Elway eyes future issues, but talks will wait

[Denver Native (Carol)]

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – Even as the Denver Broncos are poised to play Sunday with a Super Bowl trip on the line, the team’s executive vice president of football operations John Elway knows he already has two fairly significant meetings on his calendar in the coming weeks.

One with head coach John Fox and one with quarterback Peyton Manning.

Fox would be heading into the final year of his original four-year contract in 2014 and that’s usually not a situation either the coach or the team wants to be in if both sides like where things are heading. The Broncos have gone 34-14 in three regular seasons under Fox (Fox missed four of those games this year) with three AFC West titles.

rest - http://espn.go.com/blog/denver-broncos/post/_/id/4126/elway-eyes-future-issues-but-talks-will-wait

[Joel]

More on Mannings future from Legwold writing for ESPN this week: http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/10282231/peyton-manning-denver-broncos-determine-future-based-results-offseason-neck-exam Basically, last years physical locked in OUR end of the contract for the next two years, but the contract also requires a scan of Mannings neck this March; he'll decide from that whether to return next year.

There have been lots of comparisons between this years Broncos and the '97 team based on how the PREVIOUS season ended, but I wonder how strong the parallels are with the end of THAT season and this one. The '97 team was blessed to have a second chance, but had to slug it out with KC to win the division (and, unlike this team, failed, forcing them to win a wildcard game, then beat KC on the road in the divisonal round.)

That led to a showdown (again on the road rather than at home) against what had been the best AFC team of the decade, '90s Steelers. Winning that game led in turn to a SB widely considered hopeless (the Vegas line was GB by 11, and the AFC was on a 13 game losing streak) against the NFCs previous SB team (as SF is this year.)

History isn't destiny, and it's easier to spot the similarities than the differences, but the comparison's certainly interesting.

[Shazam!]

I don't like comparing the Broncos championship teams to this one, especially yet.

That was also a different era of the NFL and one could argue a weak AFC.

[Joel]

I don't like comparing the Broncos championship teams to this one, especially yet.

That was also a different era of the NFL and one could argue a weak AFC.
The AFC was weak (always had been, really) right up until the time we won; after that the AFC went on a tear of SB victories. As noted in another thread, I don't think those Broncos teams get enough credit for doing more to make the AFC respectable than anyone since the '68 Jets. Before that the only AFL teams who'd won a SB in 31 years were the Jets (once) Dolphins (twice) and Raiders (thrice.) The other 25 out of 31 SBs went to either NFC teams or NFL teams transferred to the NFC (and even the latter group only won in the first decade or so after the merger.)

We changed all that, providing the first AFC win in 13 years, repeating, and ushering in a decade of dominance when the AFC went 8-2 in SBs (the two losses being the perilously close One Yard Short Rams win and the year Gruden used the Bucs elite D to beat a playbook he WROTE) before the NFC finally regained parity in the wake of the Giants first upset of NE.

Your point is well taken though that the teams aren't truly comparable until/unless this one finishes as well as the other one. It's all well to say our guys want it and will do their job all game, but nobody reaches a conference championship without that kind of drive, and we still have to beat 2/3 of those other teams to finish on top.

[Shazam!]

I meant a weak AFC as in there was Denver and everyone else. Denver was the class of the conference and practically the Pro Bowl squad.

[Joel]

I meant a weak AFC as in there was Denver and everyone else. Denver was the class of the conference and practically the Pro Bowl squad.
I'm not so sure about that. The AFC was (or at least had been) weaker overall, but Buffalos 4 straight SB teams were practically a Pro Bowl squad, too; good enough to beat Denver in the AFCCG, which was the only time in those 4 years Denver even made the playoffs. After that, the mid-nineties Steelers were also pretty good; they stayed close till the end of the last SB the second Dallas dynasty won, and two years later were the team we beat in AFCCG.

By the time we won our first SB, multiple AFC contenders who made winning the AFCCG a great achievement, not something any great team took for granted in a conference with no others.

[MOtorboat]

I'm not so sure about that. The AFC was (or at least had been) weaker overall, but Buffalos 4 straight SB teams were practically a Pro Bowl squad, too; good enough to beat Denver in the AFCCG, which was the only time in those 4 years Denver even made the playoffs. After that, the mid-nineties Steelers were also pretty good; they stayed close till the end of the last SB the second Dallas dynasty won, and two years later were the team we beat in AFCCG.

By the time we won our first SB, multiple AFC contenders who made winning the AFCCG a great achievement, not something any great team took for granted in a conference with no others.

Denver was in the playoffs two of those four years, actually.

[Joel]

Denver was in the playoffs two of those four years, actually.
1991 and...? Denver did make the SB the year before Buffalo reached their first one, but no one wants to talk about that game.

[Dzone]

1991 and...? Denver did make the SB the year before Buffalo reached their first one, but no one wants to talk about that game.
Ya I remember 55-10. The day Joe Montana cemented his name as the greatest super bowl quarterback in history. Maybe the greatest quarterback of all time. That game sucked. I watched it at Hollihans in Tamarac. Is that bar still there?

