Peyton Manning is more organized than Kim Kardashian’s closet. His life operates on routines, consistency. Complete the task. Move on.

So after several weeks of rehabbing a plantar fasciitis foot injury that season, throwing to Jordan “Sunshine” Taylor in the Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse, Manning was ready to return.

Feeling like he was being spied on, Manning delivered a message to coach Gary Kubiak.

“When you are hurt, you feel left out. Like the kid that doesn’t get to go on the playground. I felt like I was throwing the ball well,” Manning said. “I wanted to see if someone was really watching.”

Turns out, Kubiak was indeed checking on the former MVP. What he saw surprised him. And more than a decade later, it still does.

“The first video I saw, it only had one barrel (flipping him off),” Kubiak said with a laugh. “I knew he was mad. Really he was saying, ‘Hey, dumb (bleep), are you going to put me in?’^”

Wednesday night provided a reminder of how it turned out when Manning returned to the lineup. Joined by five teammates and Kubiak, the 2015 Broncos celebrated the Night of Champions at the Paramount Theatre.

The bulk of the team came together last fall for a 10-year reunion and the induction of the late Demaryius Thomas into the Ring of Fame.

But this was different, more personal, more laughs, showing why Manning decided to hold live events honoring the 2006 Colts, 1989 San Francisco 49ers and Pat Summitt����ap legacy at the University of Tennessee.

“It was special (in October), but we didn’t have the MVP of the team there, Von Miller, because he is still out there playing. So we felt like it was missing something,” Manning said. “This was a chance for the fans to go behind the ropes. When you have a team honored in a stadium it is not the most intimate. This event was all about the fans.”

Based on the reaction of the orange bleached crowd, it is clear Manning read the room like he did defenses for 18 seasons. Manning received a standing ovation. And the roar that greeted Von Miller pierced ears down the 16th Street Mall.

There is a common refrain about seasons that end in rings. The players, it is said, walk together forever as champions.

But the fans become part of the connective tissue as well.

“Why come here? Why wouldn’t I? This was such a special team. This gives us a chance to hear the stories and relive it,” said Leroy Garcia from Colorado Springs, before posing with a replica of the Super Bowl 50 trophy. “There was no way I was going to miss this.”

Manning brought together a cross-section of players whose stories highlighted the special talent and personalities on the Super Bowl 50 team. DeMarcus Ware and Manning are football immortals, enshrined in the Hall of Fame. If Miller ever retires, he will join them.

Star power was required, but unselfishness defined the locker room. Kubiak spoke of the importance of everybody contributing, of playing for the person next to you in the locker room.

The Broncos knew during minicamp that something different was percolating. The offensive had weapons and the defense boasted two fang-bearing edge rushers and a No Fly Zone secondary that humbled All-Pros, MVPs and journeymen without remorse.

“I remember when I joined the team, I thought I was going to be The Man. Then we went through a walk-through and I was like, ‘(Bleep) I am not going to be The Man,’^” Talib said. “We didn’t have one hole. Not one.”

The Broncos opened the season with seven straight wins. The confidence was tangible. Denver believed they could beat anyone because of a defense that closed better than the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera.

“Legendary. The D-line, they had their own special relationship. Our linebackers (Danny Trevathan and Brandon Marshall) were two of the best in the league, straight ballers. And obviously we knew as a secondary we were always going to do what we needed to,” Pro Bowl safety T.J. Ward said. “When you perform the way we did, that’s how you become legendary.”

The way sports operate, however, titles are required to bring people together years later. Greatness is measured in championships.

Miller and Ware wrote a diary of havoc in the postseason. And the offense did just enough, squeaking past the Steelers and Patriots. The New England game remains the loudest the new stadium has ever been. The victory required noise and faith.

“I played for (defensive coordinator) Wade Phillips for like 10 years. And he dedicated one game every season to his dad (Bum Phillips). We won all of them,” said Ware. “I am tearing up thinking about it. We couldn’t let him down.”

As the confetti fell, the gravity of what was ahead took shape. Owner Pat Bowlen wanted a third Super Bowl crown. The players wanted one for Ware, who was ringless, and Manning, who was expected to retire. And, they did not know it then, they needed it as a touchstone memory to honor Thomas.

“If there was a Hall of Fame for teammates, he would be in it,” Miller said. “When I had my first child, he was the first person I called and Face-timed. He was one of one.”

The Broncos thrashed the Carolina Panthers, turning regular season MVP Cam Newton into a Fig Newton. That game is remembered in photos of the defense pouncing, taunting, finger-wagging. All of the swag came together in one night.

It took a coach with patience, who was honest and stern. It required role players willing to sacrifice. And it demanded stars meet the moment, no matter how bright the glare and long the odds.

As the calendar has flipped, as the years have passed, the narrative of those Broncos has changed, filling in the gaps. They were characters. But they won because of character.

“Everybody that wins a Super Bowl, they all say it was a unique team. But I am telling you that the word team could not be more personified than with that Super Bowl 50 group,” Manning said. “Everybody had a job. Everybody was completely unselfish. We never argued. It was really special.”

