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Top 50 Denver Broncos

The Denver Broncos were charter members of the American Football League in 1960, but it is hard to remember that they were even in that league, to begin with.  The Broncos were the only team that never played in the AFL Title and not only that they also never even had a winning record.  Beyond having a star in Running Back, Floyd Little, the team might have folded or relocated.  But as they say, time heals everything.

By the mid-'70s, the Broncos would have a defensive unit called the "Orange Crush," and it took them to Super Bowl XII and a loss to the Dallas Cowboys.  The "D" remained solid for years, but they would later be known for their offense when they traded for Quarterback, John Elway.  The Broncos would win the AFC Conference three times in the last half of the 1980s, but they would lose each Super Bowl by wide margins.

Along with Running Back, Terrell Davis, Elway again took the Broncos to the Super Bowl, and he would finally win it all in Super Bowl XXXII and repeated it the following year with a championship win over the Atlanta Falcons in a game that would be Elway's last.

Denver would be up and down after that for the following fifteen seasons and Elway, now the team's General Manager brought in Peyton Manning.  Manning would take the team to two Super Bowls, the first a lopsided loss XLVIII to the Seattle Seahawks but backed by a potent defense led by Von Miller, and they would win Super Bowl 50.


This list is up to the end of the 2022 regular season.

Note: Football lists are based on an amalgamation of tenure, traditional statistics, advanced statistics, playoff statistics, and post-season accolades.

John Elway was the most highly touted Quarterback of the 1983 Draft, but he made it very clear from the start that he did not want to play for the Baltimore Colts who had the number one overall pick.  He would be traded to the Denver Broncos, and while he had some growing pains the way most young Quarterbacks do,…
Von Miller played the first nine seasons-and-a-half in the NFL (all with Denver), and he has been named to the Pro Bowl in seven of them.  It gets even more impressive as he was named an All-Pro (three First Team and four Second Team) in all seven of those Pro Bowl years.
Shannon Sharpe was a late round draft pick in 1990, and the product of Savannah State would become the most prolific Tight End of the 1990s.  In his third season in the NFL, he would be named to the Pro Bowl where he would begin a seven-year streak.  Sharpe would become one of John Elway's most dependable weapons and he…
Champ Bailey began his professional football career with the Washington Redskins where the Cornerback was named to the Pro Bowl four of his five seasons there.  Bailey was franchise tagged and was permitted to seek a trade and one was surprisingly worked out for Running Back Clinton Portis of the Broncos.  The deal arguably worked better for the Broncos and…
Tackles were not kept track of when Randy Gradishar played in the NFL but if they were Gradishar would be statistically proven as one of the most magnificent tackling machines in the history of Professional Football.
Nowadays, it is expected that if you don't accumulate at least 10,000 Yards as a Running Back that a Hall of Fame slot won't likely come your way.  That line of thinking wasn't much different in the late, and early '00s, but then most Running backs never had a three-year stretch of dominance like Terrell Davis did.
Playing college at Missouri Southern State, Rod Smith would break a lot of school records, but it did not translate into a draft selection.  The Denver Broncos would, however, sign him and while he did not play as a rookie and sparingly in the two seasons after, he would become a star receiver for John Elway in 1997 where he…
Steve Atwater was one of the most hard-hitting Safeties ever, and his highlight reel reeks of tackles and hots that would be illegal today.  
Known as the "Albino Rhino," Karl Mecklenburg was a late round (12th) pick from the University of Minnesota was the master of versatility for the Denver Broncos.  Mecklenburg played seven different defensive positions for Denver and was described as a "Defensive Swiss-Army Knife."  Usually, he lined up at Inside Linebacker, and the was a First Team All-Pro in both 1985…
The Denver Broncos put everything together in the late, and there were a lot of differences around John Elway that you could point to on the offensive weapons that he now had (Shannon Sharpe and Terrell Davis), but he also had a top Center in Tom Nalen.  From 1997 to 2000 he was named to the Pro Bowl and was…
From San Jose State, Louis Wright would become one of the best Defensive Backs in Denver Bronco history.  Wright played his entire career with the Denver Broncos where he played 165 Games and was named to the 1970’s All-Decade Team.
The Denver Broncos might be one of the premier franchises in the National Football League now, but in their early years, they were not very good and had very little reason to sell tickets.  One of the few good things they had was Floyd Little, their first Round Running Back from 1967.
Dennis Smith was a six-time Pro Bowl Selection over a career that spanned fourteen seasons.  Smith’s career was spent all with Denver where he was drafted 15th overall in 1981 out of USC, and he was a precursor to Steve Atwater as one of the hardest hitting Defensive Backs in football.  Smith helped the team reach three Super Bowls, and…
Bill Thompson played all 179 of his Games with the Denver Broncos, and he started every single one of them.  A 3rd Round Pick from Maryland State, Thompson was a versatile defensive player who as a rookie would lead the NFL in both Yards per Kick and Punt Return.  Thompson spent many more seasons returning kicks and punts for the…
It seemed like forever that the Denver Broncos were searching for Quarterback to replace John Elway, and it took Elway himself to find one.  As the Broncos' General Manager and one Hall of Famer signed another and Peyton Manning was signed as a Free Agent from the Indianapolis Colts.
Tom Jackson was a 4th Round Pick from Louisville and considering he spent 14 seasons at Mile High this was undoubtedly a high-value selection.  Jackson started 177 of the 191 Games he played at Linebacker, and he was the soul of the famed Orange Crush defense that reversed the fortunes of Denver and brought them to their first Super Bowl…
The Denver Broncos might be one of the elite teams of the National Football League, but their origin in the AFL saw them struggle and there were frankly very few highlights.  One of those brighter spots was Lionel Taylor, a Wide Receiver who many forget led the American Football League five times (1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 & 1965) in Receptions. …
Demaryius Thomas was a 2010 1st Round Pick who struggled as a rookie and in his second pro season due to injuries, but he was healthy in his third year where he showed off over the next five years what was expected of him.  Thomas went to the Pro Bowl in 2012 with a 1,434 Years and 10 Touchdown season,…
Gary Zimmerman was a member of the All-Time USFL Team and was a four-time Pro Bowler before his trade to the Denver Broncos where he immediately became the leader of the team's Offensive Line.  The Left Tackle arrived in 1993, and he put on a three-year run of Pro Bowl appearances from 1994 to 1996, the last of which saw…