Everybody likes to torture themselves with a good "what-if" scenario, right? There's nothing quite like imagining alternate realities, whether good or bad, and there are plenty of potential deviations in the timeline of Denver Broncos' history that could lead us down interesting paths.
We'd better be careful or the TVA is going to be in hot pursuit, but even just off the top of my head and many others in Broncos Country, there are what-if scenarios that may keep some people up at night still today.
Throughout this post, we're going to take a trip down memory lane. Some of the memories will be painful. Some of these what-if scenarios will blow your mind. Some are simply just the result of an active imagination. Not every Denver Broncos what-if in franchise history will be covered, but these are some of the most fascinating ones to explore.
The top 20 what-ifs in Denver Broncos history
For an honorable mention (or four): 20. What if the Arizona Cardinals hired Andy Reid in 2013 like they were expected to? Reid never becomes head coach of the Chiefs, and the Broncos may not be getting tortured for 15 straight games (and counting) as they currently are in 2023.
19. What if the Broncos had pulled off a trade for Terrell Owens in 2006? 18. Or Joe Thomas in 2015? 17. What if the Broncos had been able to find a way to beat the Jaguars in the 1996 playoffs? The Broncos could have potentially gone for three Super Bowls in a row with the incredible core of players they already had in place.
Buckle up because the rest of the ride in this what-if journey is going to get nuts.
16. What if the Broncos pulled off a blockbuster deal for WR Calvin Johnson?
Raise your hand if you knew the Denver Broncos tried multiple times to pull off a blockbuster trade to acquire wide receiver Calvin Johnson before the 2007 NFL Draft. The Broncos, at the time, were just one year into the Jay Cutler era. And really, it wasn't even one year. The 2007 season was about to be Cutler's first year as the full-time starter.
According to Mike Klis, now the 9News Denver Broncos insider and formerly of The Denver Post, the Broncos made multiple attempts to pry that second-overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft away from the Lions to get Johnson in the fold:
"The first time, the Broncos proposed adding middle linebacker Al Wilson and their No. 21 overall pick as an extension to finalize a deal that sent Tatum Bell and George Foster to the Lions in exchange for Dré Bly. The second time, the Broncos offered picks in the first, second and third rounds, plus their first-round pick in 2008, for the Lions’ No. 2 selection, a trade contingent on the Oakland Raiders not taking Johnson with their No. 1 choice."Mike Klis
What if the Denver Broncos had been able to pull that off? The team's wide receivers in 2007 would have been Calvin Johnson, Brandon Marshall, Javon Walker, and emerging young tight end Tony Scheffler.
In Mike Shanahan's offense, that would have been absolutely unfair.
15. What if the Broncos didn't fail horribly in the 2005 AFC Championship game?
It sounds harsh, but the Denver Broncos truly failed miserably in the 2005 AFC Championship game. They spoiled a home playoff win against the New England Patriots in the 2005 playoffs, as well as one of the most dominant defenses in team history, with a home playoff loss against Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
I still haven't forgiven Big Ben for that, even though the Broncos got back at him more than a couple of times since then.
The Broncos were led by Jake Plummer, who set a franchise record for most passes thrown without an interception that particular season. The Broncos were a dominant ground attack and nearly had two 1,000-yard rushers in Mike Anderson and Tatum Bell. The defense was outstanding, led by All-Pro cornerback Champ Bailey and a stellar secondary as well as a variety of players on the defensive front who were castoffs and former NFL Draft busts that somehow were just the right combination.
The Broncos became the first team to beat Tom Brady in the playoffs that particular year, and that win combined with a shocking loss for Peyton Manning and the Colts seemed to be divine intervention for Denver. A home game against Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship game was about the equivalent of Tiger Woods needing to make a four-foot putt to win a golf tournament at the time.
If Denver had beaten Pittsburgh, they would have gone on to face the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. That particular Seahawks team was good, but I don't think they would have been able to beat Denver at their best. We'll never know.