He arrived at the Paramount Theater downtown Wednesday evening, after all, to celebrate the Broncos’ championship 2015 team and hosted a meet and greet flanked by the Lombardi Trophy.

There will be no such celebrations for the 2025 Broncos, naturally, because they came up four points short of playing in the Super Bowl back in January.

Manning, though, says Sean Payton’s team should be a contender again this fall.

“I think this team has it figured out,” Manning said before hosting his Night of Champions event celebrating the Super Bowl 50 champs. “Sean knows what they need to do. I think they’ve also got to have a bunch of unselfish guys who all can look at themselves in the mirror and say, ‘what can I do to get better this offseason and help the team?’ I think it����ap pretty unique from that standpoint. It����ap not by accident.

“Sean and (general manager George Paton) have drafted and signed guys that are unselfish. That are team-oriented. And that����ap the way you’ve got to have it in order to win.”

Ten years after Manning and the Broncos defeated New England in the AFC Championship Game, the Broncos fell, 10-7, at home. They did so, of course, without Bo Nix, who fractured his ankle in overtime of the team’s 33-30 Divisional round win over Buffalo.

Manning spent time with Nix recently at Augusta National and had a prediction about Nix’s third pro season.

“I saw him down at The Masters last week and he looked good, sounds good — was upbeat and looking forward to getting started,” Manning said. “I think (the injury) is something only he can speak to because to play so well in that game, to beat the Buffalo Bills and then find out you’re not going to play the next week, I can’t speak for him but I know he was disappointed. He’s a competitive guy and he’s a team guy. He wants to be out there. His teammates are out there for him and he wants to answer the bell for them. I’m sure that was the hardest part.

“That’ll push him even harder and make him even hungrier this year.”

Manning may not have experienced exactly what Nix did, but over his Hall of Fame career he tasted both the highs of winning titles and also the sting of coming up just short. In addition to the pair of rings, Manning lost in the Super Bowl two other times — 2009 with Indianapolis and 2013 in Denver.

“I’ve always said, which would you rather do? Have your heart ripped out by the Patriots in the AFC Championship or win your last game of the regular season and finish 7-10 and be so far removed, but it doesn’t hurt quite as much,” Manning said. “It doesn’t sting as much. I’d rather have my heart ripped out because that means you’re knocking on the door. I’m sure Bo would tell you that and Courtland (Sutton) and all the guys that were disappointed that they got so close. It makes you hungrier for the next year, it means you’re doing something right.

“I know Sean and that bunch will rebound and pick up where they left off and I think be even better.”

Denver’s next chance to improve its roster is this weekend in the draft. The Broncos aren’t on the clock until Friday because they traded their first-rounder as part of a package for Jaylen Waddle, but Manning is interested all the same.

“Certainly curious about who the Broncos are going to draft,” he said. “I know we don’t have a (first-rounder) because of Jaylen Waddle. What a great pick-up that was.”

A grade-schooler stormed the field just after Messi, the Argentinian midfielder with the magic left foot, had fled the Colorado Rapids’ 3-2 loss. Then another. And another.

A young man in an FC Barcelona shirt made it the longest, twisting and shouting past security for about 50 seconds, breaking at least four ankles inside the 18-yard box before being hauled down to the turf. We counted at least five field-stormers in all, scamps to the last.

“I work at a school, and I see kids with Messi’s shirt in every classroom,” Claudia Hendricks said. “And I told them, ‘I’m from the same town,’ and people say, ‘Really?’ And they want to touch me. It’s weird.”

Hendricks has called Boulder home for decades. But Claudia, you see, actually hails from Messi’s hometown of Rosario, Argentina. Her sister still lives 2 miles from the legend’s house in Funes Hills, known locally as “The Fortress.” It’s a 10-minute drive down the road. They see it, from afar, every Christmas. Small world.

“We drive by it every day (during the holidays) to see if we can see him,” Hendricks told me outside Empower on Saturday, just before the Rapids hosted Messi’s current club, Inter Miami, for their 30th anniversary match and Messi’s Colorado debut.

“Sometimes, they say, ‘Oh, he’s getting ice cream in this place,’ so we all go over there.”

“Is he ever there?” I wondered.

A grin.

“No, but he owns a bar in Rosario, so we go there sometimes with the hope of seeing him.”

“So is he ever there?” I asked.

Another grin.

“No. I haven’t met him … but I was thinking, if I scream, ‘Messi,’ and I name his neighborhood, that he will look at me anyway.”

To most Americans, No. 10 is the guy who pops up on your television during World Cup years to hawk potato chips or Pepsi products. To Hendricks and her fellow Argentinians, he’s Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Tom Brady, and LeBron James, all rolled into one. The GOAT’S GOAT.

Since 1956, a footballer has been presented with the Ballon d’Or, the Heisman Trophy of world soccer. Messi, now 38, has won it on eight different occasions — including four in a row from 2009-2012. No one else has received it more than five times.

