Peyton Manning, Brock Osweiler Belittled In Story On Broncos' Official Team Website
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Thanks for nothing, Peyton. You too, Osweiler. Man, you guys really stunk. Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.
That's essentially the message the Broncos sent on Wednesday to the two quarterbacks who won them a Super Bowl just last month.
After losing Peyton Manning to retirement and then Brock Osweiler to free agency, the Broncos were left with just Trevor Siemian on the depth chart at quarterback. It's a shaky proposition, the idea of defending a championship with either the inexperienced Siemian or an unsuccessful retread in free agency, but it's one about which the Broncos are apparently unafraid.
In a story on DenverBroncos.com (shared by Wynnde13 on Twitter), the closing paragraphs go to somewhat extreme measures to illustrate just how useless the team's quarterback tandem was last year.
From the story (emphasis added):
The Broncos won Super Bowl 50 last season despite having the second-lowest team passing efficiency rating -- a combined 74.3 rating for the regular season and postseason, 13.5 points lower than the league average of 87.8. Only the then-St. Louis Rams had a worse collective quarterback rating.
Considering that the Broncos won it all with the struggles at quarterback, they like their chances of remaining a contender with even modest improvement under center. Among the various modes for roster-building, there appear to be areas where they can find it.
Vicious.
Of course, the Broncos aren't wrong, per se. Just ... the body's not even cold yet, Elway! Stand down, sir! Stand down! It's uncouth to state in such plain terms, "Our quarterbacks were terrible last year -- second-worst in the dang league! -- and we still won the Super Bowl, so we're not worried about it. We'll probably improve with some stiff like Mark Sanchez in there. Or maybe if we're really lucky we can lure Ryan Fitzpatrick. In any event, we're not losing any sleep over this. Toodles."
Of course, the story was written by Andrew Mason, Senior Digital Reporter for the website, so it's not as if it's coming directly from the mouth of John Elway. But it is the top link on the homepage of the Broncos' official site, and it's been live overnight, so it's clearly not something the team wants removed from the site ASAP.
You'll remember that both quarterbacks played instrumental roles in getting the Broncos to the promised land. When Peyton Manning's entire body broke down midseason, Osweiler stepped in and helped guide the team to a 4-2 record in a stretch that included a crucial overtime win over the Patriots, which helped secure home-field advantage for the Broncos. Osweiler then gave way for Manning in Week 17, when Manning heroically handed the ball to his running backs and received two weeks of praise.
Manning then re-assumed the starting job for the playoffs, completing 55.4 percent of his passes for two touchdowns, one interception and an average of 180 yards per game. It wasn't pretty at all, but it was enough to bring home a Lombardi Trophy.
But, well, thanks for nothing, and here's a couple of paragraphs on the team website explaining in great detail how useless you were. This is a team, mind you, that acquired Manning's services in the first place so that they could quickly shuttle the not-very-skilled but uncannily successful Tim Tebow out the door as swiftly as possible. So whoever the next Broncos quarterback may be, it may be in his best interest to rent, not buy.
The NFL sure seems to become a harsher place with each passing day.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.