14. What if Steve Young hadn't retired?
I would consider myself fairly knowledgeable about Denver Broncos' team history, but this is one that slipped through the cracks. Am I the only one who didn't know that Steve Young had met with Mike Shanahan about finishing his NFL career as a member of the Denver Broncos?
Apparently, this was legit.
Steve Young was forced to retire from the NFL in 1999 due to concussions. Apparently, had he continued playing, it would have been with Mike Shanahan and the Denver Broncos. From the ESPN archive and a column written by Chris Mortensen:
"If Steve Young was going to play football again, it would have been for the Denver Broncos, according to sources close to the player. And, yes, he wanted to continue his career. He didn't want to retire. It wasn't about the concussions, sources say. They insist that it wasn't about his new bride, Barbara, who now carries his first born.Chris Mortensen, ESPN
(Mike) Shanahan wouldn't divulge the details of his conversation this past Monday with Young when everyone, including 49ers general manager Bill Walsh, jumped to the conclusion that the left-handed quarterback would soon be a Bronco. But, perhaps surprisingly to some, Shanahan did not put the full-court press on Young."
This story is absolutely mind-blowing to me. I had no idea this was a possibility. Shanahan was on the 49ers' coaching staff from 1992-94 when Young was enjoying his best years as a professional player. Of course, this was all taking place in 1999, the season after John Elway had played his last game as a member of the Denver Broncos.
How about that alternate timeline in Denver Broncos' history? Steve Young taking the mantle from John Elway? We all know Jerry Rice oddly became a member of the Denver Broncos, which makes so much more sense in hindsight given the context of Shanahan coaching in San Francisco for those years.
Instead of Steve Young, this became primarily the Brian Griese era for the Denver Broncos, which then gave way to the Jake Plummer era.
13. What if Colin Kaepernick agreed to a pay cut or Romo chose Broncos/TV
There was a time in Denver Broncos' history when Colin Kaepernick and Tony Romo were nearly the team's starting quarterbacks.
Back in 2016, the Denver Broncos had just won the Super Bowl and were dealing with the aftermath. Peyton Manning rode off into the sunset, which was expected. The Broncos lost Brock Osweiler rather unexpectedly in free agency, however, causing John Elway to have to shift his plans at the position. The first option seemed to be Colin Kaepernick, who was coming off of a down year in San Francisco and very available for trade.
The Broncos and 49ers had actually agreed on the parameters of a deal, but the issue was a few million dollars on Kaepernick's contract. The Broncos couldn't afford to give it to him on their salary cap. The 49ers weren't paying that much, and apparently, the Broncos weren't going to up their trade offer to get them to pay it. Kaepernick wasn't taking a pay cut.
What looked like a done deal turned into a deal that never happened. Kaepernick could have taken over a team that had just won the Super Bowl and his career arc may have been much different, but we'll never know.
The very next offseason, the Dallas Cowboys were apparently shopping Tony Romo very quietly. Romo was nearly released, and at the last second, Dallas decided to hold onto him. That may have only prolonged the false hope of anyone in Broncos Country that wanted to see Romo come to Denver, where he would have certainly been an upgrade over Paxton Lynch and Trevor Siemian.
No offense to the Siemian stans out there. Romo ultimately decided to retire from playing and get into the TV booth. That has turned out to be a very lucrative deal for him. But the Broncos, coming off of a nine-win season in 2016 were hoping to stay in some sort of championship window in 2017 and that obviously didn't happen as they had a horrendous year overall.
Fun fact: Romo was nearly signed out of college by the Denver Broncos as an undrafted free agent. The Cowboys obviously beat them to the punch, but it ended up being a battle between Mike Shanahan and Sean Payton to sign Romo out of Eastern Illinois, two Eastern Illinois alumni themselves.
12. What if Von Miller & Chris Harris Jr. didn't miss Super Bowl 48?
From the very first snap of Super Bowl 48, the Denver Broncos were doomed. I guess you could ask the question -- What if the snap doesn't go over Peyton Manning's head?
