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At 9-3 for the season, the Denver Broncos have proved that their call earlier this year to let go off Tim Tebow and bring back a veteran and experienced quarterback such as Peyton Manning to lead the pack. Sure there were many concerns regarding the 5 neck surgeries that Manning had undergone, and let’s not forget that he was out for an entire season before he made his change from the Indianapolis Colts to play with the Denver Broncos. And yet, not only can you teach an old dog some new tricks, as a matter of fact, an experienced quarterback and amazing leader as Manning can make miracles for a team’s morale. At 9-3 for the season and with a 7-game win streak, the Denver Broncos have now secured their spot for the NFL playoffs.

The Broncos signed Manning at a bargain price. Why, because the team letting him go was unsure if he could deliver. Curiously enough, Peyton Manning now has 29 touchdown passes this season, passing Jake Plummer and John Elway for the most scoring throws in a single season. And he still has four more games to go this season. The offensive prowess of the Broncos is just mind blowing. Truth is that Manning makes it all look too easy. The 36-year-old quarterback completed 27 of 38 passes for 242 yards, completing three touchdown passes and 1 interception. He brilliantly lead the Broncos to a 30-plus point win for the sixth time over their seven-game win streak. Certainly a huge improvement over what we say last season. Sure enough, Tim Tebow was algo able to win the AFC West Title last year, but he did it with an 8-8 record and played close-to-the-vest, low-scoring games.

But it was more than just Manning making the headlines. Mitch Unrein, the second year defensive lineman from Wyoming had a big role in this win. Unrein caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from Manning for a 7-0 lead midway into the first quarter. He followed that up with a big hit on Tampa Bay quarterback Josh Freeman that forced a bad throw that ended up in Von Miller’s hads who sprinted for the endzone and gave the Broncos a 10-28 lead late in the third quarter.

Josh Freeman, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, finished the game with 18 of 39 passing for 242 yards with 2 touchdown passes and one interception. “The hype these guys get, it’s well deserved,” Freeman said in the postgame press conference about the defeat. “They get after it. The front four, they do a good job of timing their blitzes. The Denver defense played a great game today.” Oh they certainly did. Let it there be no doubt about that one.

Manning on the other hand didn’t want to celebrate too much. He know he had a good game, but he’s trying to stay focused on the bigger picture. “What I liked about the second touchdown was that Demaryius was seeing the same thing I was seeing,” Manning said to a reporter after the game. “We had another route on. We changed it at the line. We were thinking along the same lines. I like to see the communication, the growth.”

At 2-2 for the season, either the Denver Broncos or the New England Patriots are really living it up to their expectations. On the one hand, we have to cut some slack and give Peyton Manning a little more time to get used to his new teammates and work out his game strategy with head coach John Fox. After all, we are talking about a guy who spent 14 years in Indianapolis and that missed the whole last season as he was recovering from his 5^th neck surgery. So considering everything Manning has been through, 2-2 is really not that bad.

Now, for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, well, that’s a whole different story. Sure enough the Patriots have been quite dominant behind Brady for over a decade now, but things this season have been a bit sloppy. Fortunately for us, this means that Brady is going to have to go all-out on Sunday to defend his home field advantage. The Pats are well aware of the situation: they can’t let Manning win at Foxboro.

For the Broncos this is certainly a whole different story. Last season, their miraculous and Tebowmania-filled trip into the NFL Playoffs ended abruptly at the Gillette Stadium. Sure enough Tim Tebow had turned things around for the Broncos late in the season and he had managed to pull off the upset in their first postseason game in 5-years against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then came Tom Brady and the Patriots and Tebow was nowhere to be seen. He finished off the game with 9 of 26 passing for 136 yards; Brady on the other hand passed for 363 yards and 6 touchdown passes as he guided New England to a 45-10 crushing of the Broncos. Now, this trip to the east coast is going to be a big different for Denver. Now they have NFL Hall-of-fame worthy talent behind Peyton Manning. And he seems to get better grip of the team after every game.

The Broncos head coach, John Fox, has been trying to get his team to adapt as quickly as possible to Manning game. Sure there were some sloppy moments but he  appeared to fit right in with Denver last week in the Broncos 37-6 rout of Oakland. After completing only half of his passes in a loss to Houston on Sept. 23, he was 30 of 38 against the Raiders for a season-high 338 yards and three touchdowns. The important thing here is that this was more than just Manning been Manning. This was a true team effort. His defense was able to control the Raiders pas rush and managed to keep him safe. He wasn’t sacked for the first time this season, and that allowed him to take the extra split second to secure his pass. This is the third time so far this season that he finishes a game without throwing an interception.

“The key that I’ve said all along is just trying to keep making progress somehow,” Manning said in a press conference earlier this week. “That doesn’t always show on the scoreboard — you’d like to win every game as you’re feeling your way and learning about your team and learning about yourself a little bit.” Well, he’s working hard to figure it out. Let’s see what he can throw against the Patriots.

