Denver Broncos hire Gary Kubiak: 3 things to know

Denver Broncos hire Gary Kubiak: 3 things to know

I didn't remember it until just now, but he was the back-up QB behind Elway for almost a decade with the Broncos. He was quite competent in that role, but that's a job roughly as important as being Cal Ripken's back-up guy. In nine years he only got to throw 298 passes. In three of those years he tossed fewer than eight passes for the entire season.

You may remember that the highlight of his career was his final game. Elway was injured in the AFC championship game against the Bills, and Kubiak came in and was just about perfect, completing 11 of 12 and adding a rushing TD. He engineered an 85-yard drive to cut the Bills' lead to three, then got the ball right back on an onside kick. He made a solid pass to Steve Sewell that could have averted defeat, but Kirby Jackson stripped the ball away from Sewell and the Bills managed to run out all but 17 seconds from the clock. Even with such a limited amount of time, Kubiak was able to complete two more passes in a last-ditch effort, but there just wasn't enough time to get in position for a field goal.

In a sense, he is now Elway's back-up again!