Denver Broncos Award winners: League Most Valuable Player
John Elway, 1987
The 1987 season was shortened by a strike and many fans to this day will argue that Jerry Rice should have been the MVP. Instead, the award was given to Elway, who passed for 3.198 yards and 19 touchdowns with 12 interceptions in 12 games. He also ran for four touchdowns.
That year, Rice set a single-season record with 22 touchdown catches. That stood until 2007 when Randy Moss caught 23.
Still, Elway was able to get the Broncos to the Super Bowl that season and even in those days, it was an award that generally went to a quarterback.
Terrell Davis, 1998
Though Elway capped this season off by being named the MVP of the Super Bowl, Davis had the best individual season in team history.
That year, T.D. rushed for over 2,000 yards, becoming just the fourth player in league history to do so. He also won league MVP, as a running back, at a time when Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith were still running and running well.
Davis' 1998 season was simply incredible.
In addition to his 2,008 yards rushing, he had another 217 yards receiving and a total of 23 touchdowns.
Peyton Manning, 2013
Though this season ended on a sour note in Super Bowl XLVIII, Manning's 2013 season included the kind of numbers you only see when playing Madden and those numbers may only ever be broken because the league has now added an extra regular-season game.
Manning set single-season records that still stand to this day by throwing for 5,477 yards and 55 touchdowns. He also completed over 68 percent of his throws as the Broncos were just an offensive machine that year.
He opened the season by tying an NFL record with seven touchdown passes against the Baltimore Ravens. Other than the loss at the end to the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl, this was one of the greatest individual seasons in NFL history.