I found this interesting when looking back at Denver's recent QBs.
Jake Plummer joined the team in 2003, the first of the two 10-6 seasons. He missed five games that year for some sort of injury, and in those games the Broncos went 1-4; with Plummer in the lineup they were 9-2. They made the playoffs, but ran up against the Colts on a day when Peyton Manning was as hot as he's ever been, and lost 41-10 or something like that.
Plummer started all 16 games in the next two seasons. In the playoffs, they suffered another loss to a hot Peyton Manning in 2004, but then beat New England a year later, before losing to the Steelers in the AFC championship game. This was the best season the Broncos had since Elway left, by far.
2003 and 2005 were the two best years of Plummer's career, according to his passing stats, but his stats dropped in 2006. Despite that, the team was still 7-2 after nine games. Then they lost two in a row, dropping to 7-4 -- and the Broncos replaced him with Jay Cutler. They finished with two victories in their last five games, and haven't broken .500 since. They brought in Orton this past year, who was no improvement whatsoever.
To sum up, in the last nine seasons the Broncos have won 43 and lost 46 with anybody other than Plummer playing quarterback; but with him behind center they went 39 and 15.
It seems to me that all this suggests two things: 1) that Plummer might have been a lot better than he was given credit for, and 2) that the Broncos might have made a really poor decision back in 2006.