That is a fair question, but the "what if" that I dwell on more than anything with that legendary 2013 team is, what if Von Miller and Chris Harris Jr., at the very least, had been able to play in this game?
The Denver Broncos' defense, at that point in the season, was so badly depleted. They put up such a tough fight with what they had against the Patriots in the AFC Championship game that year, but this was a defense that started:
- Paris Lenon
- Nate Irving
- Shaun Phillips
- Mike Adams
- Duke Ihenacho
The Broncos were obviously dealing with some bad injury issues that year and Miller had torn his ACL late in the season. It didn't feel like as crippling of an injury at the time because the Broncos set an NFL record for points scored in a season. You kind of felt like this was a team that could overcome any obstacle they were facing defensively, but they just didn't have anyone to stop the bleeding.
How different does that game look with a healthy Von Miller or Chris Harris Jr, who was also injured in the playoffs? What about having Derek Wolfe for that game? The Broncos didn't have a single QB hit or sack on Russell Wilson.
11. What if John Elway didn’t play baseball?
Simply put, if John Elway didn't play baseball, he might not have had the leverage to do anything but pout on his plane ride to Baltimore if he really didn't want to play for the Indianapolis Colts.
Fortune dealt the Denver Broncos a great deal of favor with John Elway being a dual-sport athlete, and not just being a dual-sport athlete, but being a good enough baseball player to get picked in the second round by the New York Yankees. If Elway wouldn't have been good enough at baseball, he isn't forcing his way anywhere in a trade.
But that trade has completely defined the entire legacy of the Denver Broncos. The Broncos had been competitive at times before Elway came around, but John Elway helped this franchise win three Super Bowls and make it to four additional Super Bowls. He did it as a player and as an executive.
He is the Denver Broncos.
But without leverage, the Broncos held the 4th overall pick in that 1983 NFL Draft, and John Elway was like the Andrew Luck/Trevor Lawrence of his time. The team that had that pick wasn't trading it away. Elway was considered the best QB prospect in a prospect pool that was absolutely loaded at QB. That 1983 NFL Draft was legendary, featuring the likes of Elway, Dan Marino, and Jim Kelly.
Thank goodness John Elway was good at baseball.
10. What if the Broncos drafted Josh Allen over Bradley Chubb?
I personally am not the biggest fan of NFL Draft what-if scenarios, and there are a variety of reasons for that.
First of all, hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it? It's always easier to critique a decision years down the road when you can see how it's worked out. But second, there's simply no way of guaranteeing the same outcome for any player if you thrust them into a different situation or circumstance.
It could be that Josh Allen would not have reached his full potential without the support and coaching he's received in Buffalo. The Bills traded up for Josh Allen in the 2018 NFL Draft after every other QB-needy team passed on him. It wasn't just the Broncos. It was the Browns and the Jets, too.
The scouting report on Josh Allen at the time certainly had positive marks for his arm talent and athleticism, but there was a time there where it felt like Allen wouldn't be able to hit the broad side of a barn in terms of his accuracy. He was sailing the ball into the seats at the 2018 Senior Bowl. There's no question that teams had valid concerns over Allen in the pre-draft process about his projection to the NFL.
But Allen has proven those doubts wrong. He's proven me wrong. I was not high on Josh Allen at all. And now he's become an MVP-caliber player. The Broncos, instead, took Bradley Chubb, who was just traded last year to the Dolphins for a first-round pick. That first-round pick was traded for head coach Sean Payton.
I guess we'll see how it all works out in the end, won't we?
9. What if the Broncos don’t draft Von Miller in 2011?
It's bizarre to look back on this period in Denver Broncos history because it was such an odd time.
The NFL was in a lockout in the 2011 offseason, and there was no free agency before the NFL Draft. Teams usually address their biggest needs before the NFL Draft, but this offseason was an unusual exception. Teams went into the 2011 NFL Draft class not exactly knowing what the future would hold, but there was definitely more of an emphasis on drafting for need this particular year than in other years.