Both Matt Ryan and Peyton Manning opened up the 2012 season with stellar performances. Ryan was coming into his 5^th season with the Falcons so there was not much of a learning curve for him. But Peyton Manning on the other hand, had to learn all the tricks from scratch as he was coming off a 20-month hiatus after he underwent his 4^th neck surgery. Now, the Denver Broncos pulled off one heck of a play when they managed to reel in the services of Peyton Manning. I mean, sure enough he is probably pass his prime, he’s had plenty of well documented issues with his neck and back, and to top it off, it had been twenty months since the last time he put on his uniform and played a regular season game. So the expectations were high and there was plenty of uncertainty.

The thing is, for some reason people seemed to believe that Manning’s recovery had was really going to affect his game. People said that he was too fragile, too old, that there was too much mileage in his legs and that on the long run, the Denver Broncos might had been better of sticking with Tim Tebow. Now, what the people making these statements tend to forget is precisely the fact that it was only his body that was recovering from an injury. His brain, he’s deep smart knowledge of the game was intact, and that extra mileage is not only worth millions in experience, it also entitles him to be a real-world proven leader. And perhaps that’s exactly what the Denver Broncos needed right now.

Manning guided the Broncos to a 31-19 win over Pittsburgh last Sunday night, going 19 of 26 for 253 yards and two touchdowns. Ryan, on the other hand, guided his team with 23 of 31 passing for 299 yards with 3 touchdown passes as he started 2012 with a 40-24 win at Kansas City last Sunday. The Falcons offense is certainly equipped to give the Broncos a run for their money. It is going to be a big challenge for these guys. Let’s consider for a moment that the Falcons averaged 6.8 yards per play and finished with 376 yards overall. This is certainly going to give head coach John Fox a real idea of what kind of work is going to be needed on the Broncos defensive end.

Demariuys Thomas is looking to prove doubters wrong after two injury-shortened campaigns with the Broncos.  This seems to be his best start of the season yet, and if he can manage to stay healthy and keep up the good chemistry he has with Manning great things could happen. He finished with 551 yards receiving and four touchdowns in 11 games — five starts — last year. But against the Pittsburgh Steelers he recorded five catches for 110 yards. He had two 100-plus yard receiving games previously in his career, both in 2011. Julio Jones made six catches for 108 yards and a pair of touchdowns to round up his first matchup of the year. Look out for him on Monday night as well. Stick around for more NFL action.

After meeting with at least 6 teams and holding conversations with almost a dozen professional football teams, the bound to be hall-of-fame quarterback, Peyton Maning has decided that he’s going to be taking his talents to new heights. Literally. On Monday morning, Peyton Manning announced that he had told his agent, Tom Condon, to start working out the details of his new contract with the Denver Broncos. It’s going to be less then two weeks since the Indianapolis Colts have announced that they were letting go of Manning, and quite as long since the future of the current Broncos quarterback, Tim Tebow, has been jeopardized by the rumors that are now confirmed: Peyton Manning is going to be a Bronco.

It seems that the time for all the tebownian madness is quite over now. At least we can say that the Denver Broncos are ready to try a little something more elegant and traditional for when it comes to meeting their quarterback needs. It is still uncertain where he’s going to end up at, but one thing is for sure: as soon as the Peyton Manning deal becomes official, the Broncos are going to do all they can to trade him. Towards the end, Manning had narrowed it down to three teams. He was seriously considering picking the San Francisco 49ers or opting to finish his career with the Tennessee Titans, but at the end, the Broncos seemed to the 4-times MVP as the ideal team to join. It was Manning himself who called the Broncos vice president of football operations John Elway earlier today to make the official announcement. He also called the San Francisco 49ers and Tennessee Titans to let them known that he was leaving for the Mile High Stadium.

The Tennessee Titans owner, Bud Adams, was a little disappointed with Manning decision, but he also took a quick chance to show some support for his starting quarterback Matt Hassselbeck. “Now that we move forward, I want our fans to know that our expectations haven’t changed — winning a championship is still the goal. I like our quarterback situation moving forward and we will continue to build the team through free agency and the draft with that goal in mind (…) I also want to commend Matt Hasselbeck and Jake Locker. They were thrown into a very difficult situation. Matt was very good for us last year…” He said in a press release.

John Elway and Peyton Manning first discussed the overall details of a five-year, $95 million contract during their March 9 meeting in Denver. It will be up to both parties representatives to work out the fine print of the agreement. Because for better or worse, there are still some issues that have to be solved before this can actually be considered a done deal. It is still uncertain what the contract is going to hold in terms of guaranteed money, structure of the deal and what sort of protections the contract will offer in case Mannings prior neck surgery will keep Manning from performing his duties. That is an old and well-known injury, but so far, Manning has passed the Physical examinations of the two other NFL teams he was interested, and at least for now, it doesn’t seem to be such a big issue.