In easily the biggest Wildcard Weekend upset since the Seahawks knocked off the Saints all the way back in 2011, the Broncos shocked the NFL world on Sunday with a 29-23 upset of the Steelers in Denver. Here are some quick-hit thoughts from today’s game.

- Let me tell you a tale of two teams on Wildcard Weekend. We’ll call one team “Team Ass-Kicked” and the other team, “Team Tebowhorse.” Team Ass-Kicked tiptoed into their game against a good, but beatable opponent on Sunday and was predictable, unimaginative, and uncreative. Even though it was the playoffs, Team Ass-Kicked didn’t raise the level of their play and predictably, they got their ass kicked. (Hence the name – see what I did there?) Team Tebowhorse, on the other hand, opened things up, kept their opponent off balance, kept attacking and in they end, they pulled off the biggest upset of the weekend. I did enough bashing of the Falcons in my recap of their game against the Giants, but let this Denver victory be a lesson for Mike Smith and his coaching staff. When you try to do predictable things, you get a predictable outcome. When you open things up and actually attack defenses, you’re more likely to keep them off-balance. Good things come to those that go after what they want.

- To expand on my first point, the Steelers didn’t expect the Broncos to throw the football today and why would they? With the playoffs on the line last week, Denver only mustered one measly field goal against an underrated, but slightly above average Kansas City defense. There were even rumors that Tim Tebow would be benched for Brady Quinn if he didn’t play well. But instead of playing into Pittsburgh’s hands and just hoping for the best, John Fox and his staff put together a game plan that actually attacked Pittsburgh’s weakness: its secondary. With the Steelers playing run defense and leaving their corners in one-on-one coverage, the Broncos threw the ball vertically and guess what? It worked. This wasn’t a genius game plan by Denver and it could have easily backfired. But it was the best game plan because it was one that kept pushing the Steelers’ defense. It’s not wise to poke a sleeping bear but if you find yourself face to face with one in an enclosed area, you might as well go on the offensive. Because you’re not going to win by letting him do all the attacking.

- Tebow only completed 10 passes but that’s not the stat that matters. The stat that matters is 15.0. That’s how long his average pass went for today, which is why the Broncos scored 29 points instead of 3 like everyone thought they would. Tebow will never be an elite quarterback in the conventional sense. He’s always going to lack the presence to stand in the pocket and beat teams like Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees. But even his strongest detractors have to give him credit for taking shots down field and some of his passes were right on the money. Granted, he got a ton of help from his receivers but this wasn’t one of his typical wins where he played like crap for three quarters only to run his way towards a victory. His arm and his legs helped the Broncos win that game.

- Ike Taylor is going to see Demaryius Thomas in his nightmares for the next eight months. This was simply a day for Taylor to forget and one for Thomas to cherish because it was his coming out party. The Broncos drafted him in the first round in 2010 because they needed a deep threat to replace Brandon Marshall. And while it has taken him some time to develop, Thomas is finally starting to perform like that big-play wideout that Denver envisioned he’d be two Aprils ago. It’s crazy that two receivers this weekend broke out with 200 yards. (Thomas and Detroit’s Calvin Johnson.)

- Not to pile on Taylor but he really was at the root of Pittsburgh’s problems defensively. Granted, the Steelers were at a disadvantage because of injuries but Dick LeBeau did his job today. As a defensive coordinator you want to force Tebow to throw and that’s what LeBeau did. It’s just that defenders like Taylor repeatedly got beat, which was about the only thing they couldn’t do. Just a bad, bad day for the Steelers’ top corner.

- It all went for naught but that was another gutsy performance by Ben Roethlisberger. His ankle was clearly bothering him but he hung in there and delivered some big plays on the Steelers’ game-tying touchdown drive. (His receivers also made some spectacular catches.) But it makes you wonder whether or not Pittsburgh was destined to repeat as AFC champions this year. Big Ben’s injury wasn’t likely to get any better if he kept playing on it and the Steelers’ suffered one too many injuries. It just wasn’t the year for the “Terrible Towel.”