And the Denver Broncos, coming off of a dreadful 4-12 season in 2010, needed a lot. Most notably, they needed help in the pass rush department, but there were so many viable candidates for their second overall pick in 2011 that it would have been hard to mess it up in the eyes of fans.
John Elway took over the team with John Fox as his head coach. The Broncos were moving from a 3-4 defense to Fox's 4-3 look. The ideal pick seemed to be any one of Marcell Dareus, Aldon Smith, Von Miller, or Patrick Peterson. This 2011 NFL Draft class has been legendary in hindsight, including players like AJ Green, Julio Jones, and JJ Watt among many others.
Von Miller was not a slam dunk. People questioned whether he would be able to hold up off the edge at his size. His speed was enticing, but he was not a finished product as a pass rusher. The "smarter" picks at the time would have probably been Marcell Dareus or Patrick Peterson. But John Elway took Von Miller.
Similar to the way Elway himself defined an entire era of the franchise's history, so did Von Miller. He's the best draft pick the team has ever made. He's the best defensive player in franchise history, and he led the team to a victory in Super Bowl 50 as the game's MVP. It's hard to imagine an alternate reality where Von Miller is on any other team but the Denver Broncos.
8. What if Tim Tebow had agreed to a Taysom Hill-like role?
As we will discuss later on, fate dealt the Denver Broncos a pretty crazy hand in the 2012 offseason when Peyton Manning became available as a free agent. Just two months before that, however, Tim Tebow led the team to one of the craziest playoff wins in franchise history.
Which, to this day, is still the only playoff win by a quarterback who was actually drafted by the Broncos in franchise history. After the Broncos won a playoff game and won the AFC West, the thought in the 2012 offseason was that the team would finally invest in Tebow's development instead of letting him come out of the bullpen when things got tough as he did in his first two seasons.
Then Peyton Manning came along, and the Broncos' plans changed. But even after signing Manning, it's still very interesting to me that the Broncos felt like they "had" to trade Tebow away. Tebow, of course, wanted to continue playing the quarterback position. The Broncos traded him to the Jets who didn't really give him a shot at quarterback, and even as understandable as that may be, it's hard not to wonder what could have been if Tebow had transitioned to a Taysom Hill-like role in Denver with Peyton Manning as the quarterback.
Could the Broncos have won a Super Bowl with Tebow catching passes from Peyton Manning? Who knows?
It's an interesting thought to dream about. Tebow was obviously one of the best athletes in the NFL when he played. The Broncos didn't have a ton of success throwing the ball when he was the quarterback, but they were certainly one of the league's best running teams. Taysom Hill wasn't in the NFL at that time, so the Taysom Hill role didn't exist, but someone on the coaching staff surely could have dreamed something up, right?
It would have been amazing to see that dynamic in the locker room and on the field. Maybe it would have never worked, or maybe having Tebow would have given the Broncos a different, albeit very slight, edge during those first few years of the Peyton Manning era as they fell short from 2012-14.
7. What if the Broncos passed on Paxton Lynch, took Dak Prescott later?
The Denver Broncos were in a bit of a pickle leading up to the 2016 NFL Draft. The team had just won Super Bowl 50, and Peyton Manning retired. We already talked about the fact that Colin Kaepernick turned down a pay cut to take over as the Broncos' quarterback.
Brock Osweiler spurned the team in free agency by signing with the Houston Texans.
I know John Elway once famously said "There is no Plan B" but in 2016, I think we were onto Plan C or D at best. That Plan C or D (or whatever it was) turned into the team moving up for quarterback Paxton Lynch in the 2016 NFL Draft. At the time, that move was considered a pretty significant win for the Denver Broncos.
Two other teams tried to move up to select Lynch in the back half of the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft, namely the Chiefs and Cowboys. The Broncos simply outbid them, apparently. The domino effect of that was, of course, the Cowboys selecting Dak Prescott in the fourth round of the same draft and the Chiefs traded up for a QB the following year. Patrick Mahomes, you may have heard of him.
So what if the Broncos missed out on Lynch in that year's draft? What if they determined he wasn't worth moving up for?