“I don’t think that Michael or LeBron move 70,000 people into a single stadium for a single game,” Sergio Martinez of Lakewood, a Buenos Aires native, opined before the match.

“Messi is … a feeling,” Silvina Irimia, another Buenos Aires native, now of Aurora, continued. “He’s like (Diego) Maradona … there’s nothing like him.

“Argentina is a feeling. That’s what we say. Argentina no lo entenderias.”

Translation: “Argentina, you wouldn’t understand it.”

Then again, when 75,824 people show up for a soccer match during a Nuggets playoff game and a Rockies-Dodgers weekend, you start to understand plenty.

Messi turns 39 in June. It’s presumed that this summer will be his final run with the Argentinian national team in the World Cup. His Inter Miami contract runs through 2028. In a sport with no scoreboard clock, Messi’s clock is ticking.

There were more No. 10 jerseys at Empower Saturday than in half of the Broncos’ home games last fall. Claudia’s son, Elias, owns at least four Messi shirts, at last count. He wore his Argentina replica look on Saturday. He cried when the Argentines lost to Germany in the ’06 World Cup. He still rates Argentina’s 2022 World Cup win as sweeter than the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 victory and the Avalanche and Nuggets’ titles in ’22 and ’23, respectively. And he loves his Broncos, Avs and Nuggets.

“(Denver is) a bit of a humble city, I’d say,” Elias noted. “So it’s really cool to have all that greatness in here.”

And talk about greatness. Messi on Stadium Circle. Shohei Ohtani on Blake. Nikola Jokic on Speer. Do you realize that for one Saturday in the Front Range, Denver hosted the best soccer player in the world, the best basketball player in the world, and the best baseball player on the planet — all shining within four hours and 3 miles of one another?

Yet Messi outdrew them all. Half an hour into the first half, the upper deck resembled something of an Easter quilt, seats alternating between Argentina blue and Miami hot pink. Only a few empty seats lingered in Empower’s nooks and crannies. An announced crowd of 75,000 more than passed the eye test.

Elias’ eyes were a bit tired after trying to track down Messi downtown on Friday. He drove slowly past Denver’s finest hotels, thinking he might catch a glimpse of all that, ya know, greatness.

“He doesn’t come out very much in Argentina. He gets swarmed,” the younger Hendricks said. “I thought I might have a better chance out here.”

Nada. Braved the snow, though.

“I’m sure (Messi) landed and went, ‘What is this?’ ” Elias laughed. “(I’d tell him), ‘No, no, in two hours, it’ll all be gone.’ But just to have him in the city of Denver is so exciting. I’ve loved him for so long. And I’m in Rosario all the time. Just to think, does he know that somebody from Colorado is in the same town as him (in Argentina) every year?”

He does now. And while the Rapids were celebrating their 30th birthday, it didn’t take long for Messi to ruin the party.

Some 19 minutes into the match, the Rapids’ Josh Atencio was whistled for a tripping call in the Miami box that was so soft, a toddler could’ve slept on it.

Even after a video review, the ref pointed to the spot anyway. Messi, the master, strode to center stage, as if on cue. Colorado keeper Zack Steffen waved, stretched both arms high, feinted right and dove hard to his left. No. 10 rolled it coolly across the grass Steffen had just vacated. All the goalie could do was watch, prone, as Inter Miami took a 1-0 lead.

Trailing 2-0 at the halftime break, the birthday boys fought back to make it 2-2 midway through the second stanza. But in the 80th minute, Messi struck again.

The main attraction supported an Inter Miami break along the right wing, eventually isolating Rapids defender Lucas Herrington, 1-on-1, in the back of the box. Messi stutter-stepped without ever losing stride or pace, set himself and fired with that laser left foot into the top left corner of the net. His line drive hissed past a leaping Steffen for a 3-2 Miami lead.

“His grandma is still in the same house,” Claudia laughed. “Same humble house where she lived all her life.”

Same humble legend. No lo entenderias. Messi celebrated the winning goal in the arms of his teammates, another stadium conquered, with a smile anyone could understand.

Call it a fall from grace. Call it a climb back toward himself, as a quarterback.

Early on a Thursday morning in late March, inside Apex, before many of his teammates took off their helmets and headed off to their primary jobs, Lynch yanked a throw too far for a receiver at Spartans practice. He pivoted, disgusted. He redid his motion in thin air. He slapped himself on the helmet several times in rapid succession.

“Hey, you getting hyped for this (expletive), man,” a teammate grinned at Lynch later, off to the side.

“I’m gonna play ’till I’m 45,” the 32-year-old Lynch beamed back. “Like I’m Tom Brady.”

For two and a half games in the National Arena League this spring, the Spartans let Lynch — the Broncos’ 2016 first-round pick that fizzled out after two years in Denver — dream again. No organization at any level called for a year and a half, until Spartans owner Tony Thompson wandered up at Lynch’s son’s Park Hill Pirates youth-ball practice in 2025. They could pay all of $600 a game. Lynch, a religious man, turned up his nose at first. But this was God’s way, he said, of telling him he should play again.