[MOtorboat]

1991 and...? Denver did make the SB the year before Buffalo reached their first one, but no one wants to talk about that game.

1993. Lost to the Raiders in the wildcard round. Raiders then lost to the Bills, Chiefs beat the Oilers (last playoff win) and Buffalo manhandled the Chiefs in the Championship game.

[MOtorboat]

Ya I remember 55-10. The day Joe Montana cemented his name as the greatest super bowl quarterback in history. Maybe the greatest quarterback of all time. That game sucked. I watched it at Hollihans in Tamarac. Is that bar still there?

I still maintain the 10-7 loss in the AFC Championship game to Buffalo two years later was more heart-wrenching...Elway gets hurt and Sewell fumbles while Kubiak is driving Denver to the tie or win.

[vettesplus]

win or lose this year I really believe next year will be pfm's last year!!

[Shazam!]

That AFCCG vs. Buff was scarring. Tough loss to swallow.

[Day1BroncoFan]

I missed the mid 80's up through the early 90's. I was beyond the beyond.

[Joel]

1993. Lost to the Raiders in the wildcard round. Raiders then lost to the Bills, Chiefs beat the Oilers (last playoff win) and Buffalo manhandled the Chiefs in the Championship game.
My bad; I only checked Buffalos opponents. I guess the main thing I remember about that year is Montana beating Houston in his swan song, giving me just one more reason to hate the guy.

It was the swan song for the Oilers, too: Bud Adams followed through on his threat to break up the team if they didn't win the SB in their 7th straight playoff run (much as he did with Bums teams that reached two straight AFCCG games as a wilcard, only to lose both to the Steelers dynasty that won the division.) Then he yet again demanded Harris County bulldoze the Eighth Wonder of the World to build a bigger, skybox-filled, stadium even though he couldn't sell out the Dome; they told him to go to Hell and he responded to that suggestion like Davy Crockett did.

Montanas pro career is neatly bookended by the huge Cotton Bowl comeback to beat the Houston Cougars in the Chicken Soup Game and beating the Houston Oilers in the divisional playoff.

[7DnBrnc53]

My bad; I only checked Buffalos opponents. I guess the main thing I remember about that year is Montana beating Houston in his swan song, giving me just one more reason to hate the guy.

It was the swan song for the Oilers, too: Bud Adams followed through on his threat to break up the team if they didn't win the SB in their 7th straight playoff run (much as he did with Bums teams that reached two straight AFCCG games as a wilcard, only to lose both to the Steelers dynasty that won the division.) Then he yet again demanded Harris County bulldoze the Eighth Wonder of the World to build a bigger, skybox-filled, stadium even though he couldn't sell out the Dome; they told him to go to Hell and he responded to that suggestion like Davy Crockett did.

Montanas pro career is neatly bookended by the huge Cotton Bowl comeback to beat the Houston Cougars in the Chicken Soup Game and beating the Houston Oilers in the divisional playoff.

What was funny about what Adams did is that he broke the team up, but he kept the coach (Jack Pardee) that he should have fired after their 92 WC collapse in Buffalo.

The day after the 93 Oiler Football Life show, I Googled 93 Oilers, and found a Titan forum where they were talking about how inept the GM and Front office was.

One poster wrote that they could have had a first rounder in 94 for Cody Carlson from Minnesota (probably the one that the Vikes got from the Broncos the year before for Gary Zimmerman), but they decided to trade Moon instead.

That person also said that they could have had decent draft picks for either RB Gary Brown or RB Lorenzo White, and WR Ernest Givins, but wouldn't trade them.

[Joel]

There's nothing funny about Bud Adams. It IS funny to think the Vikings might've traded a 1st for Commander Cody, but it was just a few years after The Trade, so I wouldn't put it past them. I definitely would've given up Brown and White for a decent draft pick, but definitely NOT #81; he's my all time favorite player, and I hated it when the Jags got him in their expansion draft.

Really, Brown, White, Rozier; pretty much all RBs were expendable in the Run 'n Shoot. Not saying they SHOULD'VE been, but that was Bud Adams channeling his pal Davis, as usual. This is the guy who spent a series of top draft picks on guards, yet ran so little he didn't have even ONE TE on the whole ROSTER. Meanwhle, the TACKLES were so awful they helped Warren Moon teach me the value of protecting the QBs blindside and the pain of the strip-sack.

Dud Adams shared the worst aspects of Davis and Jones, but those micro-managers delivered a trio of SBs in their prime. Bud only won the first two AFL titles, then lost the third in DOT.

I believe a friend of mine was correct to point out Bud was the last original AFL owner. His biggest error may have been giving Bum Phillips a week to chat with St. Peter before arriving himself:

"Sorry, Bud, we don't have enough seating capacity; we're relocating you...." ;)