Who are the best quarterbacks the Denver Broncos have had since John Elway?
It has been quite a roller coaster when it comes to the quarterback position for the Denver Broncos since John Elway retired after his second Super Bowl victory in 1998.
The Broncos have gone to the playoffs just nine times since Elway retired.
Many quarterbacks have passed through Denver over the last 21 years. Some were complete busts, while some were decent or even great.
The Broncos have had nine different quarterbacks start a season in the last two decades. 2020 will be yet another one, as Drew Lock will get the nod. There have been some overrated quarterbacks, and especially some underrated ones that stepped foot on the field for the Broncos.
Some arrived Denver unexpectedly, and some were gladly welcomed to the Mile High City with open arms.
It’s going to be interesting to see later down the road where Drew Lock will fit on this list. But for now, we’re examining the list pre-Lock.
Let’s start from worst and head toward the best quarterbacks to start a season for the Broncos since the retirement of John Elway. Here we go!
10. Joe Flacco (2019)
This one hurts. The Broncos traded for Joe Flacco from the Baltimore Ravens, hoping that he would bring a spark to the offense.
That was not meant to be.
Flacco could not move around in the pocket and therefore was unable to fulfill the expectations of Rich Scangarello’s offense. He went 2-6 for the Broncos before an injury knocked him out for the remainder of the season.
Some people believe that the Broncos benched him due to comments he made about the offensive coordinator.
But he was just not the quarterback the Broncos expected him to be. It was fairly obvious that the team was going to need to look for his replacement. They did that, starting Brandon Allen for three games and then Drew Lock for the final five.
9. Case Keenum (2018)
Case Keenum signed with the Broncos in 2018 after a playoff year with the Minnesota Vikings the year before. A lot of eyes were on him as he looked to make magic happen for the Mile High team.
Keenum threw 18 touchdowns to 15 interceptions in 16 games with the Broncos, on the way to leading them to a 6-10 record.
End result for Keenum
It was an unfortunate lone year with the Broncos, but looking on the bright side, the poor year helped the Broncos get several really good players in the 2018 NFL Draft.
The Broncos and their fans wanted to quickly get rid of the memories Case Keenum made with the team.
In the end, they had to search for their next quarterback—one who would hopefully become the future face of the franchise.
8. Kyle Orton (2009-11)
Kyle Orton was the guy that the Broncos (Josh McDaniels) acquired from the Chicago Bears for quarterback Jay Cutler. If it weren’t for Joe Flacco’s very bad lone season in Denver, I really think Orton could be last on this list.
Under Orton’s quarterbacking, the Broncos started the 2009 season with a 6-0 record… only to finish with an 8-8 record to close out the season.
Orton played 34 games for the Broncos, starting 32. He left the Broncos with a 12-21 record. In 2010, Orton started 13 games and went 3-10. He was replaced by fan-favorite Tim Tebow.
The trade of Cutler and Orton was extremely gut-wrenching for Broncos fans. We never got to see what the team could have been had McDaniels kept Cutler, Brandon Marshall, and Tony Scheffler.
7. Trevor Siemian (2015-17)
Trevor Siemian was drafted by the Broncos in the seventh round of the 2015 draft and sat on the bench while the other quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler worked their way to help the team win Super Bowl 50.
Following the Super Bowl victory and Manning’s retirement, Siemian won the starting job. He beat out Paxton Lynch and Osweiler. Siemian played in 25 games over the next two seasons in Denver, finishing his time with the Broncos with a 13-11 record.
Siemian threw for 5,686 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 24 interceptions while completing 59.3 percent of his passes in those two years.
End result for Siemian in Denver
In 2018, he left the Broncos in free agency to sign with the Minnesota Vikings. He spent that year backing up Kirk Cousins and then signed with the New York Jets, where he would fill in for Sam Darnold for a game. He ended up suffering a very gruesome ankle injury that would knock him out for the year.
For a seventh-round pick, Siemian took a lot of heat. It is not an easy task to replace a legend in Peyton Manning. He would honestly be a reliable backup to the next team that he is on.
6. Brock Osweiler (2012-15, 17)
Brock Osweiler was drafted in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft—the same year that Peyton Manning joined the team. Osweiler played sparingly over the next three season, throwing just 30 passes.
His real action came during the Super Bowl season, in 2015. Manning suffered a major foot injury (partial tear of the plantar fascia), paving the way for Osweiler to start seven games.
He went 5-2 in those starts, completing 170-of-275 passes (61.8 percent) for 1,967 yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Overall, Osweiler went 5-6 during his two stints in Denver, but he was a huge factor in leading the team into position for the playoffs, and ultimately a Super Bowl victory.
Unfortunately, reports came out that, when he hit free agency, Osweiler was instructed to dodge calls from Broncos general manager John Elway from his agent. That made it clear that he was going to sign somewhere else, which he did. He signed a huge contract with the Texans.
After one year in Houston, Osweiler was traded to the Cleveland Browns but ended up not playing for them.
Osweiler’s second stint with the Broncos
In his second stint with the Broncos, he was in competition with 2015 seventh-round pick Trevor Siemian and 2016 first-round pick Paxton Lynch. Siemian won the starting job but Osweiler started four games that year, losing all of them.
Despite the losing record with the Broncos, Osweiler needs to be credited for taking on a large task of helping the team on its way to the Super Bowl. It probably would have been a disaster if it weren’t for him. He needs to receive more credit than he does.
Siemian vs Osweiler debate
I think the deciding factor for putting Osweiler ahead of Siemian is simply due to the impact Osweiler made on the Super Bowl team.
You definitely can argue that Siemian should be ahead of him due to his draft status, but the Broncos hadn’t gotten to the playoffs with Siemian at quarterback.
