The Denver Broncos became an AFL franchise in 1960 and have had plenty of talented quarterbacks slinging the football for them ever since. The most notable names are obviously John Elway and Peyton Manning but Craig Morton, Charley Johnson, and Frank Tripucka are names that people should know as well.
Unfortunately, the Broncos also have plenty of duds who have played quarterback for them as well. Let's take a trip through each decade and look at every single quarterback who started a game for the Broncos.
Broncos starting quarterbacks from 1960 to 1969
Name (Time spent with DEN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Broncos) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Broncos) |
|---|---|---|
Frank Tripucka (1960-1963) | 40 (40) | 0 (0) |
George Herring (1960-1961) | 3 (3) | 0 (0) |
George Shaw (1962) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) |
Mickey Slaughter (1963-1966) | 19 (19) | 0 (0) |
John McCormick (1963-1968) | 15 (15) | 0 (0) |
Don Breaux (1963) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) |
Jacky Lee (1964-1965) | 11 (11) | 0 (0) |
Max Choboian (1966) | 7 (7) | 0 (0) |
Scotty Glacken (1966-1967) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) |
Steve Tensi (1967-1970) | 30 (32) | 0 (0) |
Jim LeClair (1967-1968) | 4 (4) | 0 (0) |
Marlin Briscoe (1968) | 5 (5) | 0 (0) |
Pete Liske (1969-1970) | 2 (11) | 0 (0) |
The first-ever quarterback to take a snap for the Denver Broncos was Frank Tripucka, who started 40 total games for them. Steve Tensi had the second-most starts of the decade with 30. There are a lot of forgettable names on this list but the Broncos were also really bad in the first decade of their existence so it makes sense that they had a lot of swings and misses at the quarterback spot.
Broncos starting quarterbacks from 1970 to 1979
Name (Time spent with DEN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Broncos) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Broncos) |
|---|---|---|
Pete Liske (1969-1970) | 9 (11) | 0 (0) |
Chuck Pastrana (1969-1970) | 3 (3) | 0 (0) |
Steve Tensi (1967-1970) | 2 (32) | 0 (0) |
Don Horn (1971-1972) | 9 (9) | 0 (0) |
Steve Ramsey (1971-1976) | 31 (31) | 0 (0) |
Charley Johnson (1972-1975) | 41 (41) | 0 (0) |
John Hufnagel (1974-1975) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) |
Craig Penrose (1976-1979) | 4 (4) | 0 (0) |
Craig Morton (1977-1982) | 37 (64) | 5 (5) |
Norris Weese (1976-1979) | 7 (7) | 0 (0) |
Two notable quarterbacks for the Broncos in the 1970s were Charley Johnson and Craig Morton. The Broncos were not a good team until Johnson came around and Morton took it a step further by helping Denver reach the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Morton started five total playoff games during his Broncos tenure.
Broncos starting quarterbacks from 1980 to 1989
Name (Time spent with DEN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Broncos) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Broncos) |
|---|---|---|
Craig Morton (1977-1982) | 27 (64) | 0 (5) |
Matt Robinson (1980) | 7 (7) | 0 (0) |
Steve DeBerg (1981-1983) | 11 (11) | 1 (1) |
Mark Herrmann (1982) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) |
John Elway (1983-1998) | 98 (231) | 10 (21) |
Gary Kubiak (1983-1991) | 5 (5) | 0 (0) |
Ken Karcher (1987-1988) | 3 (3) | 0 (0) |
The 1980s brought Broncos fans John Elway, who went on to start 98 regular-season games and 10 playoff games during his first decade on the job. He's by far the most notable name not only in this decade but of all time for the Broncos franchise.
Broncos starting quarterbacks from 1990 to 1999
Name (Time spent with DEN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Broncos) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Broncos) |
|---|---|---|
John Elway (1983-1998) | 133 (231) | 11 (21) |
Tommy Maddox (1992-1993) | 4 (4) | 0 (0) |
Hugh Millen (1994-1995) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) |
Bill Musgrave (1995-1996) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) |
Bubby Brister (1997-1999) | 4 (4) | 0 (0) |
Brian Griese (1998-2002) | 13 (51) | 0 (0) |
Chris Miller (1999) | 3 (3) | 0 (0) |
The 1990s were incredibly kind to John Elway and the Broncos, as they won back-to-back Super Bowls in the 1997 and 1998 seasons. Elway started 133 regular-season games and 11 playoff games in the 90s and we only saw a few spot starts from guys like Tommy Maddox, Hugh Millen, Bill Musgrave, and Bubby Brister during his tenure. Brian Griese took over after Elway rode off into the retirement sunset.
