“I don’t have a Plan B,” Denver Broncos executive vice president of football operations John Elway said in 2012, when asked about betting his franchise on a broken-necked quarterback three days from turning 36 years old. “I’m going with Plan A.”
Anyone who’s worked with Elway at any point in his legendary football career knows that he’s the ultimate competitor. He turns almost everything he does into a game, and he plays every game to win. After giving the Broncos’ upset of the New England Patriots a few days to sink in, the scope of his accomplishments, and the audacity of how he achieved them, are becoming apparent.
One year and a few weeks ago, rumors were swirling that Broncos head coach John Fox might be fired if the Broncos lost to the Indianapolis Colts. John Fox, who’d compiled a 46-18 record since Elway hired him in 2011. Fox, whose teams had made the playoffs four straight times. Fox, whose team had been to a Super Bowl the year before. Fox, who’d taken the helm of the S.S. Tim Tebow right after it bounced off an iceberg and navigated it to a division title and playoff win.
The notion Elway could axe Fox seemed ridiculous—but the Broncos lost, and Fox got axed. Offensive whiz kid Adam Gase left, too, joining Fox in Chicago. Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio took a head-coaching job with the division-rival Oakland Raiders.
Suddenly a team whose championship window had been open for several years, and for whom Elway had set the do-this-or-you’re-fired bar at “Super Bowl,” had no coaching staff, no direction, no certain future.
What do you do when you have championship-caliber talent on both sides of the ball, an elderly future Hall of Famer at quarterback and one year with which to win the Super Bowl?
You hire all your old buddies, of course.
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Gary Kubiak was Elway’s backup, and then Elway’s position coach. He was head coach of the Houston Texans until he wasn’t, and when Fox got the axe Kubiak had finished one somewhat successful year as the offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens.
Kubiak’s offensive style is a run-heavy, zone-blocking, play- and boot-action offense that relies on a quarterback’s mobility and arm to make big plays.
Elway hired Kubiak as his new head coach and handed him Manning, set to turn 39 after a disastrous 2014 stretch run where he looked physically spent. Manning was asked to take a pay cut commensurate with his poor play—but the Broncos still couldn’t re-sign his best red zone weapon, tight end Julius Thomas.
On the defensive side of the ball, Elway called in Wade Phillips. Phillips wasn’t just Kubiak’s defensive coordinator in Houston, he was Elway’s head coach in 1993 and 1994. How many former NFL head coaches have come back to the same team 20 years later as a coordinator, let alone done well?
Getting over the hump from perennial contender to championship winner is difficult, but gutting the coaching staff of a team that’s winning a dozen games or more every year is difficult to understand. Yet this was John Elway’s new Plan A, three years after signing Manning: Fire everybody who wasn’t quite good enough, hire replacements he trusts regardless of scheme or talent fit, and go win the Super Bowl.
There was no Plan B.
A few weeks in, the results were predictable: The offense was moribund when Manning ran Kubiak’s offense, and lively when Manning was allowed to run no-huddle shotgun and throw his favorite routes. Even as Kubiak adjusted the scheme to fit his quarterback, things didn’t go well. Manning spent much of the season as the league’s worst-rated starting passer, and most prolific interceptionist.
When Manning went down with plantar fasciitis, it was a blessing in disguise: Kubiak could see what he had in young free-agent-to-be Brock Osweiler without publicly benching a living legend. Kubiak and the staff wrung better performances out of Osweiler, across the board. Osweiler, per Pro Football Reference, completed passes more frequently, threw touchdowns more frequently, threw interceptions much less frequently, averaged more yards per attempt and per game. He was better than Manning in every measureable dimension; even after Manning was healthy enough to play, he sat.
Yet in a Week 17 game against the San Diego Chargers the Broncos had to win to secure a vital bye, Kubiak turned to Manning in the middle of the third quarter. Manning wasn’t superlative, but he closed out the win—and finished the season with one fewer pick than Blake Bortles, and shared the lowest-passer-rating non-honor with Ryan Mallett.
Just two seasons after Manning re-wrote the NFL record books with 5,477 yards and 55 touchdowns, his teammates were openly setting the bar for him at “[managing] the game right” and “no turnovers.” Manning, despite visibly struggling, has managed to clear that bar—and his defense, with two fantastic performances, has done the rest.
Manning’s best wasn’t good enough to lead the Broncos to the Super Bowl under Fox and Gase and Del Rio, yet somehow Manning’s worst has been good enough under Kubiak and Phillips. It’s largely the same players as 2013 and 2014, and the same guy calling the shots: Elway.
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Given where they were, and where they wanted to go, this bold, brash, all-in bet on his own football instincts wouldn’t have been made by any of the other 31 NFL coaches. But it’s what Elway did as a player, and he had one of the greatest careers in NFL history. Why wouldn’t he call his own number when the stakes are high?
If the Broncos win this Super Bowl, gift Manning with the grandest possible screw-you ammo to his remaining doubters, and seamlessly transition into the Brock Osweiler Era?
Elway won’t just be remembered as one of the best quarterbacks ever to lace up cleats, but one of the best football executives ever to step on a podium.
