Denver Broncos have (renewed) faith in Peyton Manning

The Denver Broncos are embarking on a potential Super Bowl run, and they have a renewed faith in Peyton Manning to bring it home…

It’s not going to be easy — it never is — but the Denver Broncos feel their best chance at winning Super Bowl 50 is with Peyton Manning at the helm.

And Broncos Country is split.

Whatever way you look at it, it’s a move that’s hard to argue with from Gary Kubiak’s standpoint. If the Broncos lose the game, one way or another, fans will find a way to blame it on the quarterback he chose. From the people he has to answer to, it’s going to be hard to justify going into a playoff game where you are the number one seed and you have Peyton Manning on the bench over a guy who has started in six games in his NFL career, all this season.

I’m not saying he’s right or wrong for making the decision, I’m just telling you all how it is.

Kubiak’s decision to roll with Manning sits just fine with me. I was encouraged by what I saw from Brock Osweiler for the future of this team, and I think if the Broncos are able to keep him around after replacing him when they did, everyone is a winner in that situation. Osweiler has been with the Broncos from the start, they got a chance to see what they’ve got, and they’ve got a winner.

Osweiler can get the job done, which should help Kubiak and company sleep at night, because if Manning struggles like he did for most of the season (when on the field), he knows he can pull him in favor of Osweiler, who’s also capable of digging the team out of a hole.

Like I said on Twitter earlier, if you told me that going into the playoffs I could have the top defense in the league, Peyton Manning, and home field advantage throughout, I would take that deal 100 times out of 100.

No questions asked.

That’s the exact scenario the Broncos have, and I understand that the really ‘pro-Brock’ crowd wants to raise a fuss about it, but in the end, I think Kubiak is making the right decision.

“I just do what I think is best for the football team,” Kubiak said. “From that standpoint, that’s how I make the decision. The good news is for our football team that a lot of people have been involved and contributed to where we are right now. I feel really good about this. I feel good about how far Peyton has come, where he’s at physically, mentally and everything. I could see it happening throughout the course of the last two weeks. I’m excited for him to get going. Our football team is excited as a team with the challenges that we have ahead.”

Manning says that now that he’s been through rehabbing his foot and missed some time, he’s grateful to be back on the field.

“Yeah, certainly I guess I would have to say, just like four years ago—the last time I missed significant time—anytime something is taken away from you due to health, it does. even though I’ve never left like I’ve taken it for granted, being healthy and being able to play—when you’re not out there playing, it certainly does remind you how fortunate you are when you have the opportunity to be healthy and be ready to play. That would be my message to all players out there. When they are healthy, be grateful for it and don’t take it for granted, because when you’re not, it’s certainly not as much fun.”

The renewed confidence in Manning extends to the rest of the roster, including the receivers who have adjusted to catching passes from Osweiler over the last two months.

Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders said that he and Demaryius Thomas joked at practice on Thursday about how they hadn’t seen Manning as happy as he was since before he was injured…

“Today, [WR Demaryius] DT [Thomas] and I were teasing him a little bit, saying, ‘Man, we haven’t seen you smile like that in about five or six weeks.’ I know that he’s happy to be back and everybody is happy for him. Peyton has been a standup guy to this whole team and this entire organization. You guys want to make it about him, but we have a big time playoff game coming up. We find out who our opponent is on Saturday and I’m just looking forward to that.”

While this move is a hard one for Brock Osweiler to accept, it’s something the team probably had to do. If things start to go haywire, the team has confidence it can turn to Osweiler and find success. The circumstances that led to Manning’s re-insertion into the lineup weren’t Osweiler’s fault, and that might sting a little bit.

At the end of the day, this game is about bringing home hardware, and to do it, Gary Kubiak feels like the best chance they have of doing that is with Peyton Manning at the helm.

Hopefully, he can make it happen.