Demaryius Thomas just passed Shannon Sharpe on two very important all-time Denver Broncos leaderboards. But don’t expect the new No. 2 in receiving touchdowns and receiving yards to pick up the phone and call the Hall of Famer who is now No. 3 on those lists. DT knows he’d be getting an earful if he did call to gloat.
“I still won’t call Shannon. You don’t want to talk to Shannon, especially as a player that’s going to play for the Broncos and the way our season is going right now. He’ll take the subject from one thing to another, so I won’t call Shannon,” Thomas said with a laugh after Sunday’s 23-0 victory over the New York Jets.
It was the first time in more than two months that Thomas could laugh after a game.
“The way our season is going,” as Thomas put it, is a guaranteed losing record after last week’s loss in Miami. That’s something the outspoken Sharpe experienced just twice in his career with the Broncos — first as a rookie in 1990 and then again in 1994.
With their win over the Jets, the 2017 Broncos snapped an eight-game losing streak that was just one loss shy of matching a franchise record for most consecutive losses in a season (set in 1967).
At 4-9, Thomas and the rest of the Broncos are eliminated from the playoffs but have three more games to try and salvage a few more victories. Another two wins would get them to six total — one better than the five wins from Sharpe’s rookie season.
Despite the letdown of knowing his team was eliminated on Sunday, Thomas is trying to find positives in moving into solo second place for receiving touchdowns and receiving yards in Broncos history.
Sharpe did take time on Twitter Monday morning to acknowledge Thomas’ accomplishment and offer his congratulations.
I wanted you to be gr8, but not catch me. 😂😂😂😂😂. Congrats @DemaryiusT I know how hard you’ve work to make this moment happen and to be there for this tm👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 https://t.co/2sex1TH6V7
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) December 11, 2017
“Man, it means the world,” Thomas said after the game about passing the Hall of Fame tight end. “It just shows the hard work I’ve put in paying off. I’m going to continuously do what I do best, [which is] to try and go out and catch footballs and score touchdowns and try to catch [Ring of Fame WR] Rod Smith. It means the world, but the only thing that bothers me right now is still that we didn’t make the playoffs. You’ve just got to build from it and keep going.”
The Broncos have a short turnaround this week. They are in Indianapolis on Thursday night to take on the 3-10 Colts.
