Von Miller and Peyton Manning were two of the best players in the NFL in the early 2010s, and the Denver Broncos used their leadership and skillsets on both sides of the football to be one of the most successful teams in the league at the start of the decade, highlighted by the victory in Super Bowl 50.
The two shared the locker room for four years in Denver (2012-2015), and Miller got to learn a whole lot about one of the game’s greatest quarterbacks. They quickly became one of the best offense-defense player combos in the league and established a relationship that’s going to be hard to break.
In the NFL landscape, people will always toss around the GOAT debate, just like they do with the NBA and every other sport. Many people have Tom Brady at the top. Some have Manning. Some have Joe Montana. Some even have started to mention Patrick Mahomes. The list goes on and on and on. For those who go to bat for Manning, the argument against him will always be how he only has two Super Bowl rings while Brady has seven and Montana has five. For Miller, despite admitting that he might be a little biased, he had the back of his first NFL quarterback.
“The debate between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, who’s the best, for me, it’ll always be Peyton Manning. He changed the quarterback position from ‘Check Check’ … change the play. Come on. Check the play. Change the play again. Go over top. He wasn’t scrambling and doing that stuff. He did it all with his arm. And it was beautiful, man,” Miller said.
Every Broncos fan who heard the cries of ‘OMAHA’ ring throughout the stadium before every snap knows exactly what Miller is referring to. Manning didn’t just do a simple ‘kill’ to change a play or adjust one route, he spent every possible second of the pre-snap play clock dissecting the defense and figuring out what the best play to run was.
While Miller credited the work that Manning put in on the field, what clearly has stuck with him the most is what Manning did off the field as a person, not as a football player.
“People say guys are humble, but like bro, he’s so humble. He knew every single guy in the facility, whether it’s the janitors, all the coaches, he had a personal relationship with everybody. He was the first person, and truly the first person in the building. Whenever you pulled up, you see his Buick … because he had the Buick deal. I had a fundraiser event for Von’s Vision. He was there, man, he was he was all about his guys, all about his teammates,” Miller said.
In his 17 years on the field, Manning won two Super Bowls (including MVP in Super Bowl 41), five MVPs, a Comeback Player of the Year award in 2012 after returning from neck surgery, the Walter Payton Man of the Year award in 2005 and two AP Offensive Player of the Year awards. He was a 14-time Pro Bowler and a 7-time All-Pro. He made the All-2000s team as he put up numerous elite seasons with the Broncos and the Indianapolis Colts. He also held both the all-time passing yards and all-time passing touchdowns records and became the first quarterback to win 200 NFL games (regular season and playoffs).
Don’t forget about his 2013 season, the greatest campaign ever put together by a quarterback.
The GOAT debate will never end as long as the game of football is around and new guys dominate the league over the years. All Broncos Country needs to know is that Manning’s name will always be up there in the talks, and they have plenty of people defending one of the best signal callers in franchise history, including Miller.