Although his pre-draft visit became a pretty big news story given the fact that he missed his meeting with John Elway and the Broncos' decision-making brass at the time. The way Prescott tells the story, he got stuck at the gate at the Orlando airport and missed the flight, but got to Denver later. He says he missed the initial dinner meeting with the Broncos but still had his visit with the team.
Ultimately, I think the Broncos would have still taken Prescott in that draft at some point if they had missed out on Lynch. Would it have been before the Cowboys in round four? I'm not sure about that. But what if they did? That's the point of this exercise, right?
Prescott clearly proved rather quickly with Dallas that he was ready for a starting job in the NFL. I think he absolutely could have done the same in Denver.
6. What if Josh McDaniels didn’t trade Jay Cutler and the young core?
This is one of the most painful questions in Denver Broncos' history. Now, we need to preface this by saying that all is well that ends well, right? The decision to trade Jay Cutler ultimately led to the Denver Broncos drafting Tim Tebow, which led to the incredible 2011 season, which led to Peyton Manning in 2012. I don't think any of us would trade all of that.
With that being said, the idea of bringing in Josh McDaniels as the Broncos' next head coach in 2009 was only exciting because of the offensive core the team had in place in 2009. Jay Cutler looked like a star at the QB position in the making. The Broncos had a Pro Bowl receiver in Brandon Marshall. Ryan Clady looked like one of the best left tackles in the NFL as a rookie. Tony Scheffer and Eddie Royal were exciting role players.
Josh McDaniels dismantled it all. He pulled apart that foundation brick by brick. He decided to completely rebuild the Denver Broncos when all that was needed was a renovation of the defense and McDaniels bringing his offensive mastermind and scheme to that side of the ball.
He decided to take way too many creative liberties. Somewhere in an alternate reality, I like to think that things worked out great with McDaniels and Cutler, as well as the rest of that offensive core. Who knows how different the timeline would have been (no Von Miller in 2011?), but maybe the Broncos would have made the playoffs in the first couple of years of the McDaniels era and in 2011, instead of drafting Von Miller, they take future All-Pro Cam Jordan.
You can dream up anything you want -- it's a fictional world.
What's crazy is that after getting traded to the Bears, Jay Cutler only made one playoff appearance. Brandon Marshall never played in a playoff game despite putting together an incredible individual career.
Thanks, McDaniels.
5. What if Mike Shanahan was never fired?
After the 2008 season, the Denver Broncos and late Hall of Fame owner Pat Bowlen made the decision to part ways with longtime head coach Mike Shanahan.
The decision to fire Shanahan was a necessary one from Bowlen, but it was understandably the hardest decision he really ever had to make as the owner of the team. Firing Shanahan would have been similar to cutting John Elway if that would have ever happened. There were understandably tears at the press conference as this parting of ways went down, the end of an era and a brilliant one at that.
Shanahan had delivered two Super Bowls to the Denver Broncos. He and the team came very close to getting to another in 2005. The simple fact of it is, Shanahan took some risks in 2006-08, primarily putting QB Jay Cutler in the lineup over Jake Plummer, and it resulted in the team collapsing in the second half of the 2006 and 2008 seasons, missing the playoffs three years in a row.
That lack of success wasn't tolerable for Bowlen, who had already stuck with Shanahan through the post-John Elway years and some brutal playoff losses in the early/mid-2000s.
But what if Bowlen wouldn't have fired Shanahan? What if he kept Shanahan on board? Picture the future we all imagined with Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Ryan Clady, Eddie Royal, Tony Scheffler, Peyton Hillis, etc. and amplify it. I like to think that if Shanahan had never been fired, the Broncos would have eventually figured things out.
The Broncos would have done the right thing and taken Brian Orakpo with the 12th pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. Shanahan would have taken a shot in round two on a playmaker at running back by drafting LeSean McCoy instead of safety Darcel McBath.
