In the nineteenth of Thin Air’s series on considerations for the Broncos Ring of Fame is Trevor Pryce (1997-2005).
Loading ...Trevor Pryce has some mitigating and aggravating factors when it comes to his case. Bob kicks us off on some of them:
Our previous discussion of Carter should remind everyone of one of our complaints about Mike Shanahan’s final years: The lack of a defensive tackle who could stop the run. The time Pryce spent with the Broncos should only remind people about when Shanahan actually had such a player.
Of course, Pryce could do more than stop the run. He twice posted double-digit sacks in a season and hovered just below 10 in a couple other seasons. Shanahan cut him for cap reasons after the 2005 season – he had turned 31, so logic would indicate he was about to exit his prime.
Except he went on to have 13 sacks in his first season with Baltimore. Ah, well, can’t win them all.
Seriously, Pryce is one of those players who is likely to get overlooked because he wasn’t a career Bronco. Although I wonder if he’ll have a better chance of making the Ring of Fame because there’s more recent evidence of his play than of Chavous and Carter.
There is only one person I can think of currently in the Ring of Fame that has been inducted with having continued success after being released by the Broncos. That would be Dan Reeves, who despite having losing records in both of his tenures with the Giants and Falcons, still put together 11 seasons of post-Denver work. This, of course, was buoyed by taking the 1998 Falcons to the Super Bowl, only to be shot down decisively by some old friends.
Finally, a little bit of cool trivia about Pryce: he has become an accomplished writer. Check out his IMDB profile for more: despite the mentioned work, it’s funny that it lists Super Bowl XXXIII and the 1997 NFL Draft first as things he’s known for.