Two and a half games later, playing in Salina, Kansas, Lynch planted his right leg as a defender crunched him from the left side. His right knee buckled. Tests revealed Lynch tore his LCL, ending his comeback attempt before he could even play in the Spartans’ home debut on April 11.

“I was pissed off,” Lynch told The Denver Post. “And it sucks. I didn’t want it to be like this.”

But he did not ask himself why, or why him, or why he couldn’t catch a break, or any of the possible whys that come when hope is killed. He couldn’t go there, Lynch said. Not anymore. He did not join the Spartans for a whiff of former glory. This was an exercise, really, in football therapy.

At some point, bouncing around cities and leagues, Paxton Lynch the man and Paxton Lynch the football player diverged. The man knew himself. The football player, though, lost all confidence. Lynch joined the Spartans to reconcile the two and find part of himself in Denver again. The experiment lasted just a few weeks.

Still, if you ask him, it was successful.

“I was like, ‘OK, if I play this year in arena football,'” Lynch said, “‘I’m going to play as Paxton Lynch. I’m going to have full confidence in myself. I don’t really care.’ And that����ap what I did.

“It felt good to do that again.”

The road back

Looking back, the breaking point was 2017.

Lynch was the Broncos’ first draft pick after Super Bowl 50. The first pick after Manning’s retirement. The first pick of the last year of the Kubiak Era. Lynch rolled into Denver, used to being “the guy,” as he put it, from three years starting in Memphis; he started two games in his rookie year in 2016 behind Trevor Siemian, and lost the job again in his second year.

In 2018, the Broncos signed veteran Case Keenum as their starter, and Lynch lost direction.

“I just remember that whole entire preseason, it was like — I wasn’t Paxton Lynch,” Lynch said. “I was just, like, Paxton Lynch without the confidence.”

The Broncos cut him that September, after two years and just four total starts. Lynch told himself he had to fight to change his mindset. He mostly lost. He lasted less than a year in Seattle. He lasted a year in Pittsburgh. He went to the CFL, the USFL, and the XFL and searched for nearly a decade to recapture the feeling he’d first brought to Denver as a young 22-year-old man before the doubt crept in.

“I knew who I was,” Lynch said. “I had a strong relationship with God. I have a strong foundation in my faith. So I always knew who I was off the field. But when it became Paxton Lynch the football player, and all these people had these different opinions about me – that����ap when it was hard for me.

“I was like … ‘You believe that you’re good. But you’re not playing good. And then all these people are saying you’re not good,'” he continued. “So it’s like, ‘Are these people seeing something I’m not seeing?’ It was the constant battle in that.”

By 2024, the line had gone cold, and Lynch accepted a new stage of his life. Mostly. He was and had an eye on coaching collegiate football. Then Thompson sold him on arena football at a Los Dos Potrillos. Lynch told himself and family, after all, that he would play the sport as long as he possibly could.

That applied in this case, he figured, even if he was playing indoor games up at the Denver Coliseum rather than a few miles south at a rocking Empower Field.

Lynch hoped, of course, that something — another call, anything — would’ve come out of this Spartans journey. But he felt no pressure to be perfect or prove he was good enough. By that late-March practice, Lynch was slinging with little abandon, and cackling in glee at two teammates arguing about their defensive assignments, and waving his hand over his nether regions in a belt-to-behind celebration after one touchdown pass.

“Two years off of playing football, that����ap when I was like, ‘OK, if I get the opportunity, then I’m just going to completely be myself again,'” Lynch said.

Lessons to his kids

Lynch joined the Spartans to rehabilitate his own image as a football player, yes. Also, to better himself as a father, as his 10-year-old son Asa is a burgeoning quarterback in his own right in Denver youth ball.

“I was doing things where I was like – I didn’t even, like, give myself a chance, in a way,” Lynch recalled of his career. “I tell my son that all the time, too. When he goes out there and is afraid to throw an incompletion, or afraid of this, I’m like, ‘You’re messing up, and you’re not even feeling good about messing up. Because you’re not even doing it, like, 100%.’”

Lynch had visions of leading the Spartans to a championship in the Denver Coliseum, with his kids cheering from the stands. Thousands more cheering, too. Thompson’s franchise has heavily marketed Lynch since he signed last fall. W, a chatbot pops up with the same message: “We just signed Paxton Lynch to the Colorado Spartans, and season tickets are live now.”

Spartans head coach Fred Shaw called Lynch a “true leader” and said his 6-foot-7 frame was built for the arena game, which features walls around the playing field that players crash into as a live boundary. The Spartans averaged over 40 points a game in the two games Lynch started, Shaw said.

“I’ve been in this Arena League for over 20 years now,” Shaw said. “And his play alone — I felt like he was going to become one of the best quarterbacks that ever played arena football.”

