Peyton Manning owes the Broncos a great debt of gratitude

Isn’t it ironic? After seventeen long years since the retirement of John Elway and four seasons with another Hall of Famer under center, it was the Broncos defense that ultimately brought Denver home another title.

After the game the CBS broadcast crew handed the microphone to Peyton Manning first among Denver players. Really, though, he was the last reason that the Broncos were celebrating. Manning had a pedestrian performance in the Super Bowl — at best. At worst he delivered the shabbiest big game performance of any title-winning signal caller ever. Manning completed just 13 of 23 passes for a 141 yards and no touchdowns. His passer rating was a not-so-super 56.6 which, unfortunately, pretty well jives with the kind of season Manning had.

Your World Champion quarterback started only 10 of 16 regular season games in 2015. He famously tossed only nine touchdowns to 17 interceptions and, despite a couple of strong performances, finished with a passer rating of 67.9, by far the worst of his career and among the worst in the NFL.

Still, Manning will walk away a Champion. Presumably, anyway.

Additionally, he should stroll into the sunset having broken no fewer than 15 NFL records during his career, the overwhelming majority of which were snapped right here in Denver. His 13 seasons as the starter in Indianapolis loosened the peanut butter jar lid on his legend, but it was John Elway who ultimately helped him to twist it off by building an all-time offense around him — which carried the Broncos up until this year.

Between 2012 and 2014 Manning was able to pass for about 15,000 yards and 131 touchdowns. But despite those Star Wars numbers, the Broncos exited each of those seasons with their heads hanging. As electric as the Denver offense was, opponents were able to crack the code when it mattered most — in the post-season.

Ultimately, Elway had to bring in veteran defensive free agents and replace the coaching staff in order to point his team in an entirely different direction to get it over the hump. That meant downplaying what had once been Manning’s abilities. The timing was fortunate, too, since those abilities fell off a cliff in 2015.

Peyton Manning made two trips to the Super Bowl in four seasons, and that’s certainly impressive, but he took the Broncos two seasons ago they took him this time. Fact is, Manning did nothing in these playoffs that Brock Osweiler or any other competent replacement could not have. It can be argued that his “presence” was a driver for Denver but his performances certainly weren’t. He is very fortunate that he didn’t watch the Broncos navigate the post-season from the sidelines.

Late in the 2015 season it looked to all the world as though Peyton had taken his last snap as the starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos. But he was given one last chance and it paid off a big way — probably even more-so for him than for the rest of the team. Could they have won the Super Bowl without him? It’s very possible. Could he have won it without them? It’s very doubtful.

Peyton Manning owes the Denver Broncos a great debt of gratitude. Elway and company rolled the dice four years ago on a quarterback coming off of four neck surgeries. They then equipped that quarterback with the weapons he needed to chisel his name into the record books, on the way to winning a second ring that he had very little to do with earning. And, oh, by the way, the Broncos paid him over $50 million along the way — and kept him relevant for his myriad of endorsement deals.

Manning is a wealthy man; he’s a multi-record holder and now he’s a two-time champion and he owes some of it to John Elway and the Denver Broncos. The Broncos dragged Manning kicking and screaming across the finish line and now he can show his gratitude in a very simple way. He can retire.