SAN FRANCISCO – After the Broncos hold their parade and finish celebrating their Super Bowl 50 victory, they will start thinking about 2016, when they likely will become the third Super Bowl winner in history to start the next season with a different quarterback.
All indications are Peyton Manning is planning on retiring in the coming weeks, but even if he does want to keep playing, it won’t be for the Broncos. Denver can save $19 million in salary cap space by releasing him, and the Broncos have pending free agent Brock Osweiler ready to take over. If Osweiler thinks he’ll have to sit behind Manning for another year, he probably would sign elsewhere.
Manning’s father, Archie, acknowledged after the Super Bowl on Sunday night that Manning is done in Denver.
“If he wants to play some more football, he’s going to have to go to another team,” Archie Manning said. “He’d be 40. I don’t know. We have not talked about it. The first thing I want to do is I’m just going to say talk to me, tell me what’s on your mind.”
The Broncos have been down this road before. John Elway retired after winning his second Super Bowl in the 1998 season. Elway did not retire until May. Denver turned the controls over to Brian Griese and finished the 1999 season 6-10 and out of the playoffs.
The only other Super Bowl winner to change quarterbacks were the 2000 Ravens. They chose not to re-sign Trent Dilfer, who became a free agent. The Ravens signed Elvis Grbac instead and went to the playoffs in 2001, but lost in the division round.
On Monday, Broncos coach Gary Kubiak did not feel like talking about the future yet.
“No, I haven’t looked too far ahead past today, but I’ll say this with Peyton – I’ll just start off with him – the job he did this year to make his way back for our football team was the difference in us being a champion or not,” Kubiak said. “What he had to go through physically was very difficult, and it was tough on him mentally. But him fighting the battle to get back, getting himself in position to lead our team again the last month, it says so much about him as a person. We all know what type of career he has had as a player, but as a person, it has been tremendous.”
Osweiler, the 2012 second-round pick, has waited patiently behind Manning for his chance. He started seven games for the Broncos this year while Manning was dealing with his foot injury. The Broncos went 5-2 in those games, and he played well enough that there was a debate about whether the Broncos should go back to Manning when he was healthy. He threw 10 touchdowns and six interceptions, and his only multi-interception game came against the Chargers in Week 17 when he was benched for Manning.
“Everybody contributed to us being here and getting this done. Brock had – what? – a seven-week run as our starter,” Kubiak said. “We won a lot of big football games during the course of that season. So, [I am] very proud of him. He has got a bright future, but we’ll take it a day at a time. I think right now, it’s about reflecting on what has been done this past year, and it has been special. And I think we all need to enjoy it here right now.”