Even with his season over, Lynch plans to attend as many home games as possible. He’ll start with Saturday, April 11, at the Coliseum if he’s able, coming off surgery this week.

“I know there was a lot of people who wanted to come watch me play again,” Lynch said. “So, my goal is to go there and give them the experience, and at least — if they want a picture, they want an autograph, they want to meet me, whatever — my goal is to be there to give them the opportunity, even if I’m not playing.”

His goal, too, was to give his son a firsthand look at the preparation it took to be a professional quarterback, at any level. And to work for his dreams. And to show him how to handle failure. It’s taken Lynch a long time to learn that, himself.

He doesn’t know, yet, if he’ll play again in 2027. If this was the true end of Lynch’s playing career, though, he’ll walk out happy.

“I do feel like that����ap what I came out here and did — I was, like, authentically myself,” Lynch said.

Every year, there are playoff teams that fall and bottom dwellers that make a surprising run to the postseason.

Sometimes the malaise lasts — it did in Denver for nearly a decade after winning Super Bowl 50. Sometimes it doesn’t — would it surprise anybody if Kansas City and three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes were back in contention this fall?

Even in a sport where the wide-open on-field product is a feature rather than a bug, there are still power players and power centers.

As the NFL spring owners meetings in Phoenix wrapped up a couple of weeks ago with black SUVs idling to whisk multimillionaires and billionaires from the Arizona Biltmore to waiting jets, the Broncos had provided plenty of material to fill reporters’ notebooks.

On the field, Sean Payton and George Paton discussed the acquisition of Jaylen Waddle, the decision to move Jonah Elliss to inside linebacker, the upcoming draft and more.

Away from it, owner and ����apEO Greg Penner and president Damani Leech turned up the pressure on the club’s Burnham Yard stadium project, talked about their new, $175 million team headquarters nearing completion, the impact of hosting an AFC Championship Game and coming within four points of the Super Bowl and more.

Tangible stuff. Quite a bit of it.

Less obvious in some ways but just as palpable: The reality that, as they approach five years owning the Broncos, Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner are a growing power center in the NFL. Their stature is growing similarly in Denver and the state of Colorado, too.

Those points were driven home further on Friday when the couple, through their family entity Penner Sports Group, finalized the purchase of a 40% stake in the Colorado Rockies.

The Penners are not going anywhere with the Broncos and the NFL. They will not have day-to-day roles with the Rockies, sources told The Post, and they are plenty busy with football.

Not only are they waist-deep in the myriad, complex processes and business dealings that come with trying to build a new stadium and entertainment district — a project that, if everything progresses roughly along the team’s preferred timeline, will last another five-plus years — but they are set to move into their new HQ in June. They’ll be in the team’s draft room all three days, as they always are, later this month. They are overseeing projects like the team’s $8 million “All In. All Covered.” high school helmet program and other community initiatives. They’ll likely work out a contract extension with general manager George Paton in the coming months. On and on and on.

That����ap just the team. Between the pair, they also now serve on seven NFL ownership committees.

Carrie Walton-Penner: Health and safety, diversity and the NFL foundation.

Greg Penner: The powerful labor committee, compensation, ownership policy and finance.

Those committee assignments put Penner in the middle of the league figuring out whether and now how to invite private equity money into team ownership groups, determining compensation for commissioner Roger Goodell and, in the coming months and years, negotiating first with the NFL Referees Association on a new collective bargaining agreement and then with the NFL Players Association on the same. The biggest story at this year’s league meetings was about whether replacement referees will be needed this fall. As soon as next year, conversations about extending the NFL season to 18 games, growing the international slate, negotiations about player revenue shares and more will likely dominate the conversation.

Essentially, the Penners are in some way, shape or form involved in virtually every core issue the league will tackle in the short and intermediate future and probably the longer-range future as well.

Friday’s announcement about the Rockies stake changes nothing. It remains to be seen just how much their investment in Dick Monfort����ap team will be felt or seen immediately, though it very clearly puts the club in a much better cash position than it previously was.

It remains to be seen, too, to what degree the Rockies become part of the Penners’ overall influence and impact on Denver and Colorado sports. Perhaps it will be in the background for years and decades to come. Perhaps not.

What is clear this spring, though, is that they’ve gone from the new owners on the NFL block to among the league’s foremost figures in less than a half-decade. Ownership groups around the NFL have most certainly taken notice.

Along the way, the club has returned to prominence on the field and has planned a major facelift for part of central Denver.

In Phoenix recently and in the aftermath of Friday’s announcement, though, this all feels like it����ap still closer to the beginning than the pinnacle of the Penners’ influence in football and on the Front Range.

Nobody eats Taco Bell to soothe their belly.

And no whining if you get hacked when your password is “Password.”

Some things are obvious — and require no explanation or debate.

This is where the Avs goalie position stands after watching Scott Wedgewood stand on his head since returning from the Olympic break.

And yet Jared Bednar seems prepared to ignore logic.

Stop messing with Wedgie, already.