- I’m sorry, but John Elway still bugs the crap out of me. Denver fans can twist it however they want but Elway was never fully on the Tebow bandwagon. You know it, he knows, Jesus knows it. Then there he was, jumping around like a 7-year-old girl after Tebow won the game in overtime. I know, I know – what is he going to do, not celebrate his team’s huge victory? But there’s just something very wrong with a guy who gets what he wants after being a prick. You should have played in Indianapolis like a man, John!

The quarterback has always been the most important position in pro football, even in the days when the running game was dominant. Many fans don’t realize that quarterbacks called all the plays as late as the 1970s and into the early 1980s. So even if offenses weren’t quite as complex back then and great teams had excellent running games, having a field general like Bob Griese, Terry Bradshaw or Roger Staubach was critical. As the NFL evolved into a more pass-happy league, an evolution that has accelerated in the last ten years with rules protecting the quarterbacks and defenseless receivers, the importance of the quarterback has only been magnified.

This reality makes the relationship between the head coach and the quarterback the most important in pro football. Look at the great teams over the years, and you see great partnerships between coach and quarterback leading to success on the field. It’s interesting to take a look back and see how these relationships took shape and see how they varied based on the situations and the personalities involved. Here are several interesting examples:

1-Bill Belichick and Tom Brady

Bill Belichick was known as a defensive genius when he took over the New England Patriots, but he was also known as a rigid coach who had a complete lack of imagination on offense as a result of his years as head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Belichick wanted the quarterback to be just another position on the field as he didn’t seem to acknowledge the leadership qualities of the position. Tom Brady was a sixth round pick sitting on the bench behind Drew Bledsoe.

When Bledsoe got hurt, Belichick turned to Brady and immediately saw Brady’s talent, decision-making and leadership ability. When Bledsoe came back, Belichick decided to stay with Brady, which at the time was a controversial decision. They made it to the Super Bowl, and by then Belichick has so much confidence in Brady that he made the aggressive decision to drive down the field with little time left in the fourth quarter in a tie game against the Rams. John Madden famously said on television that the Patriots should have just run out the clock and took their chances in overtime. Instead, Brady drove the Pats down to the game-winning field goal.

Two more Super Bowls and one undefeated regular season later, this partnership between Belichick and Brady is one of the most successful in NFL history. Belichick and his offensive coaches let Brady achieve his full potential by becoming just as imaginative on offense as Belichick had been his whole career on defense. From year to year the Patriots would beat you in many different ways, and then they grabbed Randy Moss they were almost unbeatable.

2-Mike Shanahan and John Elway

John Elway is one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. Yet despite his heroics with “The Drive” and countless other games that he won on sheer athletic ability, Elway had never managed to win a Super Bowl. He never had a real running game, and the Denver defenses were routinely embarrassed in Super Bowls. Then Mike Shanahan arrived. Shanahan is a stubborn system guy, and since the John Elway days he’s not had nearly as much success with his arrogant attitude. But Shanahan’s system was exactly what Elway needed. Elway bought into the changes which placed more emphasis on a running game and a disciplined approach to the passing game, and the result was two Super Bowl titles.

3-Bill Walsh and Joe Montana

Bill Walsh was a system guy. He was an offensive genius who dominated the NFL with his West Coast offense, and he happened to find the perfect quarterback for his system in third-round draft pick Joe Montana. Montana was very accurate and incredibly smart, and he played the quarterback position flawlessly in this system. Of course the 49ers were loaded with talent on offense, but the natural relationship between Walsh and Montana set a standard that would be copied over and over again in the NFL. Look at Aaron Rodgers today, and you see flashes on what Walsh and Montana created thirty years ago. Rodgers and Mike McCarthy have forged a great relationship following the Brett Favre drama in Green Bay.

Of course there are exceptions that help prove the rule. Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw never got along, but they managed to ride one of the best defenses in history plus a great running game to four Super Bowls, and Bradshaw thrived under pressure despite his frosty relationship with Noll. Bill Parcells was notorious for riding Phil Simms, and they had great success as well.

But there’s no doubt that the relationship between the head coach and the quarterback is usually a critical component to sustained success in the NFL. It will be interesting to see how young quarterbacks like Sam Bradford and Matthew Stafford grow with their head coaches.

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While he did state that the youngster would compete with Kyle Orton this offseason, Broncos VP John Elway reiterated that he wants Tim Tebow to be the team’s starting quarterback in 2011.

