. It was enough to get the attention of the NFL and the Broncos, who took him with the No. 22 pick in the 2010 draft.

Even then, the upstream swim continued apace. He suffered a foot injury while training for the Combine. He recovered for training camp, then re-injured it. He returned by Week 2 of his rookie season and caught a touchdown pass in his first game, but four weeks later suffered a concussion while returning a kickoff in Baltimore.

In February 2011, he tore his Achilles tendon while training. Seven months later, he was poised to return for the season opener, but he fractured his finger.

But Thomas never gave up. He plowed through rehabilitation the way he would prefer to plow through defensive backs.

And when the moment found him, he was ready.

IT WAS A GRAY, FRIGID MORNING when the Broncos’ team buses crawled through downtown Minneapolis to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on Dec. 4, 2011. And even though the team rode high on what was then an improbable four-game winning streak, the Broncos’ receivers were frustrated. During those four games, the entire receiving room had just 18 catches.

If you listened to outside chatter, the word on the street was that Thomas, plagued by injuries, might be the word that every high draft pick dreads hearing: bust.

Inside the bus, Thomas knew in his heart that something was about to change.

A few days before, Ring of Famer Rod Smith checked in on Thomas and his fellow receivers. He found them glum. The team was flourishing, but the receivers were bit players.

Smith, who had retired three years earlier, spoke to his successors in orange and blue.

“I know it sucks,” Smith said. “It sucks to be a receiver and not know if you’re going to get the ball, ever. You never know. But what makes you a champion is when you go out there thinking it’s coming to you anyway, and you go out there and go to work.”

No one took those words to heart like Thomas did.

That day, the Vikings picked the lock of the Tebow-led zone-read attack. Denver’s offense was inert and inept in the first half; only a defensive touchdown kept the then 2-9 Vikings from leading 15-0 at halftime.

The Broncos knew they had to change. They scrapped the shotgun in favor of heavy use of the I-formation. And they had to pass to open up the box.

Thomas was ready.

It was Georgia Tech all over again. In the second half, Thomas had four catches — all on deep passes. Three of them covered at least 40 yards. Two finished in the Vikings’ end zone. The Broncos rallied to steal a 35-32 win.

That started a seven-game stretch in which he caught 35 passes for 745 yards and four touchdowns — including that 80-yarder in overtime to beat the Steelers.

“His approach seemed different from that day forward,” Smith later said.

And while Thomas would flourish with Peyton Manning in the years that followed, one would be wrong to call Thomas a “product of Peyton.”

He would have been successful with any quarterback. He eventually had a 1,000-yard season with Trevor Siemian under center in 2016, even when the accumulation of hits began causing his body to betray him, his breathtaking speed beginning to wane.

But Manning unlocked the best he had to offer.

Thomas already had star stuff. But with Manning, he had the man who could set him up in the perfect spot and leave him to gallop through flailing defenders with the speed of a gazelle and the power of a lion in full gallop.

In a pass-catching room filled with stars such as Eric Decker, Julius Thomas, Wes Welker and Emmanuel Thomas, it was DT who shone brightest of all.

IT WASN’T JUST the strength of his body, but his mind and spirit. Still, one couldn’t ignore his frame, a 225-pound piece of iron. He looked nothing like a typical wide receiver. But when he got the football on a bubble screen, he hit fifth gear faster than anyone else on the field.

But when he was hit, he took a beating.

It took multiple defenders to bring him down, so instead of absorbing 190 pounds of force from an opposing cornerback on a tackle, he’d frequently absorb 400 pounds of manpower.

The hits accumulated, his body wore down, and his production eventually dipped. But even in the games prior to his midseason 2018 trade to Houston, he was still capable of magic; in grim back-to-back losses to the New York Jets and Los Angeles Rams, his touchdown catches were the bright spots.

And until the Texans placed him on injured reserve in Week 17 of the 2018 season, he had played in 132 consecutive games dating back to 2011, a remarkable achievement and a testament to his resilience and what seemed to be a superhuman pain tolerance.

The Broncos could rely on so little as their prominence gradually faded late in 2016 and throughout 2017. But they could count on Thomas.

IN THE END, that is what Broncos Country will remember most.

Denver will recall a man who, for so long, seemed like he could shake anything off, whether it was an angry defender or a series of drops.

Perhaps the best example of that was in a November 2015 win over New England, a game in which he dropped five passes from fill-in quarterback Brock Osweiler.

With the Broncos trailing 21-17 and 2:31 remaining, Osweiler looked for Thomas once again down the right sideline. Though the snowflakes, Thomas contorted to grab the 36-yard pass that launched the Broncos to a clutch, late-game touchdown drive.

Thomas was targeted 13 times that night. He caught just one pass. But he made the grab that mattered most, a typical Thomas catch that involved a perfect adjustment to the ball in flight and a contortion to beat a defender.

It was an example of how Thomas managed to rise to the moment, even when the weight of the world bore down upon him.

There will be plenty of other pass-catchers who make big plays.

But there will never be another DT, who absorbed the awful physical toll that his sport creates, who made so many big catches with missile-lock safeties bearing down on him, and time after time got up to make another play.

On the field, he was a perfect blend of power and balletic grace. Off of it, he was thoughtful and humble.

And he is gone too soon.

He was the most underappreciated Bronco of his time — and perhaps any time. Fans often focused on the drops, rather than the big moments. I often thought that he wouldn’t get his due until he entered the Ring of Fame, when enough time would have passed for the down moments to fade and only the great plays to remain etched in the memory.

He will never get to experience that moment.

And that is a tragedy beyond words.

Demaryius Thomas, 1987-2021.

DT, forever.