Asked about naming a playoff starter after Wedgewood shut out the Dallas Stars last weekend, Bednar answered like a coach handing out varsity letters.

“I feel confident in both of our guys. It����ap not likely going to be just one guy,” Bednar said.

Come on. Don’t treat Wedgewood like he’s a vagabond with marginal talent.

All he has done all season is meet the moment.

Wedgewood performed routine calisthenics Tuesday night, his 18 saves part of a 3-1 suffocating victory over the St. Louis Blues. It clinched the Central Division title and the top seed in the Western Conference.

Everything is falling into place for a Stanley Cup run, except in the net. There is no reason to continue rotating the goalies. No argument for a timeshare.

Bednar needs to follow the lead of former Broncos coach Gary Kubiak. He steered the Broncos to a Super Bowl 50 title by navigating tricky quarterback drama with decisiveness and transparency.

It remains the best coaching job I have covered in 36 years.

He kept the door ajar for Peyton Manning, even as the future Hall of Famer lost his patience, flipping off the camera for Kubiak to see as he studied the quarterback’s rehab reps. He also showed confidence in Brock Osweiler, announcing to the team and the media that he was the starter each week, including when Manning returned to the active roster.

When it came time to rescue homefield advantage in the season finale, Manning came off the bench, his brilliant mind making the difference in the win over the Chargers.

Kubiak recognized what had become a reality: Manning, even compromised by age and a foot injury, brought out the best in the team.

This is happening again. At Ball Arena. And it needs to be recognized with a firm decision.

Wedgewood will never be confused with Manning. But the circumstances are similar. Teams with two quarterbacks have none. Teams with two goalies need one.

The evidence is overwhelming in Wedgewood’s favor.

Since resuming after the NHL’s Italian sojourn, Wedgewood boasts a 9-2-1 record with a .938 save percentage. Mackenzie Blackwood is 6-7 with an .863 mark, though he has flashed dominance during this stretch.

When Bednar says both have been “fantastic” this season, he is right. But then he said this, and was all wrong.

“I don’t know why we would change it, come playoff time,” Bednar said.

Here is a reason. Follow the numbers. One goalie is acing the test and the other is getting a B.

It traces back to Jan. 1. Wedgewood is 12-5-2 in the new year. When anyone else is the goalie of record, the Avs are 9-9-0. This is not an equation for Will Hunting.

Wedgewood is a candidate for the Vezina Trophy as the game’s top goalie. Which makes general manager Chris MacFarland inking him to a one-year, $2.5 million contract extension in November his shrewdest move of the season.

Wedgewood leads the NHL at 2.10 goals against. Blackwood ranks 10th at 2.58. He is no slouch. And it always feels like the Avs, Bednar included, want him to start.

But he needs to be insurance, a reliable breather to keep Wedgewood fresh through June 21.

Bednar has made a point of not using Wedgewood’s journeyman history against him. He earned more playing time, and no qualifiers were placed on his success, like puck luck, or an average netminder just getting hot.

Dividing games in the playoffs, however, suggests a lack of trust, fair or not.

Doubt is the last thing needed when facing the Stars, for instance.

Last Saturday’s victory was more important for the psyche than the points. Colorado played efficiently and, unlike two weeks prior, was rewarded rather than demoralized.

Wedgewood was in the net. This cannot be dismissed or overlooked. He is 2-0 against Dallas this season, the expected second-round opponent, with a .925 save percentage. Blackwood has managed only 21-plus minutes of ice time against the Stars, yielding four goals in 11 shots.

So why is this even a conversation?

For starters, Blackwood looks like a playoff starter straight out of Hollywood casting. He fills the net like a walrus, standing 6-foot-4 and weighing 225 pounds. He can steal a game.

For whatever reason, though, the defense has not played as well recently in front of him. That is not his fault, but it is a fact.

Wedgewood, meanwhile, has always been a backup — meaning it would be easier to go to him if Blackwood melted down in the playoffs.

Wedgewood also plays a little chaotically. He pounces, shifts, and slides, his 6-foot-2, 201-pound frame sometimes looking like a fox “mousing” for prey in the snow.

It is a little unorthodox. But it is working.

So Bednar needs to let the line out a little bit, give him some slack. He deserves it. And without polling every member privately, my assumption is that his teammates know it.

This is important. Not committing to Wedgewood creates the potential for controversy, for the 33-year-old to look over his shoulder after one bad game.

This does not mean put Blackwood in the cooler. He will be needed. Everyone plays a role in a championship season, and sometimes sacrificing minutes is the greatest contribution.

Working in the Avs’ favor is that the “Lumber Yard” goalies get along famously. There is no tension. Neither one will make it weird if the other starts.

There is no reason not to give Wedgewood more time. Even as Bednar takes his time.

Bednar owns a ring and has established himself as a calming influence.

But the playoffs offer narrow margins. Legacies are shaped. Decisions are amplified.

So why not follow Kubiak’s blueprint and make an easy one?

Make Wedgewood the guy. And watch him put on the mask and conceal the most recent playoff failures.

