Broncos still Super Bowl contenders, even if it’ll look a little different
ENGLEWOOD, Colo — Welcome to training camp of the contender that everyone has forgotten about.
Pick up a magazine or find an early Internet preview and let me know if any picked the Denver Broncos to win the Super Bowl. I haven’t seen one yet.
“We’re here to win a championship,” said Broncos coach Gary Kubiak, who got the job because John Fox won four straight AFC West titles but no Super Bowl titles. “That’s our goal as a football team.”
That’s training camp talk. Roughly 32 teams will say that if pressed. About 15 or so should realistically think they’re telling the truth. Maybe six or seven have a good reason to be angry if it doesn’t come true.
The Broncos haven’t dropped out of that group of six or seven. They’re still a legitimate Super Bowl contender. They’ll just chase that goal with a much different approach.
The reason the Broncos are a bit of an an afterthought is because of how one guy played in one game last season. Quarterback Peyton Manning looked old in the Broncos’ divisional round playoff loss to the Indianapolis Colts. He had 211 yards on 46 attempts. Every throw seemed like a struggle. He couldn’t even say after the game if he’d retire or come back. Going into Manning’s age-39 season, the Broncos aren’t ignoring that their quarterback needs to be handled differently if they’re going to win anything.
The Broncos have embraced Manning’s age and what they have to do to work around it. Nobody tried to act like he will be the 5,477-yard, 55-touchdown guy he was in 2013. The talk around the Broncos as they reported to camp on Thursday was about easing back on Manning in practice, monitoring his throws in camp and monitoring his attempts during the season too. You’d assume it’s not easy to sell Manning on working less, but it’s necessary.
“The key thing with Peyton, and I think Peyton is on board with it, is that even though you can’t feel it now, if you’re doing too much work now it’s going to catch up to you,” Broncos general manager John Elway said. “At 37, 38, 39 years old where he is, you can’t make that up at the end.
“He’ll never feel it. But you get to December, you get to January, if we haven’t taken care of it in August, September, October, that can hurt him and us.”
Late last season the offense started revolving around running back C.J. Anderson, who played really well in the second half of the season. The Broncos started going bigger, with extra linemen and multiple tight ends. They knew well before Manning hurt his quad against San Diego on Dec. 14 that he was slowing down. He had hit the wall by the playoffs. The Broncos then hired Kubiak to be their head coach, and Kubiak is one of the best in the NFL at devising a running game. So the fact that the Broncos are planning to feature Manning less is no surprise.
Oh, if only the Broncos had a good example around of an aging quarterback who took a lesser role, saving himself to make a play a few times a game while the running game did the heavy lifting on the way to a title.
“No. 1, we’re going to have good balance on the offensive side, and late in my career that was my best friend, the running game,” said Elway, who completed 12 passes for 123 yards and no touchdowns while Terrell Davis rushed for 157 and three scores in Elway’s first Super Bowl win. “I think that running game will be Peyton’s best friend also. Obviously it’s going to be a little bit of an adjustment.”
Elway likes to say, “It’s not about win now. It’s about win from now on.” That’s a great line, but a bit misleading for the Broncos of this era. The Broncos have been built to win now since Manning agreed to come to Denver. The Broncos have rightfully been aggressive in free agency, and it is getting tougher to keep the core together. Receiver Demaryius Thomas was re-signed to a big deal, but tight end Julius Thomas and guard Orlando Franklin couldn’t be retained. Next year, outside linebacker Von Miller hits free agency. He might have a monster season with new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips. That’s an issue for another day.
The focus right now is if the Broncos can win a Super Bowl while Manning is still a top quarterback. And Manning should still be one of the league’s best, just not at the volume we’re used to. Manning did post a 101.5 rating last year. He might not be good for 659 MVP throws like he was two years ago, but maybe 500 or so very good throws? Sure, why not.
“When you have Peyton Manning out there …. the smartest quarterback in my opinion in the National Football League managing the game, I think that’s a recipe for success,” receiver Emmanuel Sanders said.
Sanders didn’t mean “managing the game,” in a negative way at all, certainly not in the way the term “game manager” is commonly used. Manning has managed just about every game he has ever played in, and done it at a Hall of Fame level. He isn’t going to be Alex Smith or Andy Dalton this season. But the words were striking. Manning, the only five-time MVP in league history, is going to be asked to manage the game. Clearly everyone goes into this season understanding that roles will change, even for one of the game’s all time greats.
“Peyton wants to win games, he wants to win championships,” Elway said. “I think he’s going to do everything he can to get that done within the system we have now.”
If Manning can be that 100-plus rating quarterback again, Anderson and/or Montee Ball run the ball effectively and the Broncos underrated defense plays at a top level again (Denver was second in the NFL in yards per play allowed behind the Seattle Seahawks, if you hadn’t realized), then Denver could get right back to the Super Bowl. The Broncos are 38-10 in the regular season the past three years. There are issues — the offensive line might be a real problem, and the defensive line will be thin during Derek Wolfe’s four-game suspension — but the Broncos shouldn’t feel they have to line up behind anyone in the AFC as they go into the season.
Other than debates about how much Manning has left in the tank, the Broncos have been the least talked-about contender this offseason. Maybe you haven’t thought about them in a while, but the Broncos still believe they’re a championship contender. It just will look a little different this season, that’s all.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
