Denver Broncos: 9 players who deserved to win a Super Bowl

Only the New England Patriots have appeared in more Super Bowls than the Denver Broncos. But some of the franchise’s most legendary players never won a ring.

The Broncos have been to the Super Bowl eight times, but as any long-time fan is aware, the first four trips to the big game were miserable. Not only did the Broncos lose those games, but they were also beaten in devastating fashion.

Though the team was able to win back-to-back Super Bowls in the late 1990s, those four losses left some of the best players in team history without the elusive Super Bowl ring. The gap between Super Bowl wins from 1998 until 2015 also left many players chasing a ring that they would never get.

This may sound like a good problem to have, and for Broncos fans, it is. There are still 12 NFL teams that have never won a Super Bowl and four teams that have never even played in one. But it’s still unfortunate that each of the players on this list retired without winning it all.

Most of the players on this list spent their entire playing careers in Denver. None of the guys on this list ever won a Super Bowl ring with another team either, meaning you won’t see the likes of John Lynch on here.

The teams that won Super Bowl 32 and 33 allowed John Elway to get his ring, along with Terrell Davis, Shannon Sharpe, Rod Smith and Ed McCaffrey. When the team won Super Bowl 50, Peyton Manning was able to retire following a Super Bowl victory.

But many players were never afforded that chance.

Each of these men deserved to have that nice Super Bowl ring to show off or place in a trophy case, but for one reason or another, it never happened.