Larry Brown Sports

The Broncos’ success last season had many fans pleased, but it was also a touchy subject for many of the team’s players. A lot of people quietly felt that the team’s defense is what carried them to victories even though Tim Tebow received most of the attention, headlines, and credit. Willis McGahee certainly agrees.

“As a player just sitting back and watching you have to expect that to happen. The quarterback is going to get all the praise if we win and he’s going to get the blame if we lose,” the Broncos running back said on WQAM in Miami on Thursday. “You really can’t argue about that but we know as a team what we did on the football field and me personally, I think the defense deserved basically all the credit because they were playing lights out football.”

Champ Bailey expressed a similar sentiment in January, but he said he didn’t mind the defense being overshadowed as long as the team was winning. We think it probably was a touchy subject the entire time, but the players just kept quiet about it for the most part.

It’s easy to see how having Tim Tebow on your team can create an uncomfortable environment for the rest of the players because he’s such a central figure. But I will remind both McGahee and Bailey that stats showed that Tebow’s play actually led to an improved defense.

Photo credit: Ron Chenoy-US PRESSWIRE

The Broncos reportedly were looking to move Tim Tebow before they even knew they were going to get Peyton Manning.

In an article about Jacksonville’s failed attempt to acquire Tebow from the Broncos via trade, Tania Ganguli of The Florida Times-Union says Denver began quietly shopping the religious quarterback at the scouting combine in February.

The combine ran from February 22-28. Peyton Manning was not officially released until March 7th. Maybe the Broncos knew they were going to be players in the Peyton Manning sweepstakes so they were trying to gauge the Tim Tebow trade market. Or, maybe, despite telling everyone Tebow was going to be the Broncos’ guy “for a long, long time,” John Elway was looking to replace him.

At the same time Elway was seemingly making a long-term commitment to Tebow, he was also shopping the quarterback. How’s that for being disingenuous?

Ganguli’s report also indicates Tebow was equally amenable to Jacksonville and the Jets when the trade talks became serious, but that he later said he preferred the Jets because he felt the coaches wanted him more and that he’d have a better chance of starting there. Both details are ones we’ve shared over the past week, but it’s worth repeating.

Photo Credit: Dale Zanine-US PRESSWIRE

Tim Tebow has some friends in high places. Pat Robertson, a televangelist and Christian Right leader, blasted the Denver Broncos for trading devout Christian Tim Tebow.

Robertson pointed to Tebow’s success last season and Peyton Manning’s neck injury in his explanation.

“He won seven games, he brought them [Denver] into the playoffs, for heaven sakes. I mean, they were a nothing team. He rallied them together with spectacular last-minute passes and, you know, when they beat Buffalo — I mean, Pittsburgh, excuse me — it was a tremendous victory,” Robertson said on “The 700 Club.”

“And you just ask yourself, OK, so Peyton Manning was a tremendous MVP quarterback, but he’s been injured. If that injury comes back, Denver will find itself without a quarterback. And in my opinion, it would serve them right.”

Some people may look at Robertson and say he’s a whack job and religious freak, but I actually think he makes some good points. Tebow led a major turnaround last season and was showed the door after the year. The Broncos are also taking a risk by signing Peyton Manning. However, it’s a risk they should take.

If you have the opportunity to replace Tim Tebow with Peyton Manning, you seize it. I don’t believe Peyton Manning will be able to play the entire season without injury issues, and I don’t think he’ll win another Super Bowl, but the team has greater potential under him than they do with Tebow at quarterback.

This week, the city of Denver was hit with the biggest news since John Denver purportedly founded the city (my grade school had massive cutbacks on reputable history textbooks). Or, at least since Brady Quinn agreed to terms with the Kansas City Chiefs. Peyton Manning is coming to town. If that piece of information has still yet to settle in for Denverites, I could make a “Peyton Place” reference by throwing in Mia Farrow’s name, but that would just be bad for business.