On April 22, the Night of Champions series comes to Denver featuring the Broncos’ 2015 Super Bowl 50 team at the historic Paramount Theatre.

Hosted by Omaha Productions, the event will include Hall of Famers Peyton Manning and DeMarcus Ware, future Canton inductee Von Miller, former Pro Bowl receiver Emmanuel Sanders and the soundtrack of the No Fly Zone, cornerback Aqib Talib and .

Coach Gary Kubiak will join the players for what is likely to be a raucous discussion moderated by CBS NFL sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson. The event is designed to give fans all-access insight into the Broncos’ third and most recent Super Bowl title season, which culminated with a 24-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers at Levi’s Stadium.

Tickets can be purchased at beginning at 10 a.m. on March 31.

Kubiak and the aforementioned players gathered with their coaches and teammates last October when the Broncos unveiled Demaryius Thomas’ Ring of Fame bust and celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Super Bowl 50 team and Thomas at halftime of the New York Giants game.

Anyone who is familiar with Manning’s humor and Talib’s candor knows the April stroll down memory lane will be entertaining.

From the ESPN “Manningcast” with brother Eli to launching Omaha Productions, Manning has become a media mogul.

Night of Champions is his latest idea, launched last February when he brought together the 2006 Indianapolis Colts championship team. The most recent event honored the 1989 San Francisco 49ers during Super Bowl week.

The Colorado Avalanche staged something similar last December at the Paramount, reuniting players for the 30th anniversary of the organization’s first championship in Denver.

In 2016, Gary Kubiak hired his 28-year-old son, Klint, onto his staff in Denver, a little over a week after coaching the Broncos to a Super Bowl 50 win in the Bay. Still, as Klint ascended to the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator and now the Raiders’ next head coach, he talks with his father every day. And before Seattle left for Santa Clara last weekend, Gary gave a key piece of Super Bowl advice to Klint.

“He said, ‘Put the game plan in a week early — don’t wait until you get there,'” Klint Kubiak told The Denver Post, standing in the locker room Sunday night. “So we took his advice.”

“Because when you get to the Super Bowl — there’s just so much stuff going on that it����ap hard to, like, gameplan,” the younger Kubiak continued. “You still keep game-planning, but there’s so many distractions. So we took his advice, and we dialed in the next week. And then we just kinda refined it when we got here.”

Indeed, the Seahawks installed their offensive plan for the Patriots on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the pre-Super Bowl bye week, Klint Kubiak told The Post. It was the same approach the San Francisco 49ers took in heading to the Super Bowl in 2023 under head coach Kyle Shanahan, when Klint Kubiak was then San Francisco’s passing-game coordinator and current Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold was the backup.

“Super Bowl throughout the week, like — the week leading up to the Super Bowl can be pretty hectic with media,” Darnold told The Post. “So you want to get as much of the game plan in the week before, so you can really focus on it and dive deep on it.”

It worked, as the Seahawks ran over the Patriots 29-13 on Sunday night. Seattle finished just 4 of 16 on third downs offensively, and Darnold wasn’t particularly sharp: 19-of-38 for 202 yards and a touchdown. But the Seahawks controlled time of possession and pace behind running back Kenneth Walker III, named the Super Bowl MVP after running for 135 yards on 27 carries.

“I would do it 30 times over,” Klint Kubiak said, on his father’s advice. “We didn’t have a great night on offense — our defense did great. But I think it was helpful for our players to kinda know what to expect going in.”

In the locker room Sunday night, Klint Kubiak exchanged one final set of moments with Darnold and backup quarterback Drew Lock, a packed satchel slung over his shoulder. After two separate stints in Denver — hired again in 2022 under head coach Nathaniel Hackett and taking over play-calling duties midseason — he will now see the Broncos twice a year, tasked to lead an AFC West rebuild in Las Vegas that’ll likely start with projected No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza.

He’s ascended rapidly as an offensive mind since first calling plays in 2021 for an 8-9 Vikings team, a season in which Klint Kubiak readily admits: “I was not good at my job.” The Broncos didn’t exactly light the world on fire in 2022 with Klint Kubiak holding a play-sheet, either, in the first year of the Russell Wilson tenure.

Such is life, much in any job, Klint Kubiak told The Post ahead of the Super Bowl. Fail. Learn. Grow. He called the shots again in New Orleans in 2024, and authored the third-leading offense in the NFL in 2025 with Darnold and the Super Bowl-winning Seahawks.

“Klint����ap been in his bag all year,” receiver Jaxon-Smith Njigba told The Post Sunday. “And he put a lot on our plate this week to get it done.”

Gary was on hand Sunday, watching his son win a Super Bowl from the sideline in Santa Clara. Kubiak gave his father a “big hug” after the game, he said. And the son smiled postgame, a decade-long loop completed.

“I never could’ve dreamed that 10 years later I’d get to win a Super Bowl here,” Klint Kubiak said. “So, very special.”

