Demaryius Thomas will always be connected with Peyton Manning, of course.
You can’t tell the story of Manning in a Broncos uniform without bringing up the late Thomas, who died in December 2021. He caught more touchdown passes from No. 18 than anyone in a Broncos uniform — 41 during their four seasons together. Thomas is the only Bronco in Manning’s all-time top-five for touchdown catches; the rest are Indianapolis Colts.
Some were short — four of them were exactly one yard. Some were long — three of them covered at least 70 yards.
But enough work between the two existed to where some believe that Thomas was merely a product of Manning’s greatness. Yet nothing could be further from the truth, because Thomas’ emergence happened with a quarterback who couldn’t even complete 50 percent of his passes taking the snaps.
Tim Tebow was no one’s definition of an ideal NFL quarterback. He struggled to throw the football on time and on rhythm at a pro standard, which ensured that his time as a starter would be short and his ceiling would be limited, no matter how fervently his acolytes wished for his success.
And with wide receiver being a position whose success can depend on the quarterback, it was going to be rough.
Yet with Tebow, Thomas emerged. In the final weeks of the 2011 season, Thomas blossomed, overcoming two injuries earlier that year — a ruptured Achilles tendon and a fractured finger — to accumulate 745 yards and four touchdowns over the final seven games of that season, including the 80-yard overtime catch-and-run against Pittsburgh that permanently put Thomas into Broncos history.
With Manning, Thomas stayed at cruising altitude, accumulating five consecutive 1,000-yard seasons before the accumulation of wear and tear — and Broncos quarterback instability — dropped him below that threshold in 2017.
By 2018, his form was in decline and the team traded him to Houston; in the 2019 season, he caught his final pass.
But as profoundly as Thomas was connected with Manning, his greatness stands on its own. In Broncos annals, his CV among wide receivers is exceeded only by that of Rod Smith.
GOING INTO THE RING OF FAME ON HIS OWN
Some years, the Broncos stack Ring of Fame inductees together. Last year was one such example; teammates Riley Odoms and Steve Foley of the Orange Crush era — long overdue to be added to the Ring — went in as part of the same alumni weekend.
But in other years, it’s a solo moment. That was the case for inductees such as Manning, Mike Shanahan (2020, although his actual ceremony took place a year later due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Champ Bailey (2019), Red Miller (2017), Pat Bowlen (2015) and a slew of others in the previous decades.
From 1989 onward, single-member classes have typically represented a higher level of Ring of Fame standard.
This is the optimum level of commemoration for Thomas. Bringing back the Super Bowl 50 team for the weekend of the induction — which will take place in Week 7, around the New York Giants game — adds another layer to the moment.
There is probably just one more question left to be answered regarding the tribute to Thomas.
SHOULD THOMAS’ NUMBER BE RETIRED?
No. 88 is currently out of circulation. No current Broncos player has it. No one has worn it in the regular season since his death. Tight end Nick Vannett had it during the 2020 season; practice squad tight end Shaun Beyer donned it in 2021.
By the time the team reconvened for training camp in 2022, there was no No. 88 on the roster; there still isn’t.
That said, over the long haul, Thomas’ CV likely doesn’t reach the level of jersey-number retirement — at least based on what that level has become.
Three Broncos jerseys officially sit retired: Nos. 7, 18 and 44.
You can’t unretire a number without approval; bringing No. 18 out briefly for Manning was appropriate, and done so with the approval of the late Frank Tripucka and his family, but what Manning did from 2012-15 justifies keeping No. 18 out of service in the future.
No. 44 is for the late Floyd Little, aptly nicknamed “The Franchise.” One could justifiably put him on the Broncos’ Mount Rushmore. There may be four better Broncos, but there aren’t four more important ones to the arc of the club, and he became a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
The only one retired after 1975 is No. 7, and that was for John Elway, a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
No. 24 has only been brought out of circulation once since Champ Bailey’s retirement — briefly for Pacman Jones in 2018. If it went back on the shelf and into retirement, that would be appropriate; Bailey, like Elway and Manning, is a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
First-ballot Hall of Famer would be an excellent standard to have going forward. It takes the guesswork out of any decision.
Thomas didn’t even make the semifinalist cut in his first year on the Hall of Fame ballot. Sadly, HoF status will almost certainly elude him.
No pure wide receiver with fewer than 11,000 yards and a career that began after 1990 is in the Hall of Fame. For that matter, 12 of the 18 Hall-eligible receivers with at least 11,000 receiving yards in that group aren’t in the Hall either, a group that includes Smith.
Considering that, Thomas’ 9,763-yard tally has virtually no shot at recognition in Canton. And the reality is that the No. 88 being out of circulation is probably a temporary thing, too.
But going into the Ring of Fame on his own, and doing so with what is likely to be a massive gathering of the Super Bowl 50 winners — perhaps the largest reunion of that team that will ever take place — is a fitting and deserving tribute to Thomas.
He will be remembered as a receiver whose determination, skill and power not only helped make the Broncos’ third world championship possible, but provided a launching point for the club’s run of five consecutive division titles, a run that began before Manning ever chose the Broncos.
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