In the history of the Denver Broncos, they have won three Super Bowls. The Colts, whether it was in Baltimore or Indianapolis, have won two. Oddly, only one of the teams has won a quarterback with a quarterback not drafted by the Colts, and that would be the Colts themselves.
Moreover, of the two teams' combined five Super Bowl titles, four of them were led by either John Elway or Peyton Manning. Manning and Elway each won two. Both were drafted by either Baltimore or Indianapolis.
The championship not won by the two greats was when Baltimore won the 1971 championship and was led by Earl Morrall and Johnny Unitas, neither of whom was taken by the Colts. Morrall was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1956, while Unitas was taken by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1955. Both played somewhat poorly in the Colts' Super Bowl victory against the Dallas Cowboys.
The Denver Broncos have never won a quarterback without a quarterback that the Colts drafted
Manning, of course, is an Indy legend and was highly successful with the Colts. His only title in Indy came in 2007. He won a second with the Broncos in 2016.
Many NFL fans might not know that the Baltimore Colts selected John Elway first overall in the 1983 draft. At the time, the franchise was in a bad way. The coach, Frank Kush, was the opposite of a player-friendly one, and Elway didn't want to play for him. Instead, Elway threatened to play baseball for the New York Yankees instead.
Knowing this, and even though the Colts took Elway, Baltimore traded Elway to the Broncos for a few mostly forgettable players. One was offensive lineman Chris Hinton, the fourth overall pick in 1983, backup quarterback Mark Herrman, and a first-round pick in 1984. That turned out to be Ron Solt.
Hinton turned out to be decent. He played for the Colts for seven seasons, was a six-time Pro Bowler, and was twice named Second-Team All-Pro.
Herrman had two stints with the Colts. The first was in 1983 and 1984 when he started three total games and threw one touchdown pass but nine interceptions. He returned in 1990 and played through 1992, but he started just one game. In the last three seasons, he had one touchdown pass and four interceptions. He was terrible.
Solt played for the Indianapolis Colts for four-plus seasons and made one Pro Bowl. He was a full-time starter for the first four years of his career.
Meanwhile, John Elway won the Super Bowl in 1998 and 1999, and he was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004. He would have made the Colts better, obviously, but he never gave the team a chance.
While Indianapolis didn't make the playoffs in 2025, the Denver Broncos are still alive and will play the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game. Starting quarterback Bo Nix will miss the game with a broken ankle.
Jarrett Stidham will start in place of Nix. If Stidham is injured, Sam Ehlinger would take his place. Ehlinger, of course, was taken by the Indianapolis Colts in the sixth round of the 2021 draft.