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Denver Broncos GM John Elway Should Have Expected Peyton Manning’s Failures

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After three straight seasons with Peyton Manning quarterbacking the franchise, the Denver Broncos decided that something had to be done — they fired head coach John Fox. The Broncos have stated that Fox and the franchise have mutually parted ways, but read between the lines, and it was the Broncos that terminated Fox.

Reports have surfaced that Manning didn’t love Fox, and if that’s accurate, then John Elway jettisoning Fox was clearly a move to appease the quarterback and make sure he returns for the 2015 season. But truth be told, these failures aren’t on Fox and they aren’t on Elway; they are on Manning, and none of us should be surprised.

From 1999 to 2010 with the Indianapolis Colts, Manning won 138 games, averaging 11.5 wins a season over those 12 years. He’s won 38 games in his three years in Denver, averaging 12.7 wins per season. In his time with the Colts he made the playoffs in 11 different seasons but was one-and-done in seven of those seasons, 63.6 percent of the time. In his three years in Denver, he’s been one-and-done twice, 66.7 percent of the time. The numbers are almost identical.

Even before Manning entered the NFL, during his time at Tennessee, he failed to defeat rival Florida once in his entire career. He was 0-1 in his only BCS Bowl appearance, and Tennessee never won a championship while he was there. But the school did win the year after he left, with Tee Martin at quarterback.

Manning went to two Super Bowls during his time with the Colts. He did manage to win one, but you can argue that some of Manning’s worst playoff performances came during the Super Bowl run in 2007 and that the Colts won in spite of Manning, not because of him. His Super Bowl performance against the New Orleans Saints is remembered for a pick-six late in the fourth quarter that sealed the victory for New Orleans. And we all remember Manning mishandling the snap on the opening drive in last year’s Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks, resulting in a safety and setting the tone in a blowout loss for the Broncos.

So why does Elway seem surprised by this is the level of success the Broncos have reached? He has surrounded Manning with plenty of talent, but so did Bill Polian. He has given Manning every opportunity to achieve success, but so did the Colts.

Elway probably sees himself in Manning a lot. Elway is a guy who didn’t win as much as he should have until the tail end of his career and probably thought he could do the same for Manning. The difference is that Manning has been surrounded by Hall of Fame talent his entire career, and Elway’s Broncos teams in the 80s and early 90s were short on talent and overachieved largely because of Elway’s dynamic play. Once he was surrounded with the type of talent Manning has had, Elway was able to win two Super Bowls.

As Dennis Green would say, Manning is who we thought he was. He’s an historically great quarterback who puts up monstrous regular season statistics and consistently leads his teams to 12-4 records. But come postseason, he is the same underachieving quarterback we have seen for two decades.

Elway can bring in whoever he wants as coach; he can cater to Manning’s needs and do everything he can to try and give Manning the perfect opportunity to win the Broncos a Super Bowl. But the truth is, no matter what Elway does, he still has Manning at QB and there is only so much he can do.

Bill Zimmerman is an NFL writer for www.RantSports.Com. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.

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