If you believe what you read on the internet or hear on sports talk radio, Broncos Country has been starkly divided into two camps over the past six weeks. One camp that believes it’s time to give up on the Peyton Manning experiment and put 100 percent faith in Brock Osweiler as Denver enters the playoffs. The other believes that Manning still gives the Broncos the best chance to win in the playoffs, when he’s healthy.
Gil Whiteley of Mile High Sports AM 1340 is starting to move into a third camp. That camp sees that the Broncos don’t have a 50/50 chance of winning a Super Bowl with either quarterback at the helm. He puts the Broncos chances at around 15 percent with a healthy Manning and in the “two to three percent” range with Brock Osweiler.
David Ramsey of the Colorado Springs Gazette is starting to change his tune as well. As recently as last week Ramsey was in the Osweiler camp. But that changed after Sunday’s loss.
“After [Osweiler] went 7-of-26 in the second half yesterday,” Ramsey told Whiteley on Monday, “I’m reluctantly jumping off the Brockwagon.”
He may not be the only one. The swell of enthusiasm seems to be gone for the fourth-year quarterback who went 3-0 in his first three starts in relief of the injured Manning and has since suffered back-to-back losses in excruciating fashion. Worse than the losses is the fact that Osweiler’s Broncos have not scored a single second-half point in their last three games.
After putting up 27 points and engineering four touchdown drives in the first half, Osweiler completely fell apart in the second half. Ramsey, who’s been watching and covering Broncos football since the 1970s, called it “one of the stranger, more baffling football performances” he’s ever seen.
Like much of Broncos Country, Ramsey appears ready to give Manning another shot, but he’s worried that the performance Denver witnessed against Kansas City that ultimately got Manning benched and revealed the extent of his plantar fasciitis injury could rear its ugly head again.
If Osweiler’s performance was one of the more befuddling performances Sunday, Ramsey says Manning’s against the Chiefs was just outright the worst he’s ever seen by a Broncos quarterback.
With those two memories fresh in their minds, it’s a wonder the rest of Broncos Country isn’t clamoring for a third camp in which to take up residence.
Listen to the full discussion between Whiteley and Ramsey in the podcast below…
Catch Gil Whiteley every weekday from 11a-1p on Mile High Sports AM 1340 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of what’s new and what’s next in Colorado sports.
