There’s no understating John Elway’s stature in NFL history. While stats amply present his impact, for director Ken Rodgers, it transcends further. In an EssentiallySports Exclusive Interview, Rodgers explained exactly how elite the former Denver Broncos quarterback was. The conversation kick-started when journalist Ryan Ward mentioned retired wide receiver Ed McCaffrey “thinks really highly” of Elway.

“A lot of people use that word, but he’s iconic, which to me means, in some way, beyond description,” the director said during the Exclusive Interview with EssentiallySports. “You compare other people to John, not John to other people. You don’t say John Elway was like blah, blah, blah. You say someone is like John Elway. That, to me, is what sets apart iconic figures is that others strive to be compared to them. They’re singular in the sports universe. And John is one of those people.”

And when Ward questioned if that impact was akin to “Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, all those types”, Rodgers wholeheartedly agreed.

“But I think circa 1998, that list would have included John Elway,” he said. “Hopefully, this film will put him back up there a little bit.”

And Rodgers is not wrong. A short trip down memory lane shows exactly what Jordan and Elway meant to sports fans. When the duo retired in 1999 (within months of Wayne Gretzky and Katja Seizinger), many mourned it like a death of seeing hard-hitting, impactful sports on television.

The New York Times famously carried a headline that mentioned the quadruple retirements as “Twilight of the Millennium Brings Exit of Sports Gods”. Los Angeles Times journalist, Michael Wilbon, on the other hand, called the events “numbing” and “depressing.” As for the entire nation, they were in limbo, wondering: What’s next?

But as history flipped its pages, and Michael Jordan got immortalized in the NBA, the Brady–Manning era completely rewrote the idea of longevity and statistical dominance in the NFL, pushing Elway’s name slightly out of the modern-day ‘GOAT’ chatter.

Brady’s accolades are almost genuinely unbelievable: Seven-time Super Bowl champion, and the all-time career leader in completions (7,753), attempts (12,050), and passing touchdowns (649). Manning wasn’t far behind in the all-time conversation either, with two Super Bowl wins, 14 Pro Bowl selections, and seven First-Team All-Pro nods. Yet there is one difference that still stands out in Denver.

Elway played in an era where the NFL’s defensive rules were much stricter on pass protection and contact with receivers, meaning defenses could be more physical at the line of scrimmage. When Brady and Manning were in their prime, the league had instituted rules that limited defensive contact, especially with receivers beyond five yards, and stricter roughing-the-passer penalties.

Elway spent his entire playing career with the Broncos, becoming the true local standard-bearer and emotional anchor for the region in a way that outsiders never fully replicated. That deep connection to the city and its identity is what drew Rodgers to direct the documentary in the first place, as he explained in the EssentiallySports FanCast conversation.

“John has that frontiersman attitude,” Rodgers said in the exclusive FanCast interview. “That hard scrabble frontier attitude is Denver.”

Over 16 seasons with the Broncos, Elway consistently produced the kind of numbers that forced the league to take notice. At his peak, Elway pulled off a remarkable streak, becoming the only player to both pass for more than 3,000 yards and rush for more than 200 yards in the same season for seven consecutive years. That dual-threat capability made him unpredictable and nearly impossible to game-plan against in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

More importantly for Denver, he finally delivered what had long felt impossible: The first-ever Super Bowl title in franchise history. Elway then followed it up with something only a few quarterbacks have ever done, leading Denver to back-to-back Super Bowl victories in the 1997 and 1998 seasons. Brady matched that feat in the 2003 and 2004 seasons, but with seven rings, TB12 now commands the brighter national spotlight, often overshadowing Elway’s two championships in mainstream conversation.

Still, even if the raw ring count favors Brady, the feeling Elway created when he stepped on the field hit differently, especially in Denver. One of the finest examples of this impact, and one of the plays he is most remembered for, is simply known as “The Drive.”

In the 1986 AFC Championship Game against the Cleveland Browns, Elway orchestrated a legendary 15-play, 98-yard offensive march with the season on the line. He capped that series with a five-yard touchdown pass that tied the game and sent it into overtime, where Denver ultimately secured a 23-20 win.

Hence, for the Broncos fans today, the timing of this release makes perfect sense, as also mentioned by Rodgers. After Manning’s retirement, the team is on a long-awaited high with Bo Nix guiding his team to an AFC No. 1 seed after almost a decade. Amid this, the new release gives newer fans a chance to connect with their Denver roots, while also experiencing Elway’s magic.

But now that the film has had time to settle with viewers since being released on December 22, the question becomes simple: Did it actually manage to do what Director Rodgers wanted and nudge Elway back into those rare conversations?

John Elway’s Netflix documentary earns positive early buzz

The documentary, which follows Elway from his college days to his long NFL career and beyond, has opened to encouraging early feedback. On IMDb, it currently holds a 7.3 rating, suggesting that the fans are appreciating the story being told.

“Elway is a slick, polished documentary that attempts to turn the stat sheets and bio-lines into a tight feature-length narrative, following him from his celebrated career at Stanford and onto a decade of Super Bowl disappointment and eventual glory,” wrote Scott Hines of Decider.

That critical take lines up with how the wider fanbase seems to be reacting. Many viewers are recommending the documentary to others, especially to younger fans who only know Elway as a team executive or a name on highlight reels.

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“This documentary does what it tries to do,” a fan commented on IMDb.

Right now, that sense of pride and rediscovery is also reflected in the field, with everything going right for Denver. The Broncos are sitting at the top of their division, with quarterback Bo Nix leading the charge and trying to write his own chapter in the team’s quarterback history.