What hurt Elway early in his career is he relied too much on his gun arm, and frankly threw the ball so hard that his receivers couldn't catch it. He had no touch until late in his career. His completion percentages were pretty low until then. I'd compare him early on to Stafford.

I remember them saying something about how broncos WR's had to really practice or have certain hands just so they could catch his balls

Yeah, but throwing the ball hard and receivers talking about having the "Elway Cross" on their hands from catching the blazing passes isn't why the numbers were low.

It's a mix of the talent at WR/TE/RB and the offense called by Reeves. There are many reasons why Reeves and Shanahan clashed when he was working for Dan. There's a reason why Shanahan and Elway became such fans of each other and grew tired of Dan's game plans.

They both realized Horseface would never take them to the Promised Land so they Demoted him and agreed getting Terrell Davis and promoting him to the Number One Offensive Option was the only way theyd win it?

Ha - yeah, that's exactly it...

I have been around long enough to see quite a few QBs play. Elway was as good as any I have seen. Had Elway played for Bill Walsh he would have rewritten the record book. When the 9ers beat the Broncos 55-10 I said at the time and still believe if Elway would have been playing for the 49ers and Montana was playing for the the Broncos the score would have been much worse. I can only imagine what he would have done with the great Cowboy teams behind that line with the offensive weapons they had. I do know this much to compare Tebow and Elway is way beyond silly.

Well...he was an average QB in Statis Pro Football.

and forever Ringless as the Number One Option. totally Ringless if you factor in the Crisco and the Cap Cheating.

Well I am not going to argue with a girl over it :p sorry my friend and rival I still get a chuckle that "whoman" was mistaken for woman. I guess it is always a debate when these discussions take place. IMO that guy was something special and the only thing that exceeded my hate for him was my respect for his ability.

First off. Elway was NEVER EVER as good as Denver fans, or even a lot of KC fans, think or remember.

There are a few factors here.

One, the AFC was absolutely garbage for most of the 80's. Elway was the best of a shitty bunch. Big ****in deal. He got decimated in the three super bowls he played in before Shanahan came along and they cheated the cap and played borderline rule breaking schemes.

If Elway is going to be given all the credit for carrying those shit teams, then he'll take all the blame for getting his shit pushed in in those 3 super bowls. You can't have it both ways.

The fact is, Elway was not quite as good as Jim Kelly. If the Bills had won 2 or 3 of those SB's no one would really be having that discussion.

The years they went to the playoffs and super bowls, Denver generally had good defenses. Let's not kid ourselves.

The years they went to the playoffs before Rayboy arrived, when Elway was supposedly carrying that team the defense was ranked (in terms of points allowed....)


83 - 9th
84 - 2nd
86 - 15th
87 - 7th
89 - 1st
91- 3rd
93 - 10th

Let's stop ****ing about like Elway carried some god damn team. 6 of the 7 seasons they went to the playoffs Denver fielded a top 10 defense. Hell, three of those seasons they were top 3!

Elway built a legacy based on some 4th quarter comebacks. But the guy never carried a god damn team. It's stupid. Denver fans have their heads up their asses when it comes to Elway.

They were cheating wins. Pam spray anyone?

Good point.

Oh, I loved that game.

the Guardian and Hemied make some really good points. I didn't realize the extent to which the defense was carrying those Broncos teams.

Go ahead and list the Hall of Fame RBs, WRs, and OL he played with. Heck list the Pro Bowl players he played with on offense...you know that popularity contest they hold every year. Now list the All Pros he played with. All the other QBs he is compared with had vastly superior talent surrounding them.