The Broncos wouldn't have traded their 2010 first-round pick for Alphonso Smith, and they would have used that 2010 first-round pick to trade down and pick up Demaryius Thomas to pair with Brandon Marshall, using the extra draft capital in 2011 to move up for Von Miller.
That's pretty much exactly how it would have gone, right?
All kidding aside, it's hard not to wonder what it could have looked like if Shanahan had been able to see his vision for that young core of offensive players through to the end.
4. What if the team hired Kyle Shanahan instead of Vance Joseph?
The Denver Broncos should have hired Kyle Shanahan in 2017. Apparently, Joe Ellis didn't want it at the time because of some bad blood between him and Mike Shanahan, but the Broncos still had Kyle in for an interview during the hiring process.
Unfortunately, it seemed -- at the time -- like the interview process was merely a formality for the team to hire Vance Joseph. The Broncos had previously tried to hire Vance Joseph as their defensive coordinator but were blocked from doing so, and when they got the chance to hire him as head coach, they took it.
Kyle Shanahan took a job in San Francisco which, at the time, certainly felt like a worse situation than Denver's. The Broncos were just one year removed from winning Super Bowl 50 at this point. One calendar year, that is. Shanahan would have had the opportunity to come in and fairly assess the quarterback situation, which was Paxton Lynch vs. Trevor Siemian at the time.
Can you imagine a world in which Kyle Shanahan gets hired by the Broncos, and they decide not to stand pat at the position in the 2017 NFL Draft? We already know the Broncos were open to quarterback upgrades even without Shanahan. They went after Tony Romo in the 2017 offseason. But imagine they let Kyle look at the quarterbacks in that class.
Imagine he fell in love with Patrick Mahomes, and the Broncos -- not the Chiefs -- moved into the top 10 picks to select the former Texas Tech product.
It wasn't out of the realm of possibility at the time. The Broncos could feasibly have Kyle Shanahan as their head coach and Patrick Mahomes as their quarterback today. Instead, every Denver Broncos fans is stuck being an honorary 49ers fan (because we all love Kyle Shanahan and Christian McCaffrey) and hating Patrick Mahomes because he's dominating as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs.
3. What if the Broncos beat the Ravens in the 2012 playoffs?
The Denver Broncos were the hottest team in the NFL for most of the 2012 season. I have never seen a more dominant Broncos team than this one.
Actually, as a matter of fact, I saw the last loss this team had before the Ravens game in the playoffs in person. I was there when Joe Mays hit Matt Schaub so hard it took a piece of his ear off. I was there when the Houston Texans and Gary Kubiak somehow beat the Peyton Manning-led Broncos at home. The Broncos lost just one game at home that entire regular season and it just so happened to be the one I decided to go to. I haven't been to a game since that one.
After that loss to the Texans, the Broncos would crush the Raiders and then lose to the Patriots, falling to 2-3 on the season. A 24-0 deficit at halftime against the Chargers on Monday Night Football seemingly had the Broncos easily falling to a 2-4 record, but the Broncos mounted one of the best comebacks you will ever see to win rather handily against the Chargers in that game.
That game against the Patriots they lost on October 7, 2012, was their last loss of the regular season. They ripped off 11 straight wins and earned the top seed in the AFC. They hosted a playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens and, frankly, if the Broncos had found a way to win, it would have gone down as one of the greatest games in franchise history.
Instead, Rahim Moore's misplay of a deep ball from Joe Flacco at the end of regulation sent the game unnecessarily into overtime, where the Broncos lost just their second home game of the entire season.
When I asked fans on Twitter their biggest "what-if" in Broncos history, this one beat out Terrell Davis (more on that soon) and every other. Everyone wonders what would have happened if the Broncos had been able to finish the job against the Ravens. This Denver Broncos team is considered by many to be the best Broncos team to not win a Super Bowl.
The Broncos would have hosted the Patriots in the AFC Championship game that year had they won. No one knows what would have happened there. Anything can happen in Tom Brady playoff games. But history would tell us that the Broncos kind of have Tom's number in the playoffs.