I think that despite this, however, this ranking was closer than some people may think. The Broncos hadn’t had an overly exciting quarterback following the retirement of Manning, so I think that following in No. 18’s footsteps could have hurt both players a little bit.
5. Tim Tebow (2010-11)
Ah, Tebow Time. That was a fun year for fans who didn’t necessarily need to see a traditional passer at quarterback for the Broncos.
Tebow struggled with his mechanics, so the team’s coaches had to change their offensive game plans for the young quarterback who was drafted in the first round of the 2010 Draft. The Broncos first selected receiver Demaryius Thomas earlier in that round, and then traded back up into the first round to select Tebow.
Nowhere can you find a player with more heart than Tebow had for his teammates.
While he wasn’t a great passer, the threat of the read option was a problem for defenses. Tebow rushed 165 times for 887 yards and 12 touchdowns for the Broncos.
He overcame his dyslexia diagnosis in the NFL and has in life.
The most notable thing that Tebow did for the franchise was his exciting throw on the first play of overtime in the 2011 playoff game against the Steelers. He hit Demaryius Thomas and Thomas went all the way for the score. It ended up being the fastest play in playoff overtime history.
4. Brian Griese (1998-2002)
Brian Griese was the starting quarterback of the Broncos immediately following the retirement of Elway. He spent just four years as the starter in Denver and helped the Broncos make the playoffs in just one of those years.
Griese was a Pro Bowler for the team in 2000, after he posted a 7-3 record, completed 64.3 percent of his passes, and had a 19-4 touchdown-interception ratio.
Griese had a 27-24 record as the starting quarterback of the Broncos.
Perhaps the second-most notable (to the Pro Bowl selection) of Griese’s Broncos career was his interception in which Terrell Davis made the touchdown-saving tackle but ended up tearing his knee up.
This isn’t a sexy pick but that just goes to show how much the team has struggled to find the answer to their quarterback problems over the last 20 years.
Griese’s next stops
Griese would follow his time in Denver playing sparingly for the Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Chicago Bears over the next six years.
3. Jay Cutler (2006-2008)
Jay Cutler played just three seasons for the Broncos, but he was a young gunslinger who could have been an eventual playoff-winning quarterback for the Broncos. Maybe.
While with the Broncos, Cutler was compared to John Elway. Some say he looked like Elway when Elway was a youngster. Some say that he threw the football like the Hall of Famer.
Cutler could have been an awesome star for the Broncos if he wasn’t traded along with wide receiver Brandon Marshall and tight end Tony Scheffler. Those three players maybe would have helped the team get to the playoffs later down the road.
Cutler replaced Jake Plummer as the starting quarterback but his career in Denver was short-lived.
Cutler was traded by head coach Josh McDaniels while he was in just his third year, McDaniels in his first year with the team. Cutler would go on to the Chicago Bears and win just one playoff game.
What happened following the trade of Cutler?
Cutler would end up playing for the Chicago Bears from 2009 to 2016. He retired for a brief moment and then joined the Miami Dolphins.
Cutler finished with a career playoff record of 1-1.
2. Jake Plummer (2003-06)
Jake Plummer was with the Denver Broncos for four seasons and led the team to the playoffs in his first three. In 2005, the Broncos made it all the way to the AFC Championship Game but fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who would eventually win the Super Bowl, defeating the Seattle Seahawks.
In 2005, Plummer had a streak of 229 straight passes in which he did not throw an interception. That streak was during weeks seven through 14.
While Plummer never ended up winning a Super Bowl for the Broncos, he made a tremendous impact with both his arm and his legs. Plummer ran head coach Mike Shanahan’s bootleg offense very well.
His best season with the Broncos was in 2004 when he threw for 4,089 yards, 27 touchdowns and a completion percentage of 58.2 (though, his highest completion percentage was in 2003, when he completed 62.3 percent of his passes).
In 2004, Plummer targeted top wideouts Rod Smith and Ashley Lelie 237 times combined. The next closest was Jeb Putzier, targeted 54 times. He managed to get both of his top wideouts past the 1,000-yard mark.
He led his teams to 20 comebacks and engineered 30 game-winning drives during his career.
The trade of Plummer
Unfortunately, his relationship with the team spoiled after they drafted Jay Cutler in the first round of the 2006 draft. Cutler eventually replaced Plummer for good.
Plummer was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a 2008 conditional pick. He would not end up playing a down for the Buccaneers and ultimately retired.
1. Peyton Manning (2012-15)
Peyton Manning, one of the top 5 quarterbacks in NFL history, joined the Broncos in 2012, which honestly caught me off guard. How could a long-time rival of the Broncos join the Mile High team?
It was a great thing, though. It was easy to warm up to him.
Manning brought an enormous amount of leadership to the Broncos. He set record upon record and was the quarterback of two Super Bowl seasons. Super Bowl XLVIII did not go as Broncos fans had hoped, as they lost to the Seahawks by a score of 43-8. But Manning did not quit.
The Broncos had an incredible 45-12 win-loss record during Manning’s time with the team. In the team’s regular-season before Super Bowl XLVIII, he threw for 5,477 yards, 55 touchdowns to just 12 interceptions.
When it comes to the starting quarterbacks of the Broncos since the retirement of Elway, the difference between Manning and the No. 2 player on this list, Plummer, is fairly large.
Manning will forever be a legend with the Indianapolis Colts. But he will also be one of the best quarterbacks to ever suit up for the Broncos, no matter for how long.
Manning is still living in Denver to this day
I guess it’s true that if you love a certain city, you don’t leave that city.
Manning has been a big part of the Denver community since arriving and continues to be since his playing days came to an end. If only we got to have more seasons with the future Hall of Fame quarterback leading the Broncos.