Broncos Answer Questions about Peyton Manning

Denver Broncos plane touched down in San Francisco on Sunday.  Teams, fans, and media flooded into the bay city — which had been transformed to honor the 50th Championship game.  Super Bowl Opening Night was kicked off by AFC Denver Broncos being introduced to fans and media atop a lavish Golden Gate stage. The traditionally extravagant event had been moved from Tuesday morning to prime time on Monday night.  

Tight end Daniel Owens described the event as  “…ridiculously awesome. The whole Golden Gate Bridge setup and this whole setup right here is just crazy. Definitely over the top, but I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

Several Denver Broncos players were introduced, but the loudest cheers erupted for future Hall of Fame quarterback, Peyton Manning.  The 53 members of the Denver Broncos then mingled with members of the media and fielded hundreds of questions– many were about their own quarterback Peyton Manning.  Two years ago Manning set new NFL records for passing yards and touchdowns in a season.  This season, Manning led the NFL in interceptions.  Manning’s injuries continued to plague him until he was forced to sit out seven games.  

Manning has returned and head coach Gary Kubiak says this is the best Peyton we have seen all year, “At this point for us in this season he’s as healthy as he has been all year long from even when we started this season. I’ve seen nothing but positives. . . . Just looking forward to him leading our football team once again.”

Manning’s critics have never quite recovered and his teammates are left answering questions about their quarterback.

“I think Peyton just needs to be Peyton. I don’t think he needs to do anything extravagant or crazy,” said Owens.  “We’ve got an outstanding defense. We’ve got a run game that has been outstanding the second half of the season. . . If we play well all around him, we’re going to be just fine because we know he’s going to do his job.  He’s going to put us in the right place in every situation. He’s going to manage stuff at the line of scrimmage.”

Wide receiver, Emmanuel Sanders described his quarterback’s strengths, “I mean, he’s the oldest starting quarterback in the National Football League,” Sanders said, “Some of that is physical, but a majority of it is mental. His mental edge over the competition is great.”

Brock Osweiler described his opportunity to learn from one of the best, “What haven’t I learned is probably the easier way to say it.  Peyton is the ultimate teammate and the ultimate quarterback.  Over the course of the past four years my eyes and ears have been locked on him, and I have pulled so much away from him that I will truly carry with me throughout my entire career.”

Osweiler took what he had learned from Manning and a whole lot of athleticism when he stepped up for 7 starts during the season while Manning recovered from a foot injury.  He is widely credited as helping the Broncos maintain a record that kept them atop the AFC West Division.

Running back, Ronnie Hillman showed confidence in his quarterback when he described what he has seen from Peyton for the last two weeks, “He’s Peyton, you know?  You know what you’re going to get out of him.  Just going around and watching how he prepares, it’s a good thing to see.”  

On a light note, one reporter went on to ask Hillman what superhero Manning would be– since Cam Newton is Superman.  “Batman,” Hillman laughed, “because he was the only one who beat Superman.”

As for Manning, he had to answer some of his own questions about Panthers quarterback, Cam Newton.  Manning described the success of the young quarterback, “He’s just had an incredible year.  There’s no doubt in my mind he’s going to be MVP on Saturday night.”

Follow Debbie Jackson on Twitter @dbjaxn98