One thing I know for sure -- the 2012 Broncos would have absolutely dusted that 49ers team in the Super Bowl. If the Broncos win the Super Bowl in Peyton Manning's first year with the team, what does that do to the rest of the Peyton Manning era? How different would things have been that following offseason when Elvis Dumervil left for the Ravens in free agency after the fax machine snafu?
Would Manning and the Broncos have been better in Super Bowl 48 after winning Super Bowl 47? Funny story that is actually true: I was so bitter about the Broncos not making Super Bowl 47 that I had a cookie cake made at The Great American Cookie Company that said, "Denver Broncos, Super Bowl 47" on it.
This is the one that got away. Regardless of what would have happened in the aftermath, there's no denying that the 2012 Denver Broncos were the best team in the league that year. Sorry, Ravens.
2. What if Terrell Davis never got hurt?
The age-old question. What if Terrell Davis never got hurt?
This isn't just one of the biggest what-if questions in Denver Broncos history, but NFL history in general. Terrell Davis suffering a knee injury in the 1999 season is one of the worst things to happen to the game in an era where Davis' game was tailor-made for dominance.
In 1998, Terrell Davis ran for a whopping 2,008 yards in the regular season, somehow averaging 5.1 yards per carry on an astounding 392 rushing attempts. He added 468 rushing yards in the team's three playoff games last year, totaling 2,476 rushing yards in 19 games with 24 rushing touchdowns and two receiving touchdowns. He racked up 2,762 yards from scrimmage in those 19 games, winning NFL MVP, offensive player of the year, and being named to the Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro.
His string of dominance from 1995-98 was so impressive that, despite playing in just 78 career regular season games, Davis is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He accomplished more than most NFL players will ever dream of, winning multiple Super Bowls, being named league MVP and Super Bowl MVP, making it to the Pro Bowl multiple times, and being named All-Pro three times.
But that knee injury.
Although Davis did play again after that knee injury, he wasn't able to return to being the same guy we'd seen in 1998. He did average a solid 87.6 yards per game in 2001, his final season in the NFL, but he retired after that season for good.
Thinking about what could have been had Davis not suffered that knee injury is painful for everyone in Broncos Country. This was an era of NFL football completely dominated by running backs. As the game evolved, so would Davis's game. His injury paved the way for a wide variety of Broncos backs to etch their place in history, but I think everyone would have been just fine with more Mile High salutes from no. 30 in the years that followed 1998.
1. What if the Peyton Manning situation had gone ANY different?
I dread to even think about this question. The series of events that led to Peyton Manning coming to Denver can almost only be described, in hindsight, as a stroke of pure fate or destiny.
It all starts with Denver's side of things. The Broncos should have still had Jay Cutler at QB, but Josh McDaniels traded him away, creating a hole at that position for the Broncos in 2009. The Broncos didn't use a first-round pick on anyone in the 2009 NFL Draft, and then they selected Tim Tebow in 2010. If none of that happens, Peyton Manning probably goes somewhere else.
Then there's Manning's side of things. Manning had played a relatively full career with the Colts at the time. Had he been really any younger, would Jim Irsay have approved cutting him at all? After five neck procedures, the guy could barely grip a football to throw it. But he obviously worked his way back to full strength for some dominant years in Denver. What if Manning never needed any neck procedures? What if the Broncos didn't have John Elway in the GM seat? What if they hadn't won a playoff game the year prior? What if literally any other team had done any single thing to make themselves more appealing to Manning than Denver?
Then there's the Colts' side of things. Would the Colts have cut Manning if Andrew Luck hadn't been in that 2012 NFL Draft? Would they have cut him if the best QB in the class was Robert Griffin III? What if Luck, who would have been the top pick in 2011 if he had decided to come out of school as a redshirt sophomore, had come out just one year sooner?
It's insane to think about all that had to go in Denver's favor for this one signing to happen. The greatest free agent signing in the history of professional sports. But it all happened. The stars aligned. History was made. And a Super Bowl was won.
The more you think about this one, the crazier it becomes.