“I think where we are as an organization, we are going with Tim,” Elway said, this coming after he described himself as being Tebow’s “biggest fan” before the draft last week.

Tebow appreciated Elway’s comments.

“To have John Elway say positive things about you is just amazing. He’s played the game at the highest level possible, and I’m excited because he’s going to be a great asset for me.”

Elway has told Tebow that in order for the Broncos to become Super Bowl champions, the former Heisman winner will have to perfect his throwing motion, improve his accuracy and prove he can win from the pocket. While Elway does believe that Tebow can accomplish these things, he doesn’t want to set a timetable for when it will happen.

I had my reservations about the Broncos trading back into the first round last year in order to take Tebow. But the kid is a natural winner and a football player through and through. The Broncos don’t ever have to worry about Tebow going the JaMarcus Russell route and not working at his craft. I don’t know Tebow personally but I can envision him on a field somewhere right now throwing to receivers and committing every mistake to memory so that he doesn’t make them again. He’s a tireless worker.

Of course, just because he’s willing to put in the time doesn’t mean he’ll make stides in order to lead the Broncos to the promise land. But at least he knows he has the organization’s support, which is huge for a young quarterback. Now it’s up to Denver’s new coaching staff to do everything in its power to put Tebow in the right position to succeed.

While Rick Dennison was initially favored to land the gig, the Broncos were swept away by John Fox’s interview on Wednesday and have decided to make him their 14th head coach in team history.

This hire makes sense on many levels. The Broncos finished dead last in yards allowed this season and Fox is a defensive-minded coach. After the Josh McDaniels debacle, they didn’t want to take another risk and you couldn’t get less risky than John Fox. He was the Panthers’ head coach since 2002 and during that span, Carolina finished with fewer than seven wins only once (which was this season, when they went 2-14).

But could the Broncos have gotten more blasé with this hire? Fox has already led a team to the Super Bowl and it certainly wasn’t his fault that the front office left him with practically zero talent to work with last season. But his teams were always the models of inconsistency under his guidance, making the playoffs one year only to finish 7-9 or 8-8 the next. He also stuck with Jake Delhomme as his starter for way too long, even though a blind puppet could see that Delhomme was done years ago.

He also isn’t a very good schemer. Giant fans loved him when he was the defensive coordinator in New York before he was hired in Carolina, but the Panthers always seemed to have secondary issues over the years. While pundits love to say how he “always gets the most out of his players,” I’ve never heard anyone wax poetically about one of Fox’s game plans.

What I’ve written doesn’t make Fox a bad coach obviously, but again – he’s the epitome of “meh.” It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Tim Tebow now and if the Broncos plan on going into next season with him as their starter. Fox has had zero success and limited experience developing young quarterbacks, so again, I question the Broncos’ choice here.

That said, maybe he was the right choice for the Broncos at this particular time. And regardless of my personal feelings about him, the majority of people seem to like him.

Hey, he can’t be any worse than McDaniels was, right?

John Elway hasn’t held a position in the Broncos’ front office for very long but already he’s backpedaling after making some newsworthy comments.

While speaking recently to SI.com’s Peter King, Elway said: “I don’t think Tim Tebow is a good NFL quarterback at this time.” This propelled King to write that the Broncos may look to trade Tebow in the offseason.

On Sunday, Elway was already looking to douse water on the fire.

“To clarify my thoughts on Tim Tebow … I think he’s a very good football player, and if anyone can turn themselves into a great quarterback, Tim can,” Elway wrote.

“Myself and our entire organization think very highly of him. We are pleased with his first year as a Bronco.

“Any speculation that the Denver Broncos are considering moving Tim is completely false.”

I bet Elway meant what he said the first time about Tebow. He doesn’t think he’s a good NFL quarterback yet and he probably has doubts that he’ll ever be a quality starter in the league. I think he realized how far his words could spread in a short matter of time, which is why he quickly clarified what he said after he saw how things started to unravel.

That said, that doesn’t mean that the Broncos are going to trade Tebow or that Elway believes that the former first round pick can’t develop. But Elway probably has the same thoughts that a lot of people do: Tebow is one massive project as a quarterback and winning a couple of meaningless games at the end of the year doesn’t change that.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Broncos have reached an agreement with John Elway to become the team’s executive vice president.