This story has consequently become the worst news to hit locales like Oakland, Kansas City, and San Diego since, well, Week 1 of each recent football season. The Broncos’ signing of Peyton Manning brings to an end a free agent saga in the vein of an NFL version of “The Bachelor.” John Fox received the rose, while Mike Munchak and Jim Harbaugh will pretend they were unmoved by the decision.

On Tuesday, it was made official. Peyton Manning OK’d the deal for five years and $96 million, as if such an amount of money is ever simply “OK’d” by anyone. Manning’s signing would have set up a quarterback controversy of epic proportions had Tim Tebow apparently not been traded to the New York Jets on Wednesday. If you believe that last sentence, I have a list of magazine subscriptions to sell that will have you a step closer to untold riches delivered by an unwanted visitor holding a giant novelty check and for some reason, balloons (as if just receiving the check would infuriate the lucky winner).

Tebow was the story for the Broncos last year. His penchant for rallies. His transcendent appeal. His piety. Despite an 8-8 record and a playoff appearance, the man upstairs clearly wanted a change. John Elway, they say, seems to know something about quarterbacks after all …

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As one friend told me, signing Peyton Manning was the perfect “get out of Tebow free” card for the Broncos. Between Elway refusing to name Tim Tebow the team’s franchise quarterback for most of the season, and John Fox saying Tebow would be screwed in a normal offense, it was pretty clear Denver had reservations about Timmy. Signing Manning allowed them to get out of the situation because they now plan to trade him.

Many people have been wondering what Tim Tebow thinks about being bumped out by the Broncos. Elway answered that as well as possible during the team’s press conference introducing Peyton Manning Tuesday.

“Obviously he was disappointed, I’m sure he was disappointed,” Elway said. “He didn’t come out and say he was disappointed. I think it was a typical Tim Tebow response in that he was very positive and he said ‘Well, we’re talking about Peyton Manning … and I understand exactly what you’re doing.’ The response was exactly what we know of Tim, and that is being very very positive.”

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Most objective football fans and analysts believe the Broncos are improving by replacing Tim Tebow with free agent Peyton Manning. Even some Broncos players feel that way. But former Broncos linebacker Bill Romanowski is in the minority and believes Denver is making a mistake.

“I don’t see this as a huge positive for the Denver Broncos,” Romanowski told Craig Shemon on Yahoo! Sports Radio. “I don’t think you can just throw in a Peyton Manning, who to me is still broken down — he is not healthy yet — and think he is going to be the answer to getting you to the Super Bowl. To me, you had the answer and you just needed more talent around a guy like Tim Tebow.”

Romanowski likes that Tebow took a losing team and led them to a division title and playoff win last season. Even though Romanowski recognizes that not everything was perfect with Tebow, he believes Tebow is a winner.

“I don’t care where he ends up, cream rises to the top, and that [Tim Tebow's] beyond cream. He will rise and he will eventually do the same thing [he did for the Broncos] and probably better.”

Romanowski was around Tebow recently and says the quarterback’s attitude is that he’ll go elsewhere and have success.

Romanowski further explained what he has against the Manning signing.

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The Broncos’ Super Bowl odds instantly improved when it was reported Peyton Manning told his agent to finalize a contract with Denver. Denver’s Super Bowl odds were as high as 75:1 last month, according to Pregame.com. Now they’ve dropped to 10:1 which is lower than all but four teams. According to Pregame.com, only four teams have better odds to win the Super Bowl:

- Packers 6-1
- Patriots 7-1
- 49ers 7-1
- Saints 8-1

According to Todd Wright, the Broncos’ Super Bowl odds at the Las Vegas Hilton dropped from 30:1 to 10:1 from last Monday to this Monday. The 10:1 odds are too low for me. While Denver has a good defense and should be improved under Manning, I still think other teams are better, and I still doubt Manning will make it through the entire season. Keep in mind the odds represent the hype as much as the oddsmakers’ belief that Denver will win it all.