Broncos starting quarterbacks from 2000 to 2009
Name (Time spent with DEN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Broncos) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Broncos) |
|---|---|---|
Brian Griese (1998-2002) | 38 (51) | 0 (0) |
Gus Frerotte (2000-2001) | 7 (7) | 1 (1) |
Steve Beuerlein (2002-2003) | 5 (5) | 0 (0) |
Jake Plummer (2003-2006) | 54 (54) | 4 (4) |
Danny Kanell (2003) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) |
Jarious Jackson (2000-2003) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) |
Jay Cutler (2006-2008) | 37 (37) | 0 (0) |
Kyle Orton (2009-2011) | 15 (33) | 0 (0) |
Chris Simms (2009) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) |
The Broncos had a few reliable starters during the 2000s with Brian Griese kicking off the new millennium as the starting quarterback. Eventually, Jake Plummer took over and held the job for four seasons before paving the way for Jay Cutler to take snaps and lead the offense.
Broncos starting quarterbacks from 2010 to 2019
Name (Time spent with DEN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Broncos) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Broncos) |
|---|---|---|
Kyle Orton (2009-2011) | 18 (33) | 0 (0) |
Tim Tebow (2010-2011) | 14 (14) | 2 (2) |
Peyton Manning (2012-2015) | 57 (57) | 8 (8) |
Brock Osweiler (2012-2015, 2017) | 11 (11) | 0 (0) |
Trevor Siemian (2015-2017) | 24 (24) | 0 (0) |
Paxton Lynch (2016-2017) | 4 (4) | 0 (0) |
Case Keenum (2018) | 16 (16) | 0 (0) |
Joe Flacco (2019) | 8 (8) | 0 (0) |
Drew Lock (2019-2021) | 5 (21) | 0 (0) |
Brandon Allen (2019) | 3 (3) | 0 (0) |
The 2010s started out messy, then got fun, and then ended on an even messier note. We had Tebow Mania in the early 2010s thanks to Tim Tebow serving as the starting quarterback for two seasons. Peyton Manning signed with Denver in the 2012 offseason and helped make the Broncos a regular Super Bowl contender again during his four seasons, starting 57 regular-season games and eight playoff games, including two Super Bowls.
After Manning retired is where things got hairy, as the team tried out several different quarterbacks with little success. There was Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, and Brock Osweiler in the first few years after Manning's departure and then the Broncos tried signing quarterbacks who they thought could be year-round starters. Case Keenum and Joe Flacco didn't deliver and Drew Lock was traded in 2022 for Russell Wilson.
Broncos starting quarterbacks from 2020 to Present
Name (Time spent with DEN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Broncos) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Broncos) |
|---|---|---|
Drew Lock (2019-2021) | 16 (21) | 0 (0) |
Jeff Driskel (2020) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) |
Brett Rypien (2020-2022) | 3 (3) | 0 (0) |
Kendall Hinton* (2020) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) |
Teddy Bridgewater (2021) | 14 (14) | 0 (0) |
Russell Wilson (2022-2023) | 30 (30) | 0 (0) |
Jarrett Stidham (2023) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) |
As mentioned in the previous section, Drew Lock was eventually traded to Seattle but not before he made 16 starts in the 2020s. Kendall Hinton has an asterisk next to his name because even though he's gone down in NFL history for starting at quarterback despite not playing the position, it's worth noting that Phillip Lindsay actually started that game lined up in the quarterback spot.
The Broncos tried to see if Teddy Bridgewater had anything left in the tank for the 2021 season (he didn't) and then got gutsy by trading for Russell Wilson. Unfortunately, Wilson was not the same guy he was during his glory days with the Seahawks and the Broncos hit the reset button in the 2024 offseason.