“John’s intelligence, his leadership, business savvy, his knowledge of the game, and competitive fire — plus the respect that everyone in this building will have for him — will make us better right away,” Joe Ellis, the Broncos’ chief operating officer, told The Denver Post of owner Pat Bowlen’s sentiments, without confirming Elway’s hire.

One of Elway’s first orders of business as a Broncos executive will be to discuss Denver’s head-coach opening with Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh, league sources told Schefter. A former Stanford star, Elway is serving as an honorary captain for the Cardinal on Monday night at the Discover Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech.

This is obviously a great P.R. move by the Broncos. Their fans love Elway and if he can somehow bring Harbaugh to Denver, then they’ll really love him. I don’t know if the man knows the first thing about being an executive vice president of a professional football team but after the disaster that was Josh McDaniels, the decision making couldn’t get any worse in Denver.

I don’t know if he’ll mettle in the on-field stuff, but maybe he can lend a hand in Tim Tebow’s development, too.

According to the Denver Post, retired quarterback John Elway and a business partner invested $15 million in March with a hedge-fund manager Sean Muller, who was charged and arrested this week in an alleged Ponzi scheme.

Yahoo! summed up the story nicely:

The Denver Post reported that the two invested $15 million with Sean Mueller in March with the understanding that the money would be placed in a trust until a final decision was made about where it would be invested.

About 65 people had invested $71 million with Mueller over the past decade. Yet in April, Mueller only had $9.5 million, according to a state investigator. He turned himself in to authorities on Wednesday on charges of racketeering, securities fraud and theft, and is being held in prison on $2 million bond.

Elway and his partner have asked that their claim be processed ahead of any other investors’ because their $15 million was supposed to be placed in a trust, not pooled with the money of the rest of the hedge fund. According to an April filing, $12 million of Elway’s money was placed into a Morgan Stanley trust account, as expected. The other $3 million has gone missing.

This is why you don’t invest in anything. Just go to the casinos like I do. That way you know you’re getting screwed right from the start and it’s not a surprise when all of your money disappears.

“You gotta be f***ing kidding me. Another 16 against a 20?”

ESPN.com did a cool feature in which they compiled a mock draft using all of the best prospects in the history of the NFL draft, but pretended to not know how those prospects eventually turned out.

What if we could hop in a time machine and bring back all the best prospects in history for this year’s draft? Of course, professional accomplishments don’t count. This exercise is based strictly on the scouting reports at the conclusion of college careers. Our big board is an amalgam of only the most ballyhooed prospects. With a few exceptions, these are players who were drafted in the top five overall. Players such as Joe Montana and Tom Brady, who were seen as too physically limited by many evaluators, need not apply.

1. Lions: John Elway, QB, Stanford
In hopes of landing Detroit’s first franchise quarterback since Bobby Layne more than 50 years ago, the Lions reach for arguably the best college prospect ever with the opening selection. Elway boasts a truly extraordinary combination of arm strength, accuracy and mobility. The 6-foot-3, 215-pounder passed for 9,349 yards and 77 touchdowns, completing 62.1 percent of his attempts. Too bad he didn’t play on special teams. Wait … this just in: Elway’s representatives are saying the Stanford star, who played two seasons of college baseball, refuses to play for Detroit and demands his rights be traded. Meantime, he reportedly is negotiating a 10-year deal with the New York Yankees and is willing to pursue a baseball career if the Lions don’t comply. Stay tuned.

NFC North blogger Kevin Seifert: Luckily, Detroit grabbed the Stanford quarterback before the Colts had a chance. Surely, Elway will have no problem playing for a Lions team that just missed winning (all) 16 games last season.

Read all 32 picks here.

I absolutely love the dig at Elway. He’s widely recognized for being one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game (which he was), but everyone conveniently forgets that he pulled one of the biggest crybaby moves in draft history when he said that he would play minor league baseball if the Baltimore Colts (who drafted him with the first overall pick in 1983) didn’t trade him. I know he’s a football god in Denver, but nobody can deny that what he did in ’83 absolutely reeked of douche-baggery.

No corny jokes.

No stale pop culture references.

Just a touching story about a Montana kid whose father was a big John Elway fan.

I’ll give props when props are due…

Good column, Rick.