As we inch through the offseason, we're reminiscing about the Denver Broncos by analyzing the top three players to ever wear the jersey. We've already covered the top Broncos to wear No. 1 and No. 2, so now it's time for the big three of No. 3.
This is weighted by Pro Football Reference's Approximate Value metric. And starting us off, we have a dead heat.
Because I'm petty, we're starting with a kicker, even though his AV rating is tied with a former Broncos quarterback who beat Denver in a Super Bowl a decade before arriving via trade from Seattle.
Rich Karlis | K | 1982-88
Famous for kicking barefoot, Karlis joined the Broncos in 1982, after spending his undrafted rookie season with the then-Houston Oilers. He won the job in Denver as a second-year guy, going on to kick in two Super Bowls with the Broncos.
From an accuracy standpoint, Karlis' best year was his first as a Bronco, connecting on 84.6% of his field-goal attempts. It was all downhill from there.
After the Broncos parted ways with him, Karlis would play two more years, one with the Minnesota Vikings and one with the Detroit Lions, before retiring. He never garnered any individual accolades, but he contributed to a pair of Conference championships, and was part of an indelible moment in Broncos history, completing John Elway's improbable comeback vs. the Cleveland Browns with an game-winning field goal in overtime.
The stakes were huge, as it was the AFC title game, and the Broncos were on the road. No cleat for Karlis, though.
He banged through the 33-yarder in overtime to seal Elway's coming-out party on the big NFL stage. Karlis went 2-for-2 on his field-goal attempts and 3-for-3 on extra-point tries in that bitterly cold game in Cleveland.
Russell Wilson | QB | 2022-23
Ah, the Wilson snafu. The Broncos acquired him via trade from the Seattle Seahawks as a nine-time Pro Bowler entering his 11th season, relinquishing multiple first and second-round draft picks as well as three starters. Seemed like a pretty safe bet at the time
Wrong. And the Broncos would unwittingly (literally) compound their mistake by paying Wilson a quarter-billion-dollar extension before he ever stepped foot on a regular-season field, and the rest, as they say, is history. Wilson failed to launch in Year 1 under the incompetent stewardship of failed head coach Nathaniel Hackett, who didn't even last a full season in Denver.
The Broncos hired Sean Payton in 2023, acquiring his coaching rights via trade from New Orleans, in part, to try and salvage the Wilson trade and contract. Payton definitely improved Wilson's play and the team overall, winning eight games (three more than Hackett the year prior), while the 12th-year quarterback passed for 26 touchdowns.
By Week 17, Payton had seen enough, benching Wilson with two games left to go. The Broncos would release Wilson the following March to the tune of an NFL record $85 million dead-money charge to the salary cap.
The Broncos split Wilson's dead-money hits over the 2024 and 2025 season, with the bulk of it already being accounted for during the team's 10-win season with rookie quarterback Bo Nix. The team's first-round pick turned out to be the salve that Broncos Country needed to begin healing the wounds and trauma of one of the biggest botched trades in NFL history.
All in, Wilson went 13-26 as a starter in Denver before he was jettisoned, along with that ill-advised albatross of a contract. He signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers last year for not much more than the veteran minimum, since the Broncos were still essentially paying him.
Wilson will be suiting up for the New York Giants this year. The Broncos will host the Giants in Week 7, but only time will tell whether Wilson is able to fend off Jameis Winston and first-rounder Jaxson Dart for the starting job by then.
Drew Lock | QB | 2019-2021
Lock was a Broncos second-round pick in 2019. He began his rookie year injured, with the Broncos riding with Joe Flacco as the starter. After Flacco imploded, the Broncos turned to Brandon Allen while Lock finished healing up.
Then-head coach Vic Fangio finally pulled the trigger on Lock, and he would go on to win four of his five starts as a rookie, punctuating the season with a gritty win over the then-Oakland Raiders. It was the Raiders' last regular-season game ever as the Oakland iteration of the team, though it was played in Denver. Ha!
The future looked bright for Lock and the Broncos, then the pandemic hit the following spring, forcing the NFL to navigate the season with some onerous rules and strictures, and playing the games without fans in attendance. Still, optimism reigned, and then Lock suffered a brutal shoulder injury in Week 2.
The Lock era would never quite get back on track, even though he would return to the starting lineup in Week 5. The injury was to his throwing shoulder, though, and he played out the season far from 100% health-wise.
Fangio brought in Teddy Bridgewater as a hedge the following offseason. The Broncos held an open competition, which Bridgewater won, and that was pretty much it for Lock.
Lock did start three games in relief of an injured Bridgewater later that year, all three of which were losses. The Broncos, as a team, had checked out by then.
The Broncos included Lock in the Wilson trade to Seattle, where he served as a backup to Geno Smith after being vanquished in yet another open competition. After two years with the Seahawks, wherein he was able to modestly rebuild his NFL reputation behind Smith, Lock signed with the Giants last year. It didn't go well.
Lock is back in Seattle. I'll always wonder what could have been with the big-armed Lock had the gruff, defensive-minded Fangio not been his head coach, and had he not suffered that shoulder injury so early in his second year, which corresponded with the outlier of the 2020 pandemic season.
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