Sean Keeler: . Allegiant Stadium is the last place on the Strip I’d want to roll the dice. Little Kubes has earned a shot in the big chair, no question. But the Raiders’ big chair has tears in the fabric, a missing leg and mold forming along both arms. Since 2006, the Raiders have managed just two winning campaigns. Since 2004, only one coach (Jack Del Rio) has produced a season of nine or more victories within his first two seasons. Which is why Klint Kubiak is the franchise’s 15th different full-time or interim coach over the last 22 years. And why Vegas is a WNBA town.

Renck: The Raiders stink. Let’s be clear. They have one winning season in the past nine years. They won three games last season, ranking last in yards and points. Did Klint Kubiak take a job or write the first line of his coaching obit? It is easy to crap on Las Vegas (especially when losing at craps). But this has a chance to work. Kubiak can take Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the first pick, pairing him with tight end Brock Bowers and running back Ashton Jeanty. He also can revamp the offensive line in free agency with $87 million available in salary cap space, per Spotrac. So, channeling Lloyd Christmas, “I am saying there is a chance.”

Keeler: Mendoza gives me serious Kirk Cousins vibes. Although if anybody could make that work from Day 1, it’s probably Klint. Bowers is the real deal. Jeanty could be — if he had a better offensive line. What good is that young offensive core if they’ve got lousy blocking in front of them? That last part’s one of the fundamental issues with taking the Raiders job. Las Vegas is in a division with a historic Broncos pass rush that’s got plenty of tire tread. You’ve got tough-guy Jim Harbaugh in Los Angeles and whatever fumes are left of Chris Jones in Kansas City. The Raiduhs are in an AFC that features Myles Garrett (23 sacks), Danielle Hunter (15 sacks), Nik Bonitto (14 sacks) and Tuli Tuipulotu (13.5 sacks). The Shiver and Hack’s big men checked in at No. 21 overall among PFF’s annual offensive line rankings for 2024. They dropped to No. 32 this past fall. Wherefore art thou, Art Shell?

Renck: Quietly, Kubiak is not the most important former Bronco in the Raiders revival. It is general manager John Spytek. His first season in Vegas was a disaster as Pete Carroll flamed out — hiring his son Brennan struck the match on the dumpster fire — and Geno Smith crash landed. Spytek must lean on minority owners/sounding board Tom Brady and form a long-term strategy. This is a rebuilding project that requires vision and home runs in the draft and trades. Edge rusher Maxx Crosby has become Mr. Raider, a relentless, future Hall of Fame pass rusher. But he wants out, and it is time to accommodate him, landing a Micah Parsons haul for the 28-year-old. Kubiak will create an offense with toughness, setting up the pass with a solid wide zone run game. Winning the Crosby deal will allow Klint to solve the Rubik’s Kubes in Vegas.

Keeler: How much time will Mark Davis give Klint to figure it out, though? The only coach since 2002 to last at least three full seasons in RaiderLand was Jon Gruden, and that, um, didn’t exactly end well. No disrespect to the NFC West and NFC North right now, but the AFC West is arguably the nastiest division in football when it comes to front-line coach + QB combos. A block that’s got Payton + Nix in Denver, Mahomes + Reid in KC and Herbert + Harbaugh in SoCal is as unforgiving as they come, assuming those QBs are healthy. And somebody’s gotta be last. What’s that old line from the movie, “Rounders?” If you can’t spot the sucker in the first half-hour at the table, then it’s probably you.

Failing to score more than 20 points in three straight games to end the season was all America’s armchair quarterbacks and well-paid analysts needed.

The offensive impotence is catnip for critics.

So, it is no wonder that the AFC’s top dog is an underdog. Fine.

There is a way to win every game, as Sean Payton reminds us weekly, and the path Saturday involves mud flaps, not a cockpit.

The Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse has hidden its secret long enough.

Want to beat the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round? Run Jaleel McLaughlin. Trust him. Treat him like a weapon, not a diversion.

The idea that the outcome of the Broncos’ biggest game in a decade hinges on a running back who has been inactive for nine weeks is ridiculous. You are probably laughing at this premise. Cackling at the idea that Payton will actually lean on the ground attack.

But Payton has made a career of pushing the right buttons and finding answers. And this one is staring at him from inside the fieldhouse walls, where McLaughlin can often be found after practice getting in extra reps to stay sharp.

All Payton needs to do is follow the script written by Gary Kubiak, the last Broncos coach to win a playoff game.

As Denver clumsily reached the end of the 2015 season, creating doubts about reaching the Super Bowl, Kubiak spent part of his day checking video from Peyton Manning’s workouts with receiver Jordan “Sunshine” Taylor inside the fieldhouse as he recovered from a plantar fasciitis injury.

Kubiak refused to close the door on Manning returning. And Manning was tired of waiting. At one point, he flipped off the cameras, knowing Kubiak would see it. Kubiak finally took the suggestion, turning to Manning in the second half of the season finale, a move that triggered a Super Bowl 50 victory.

McLaughlin does not possess the gravitas to give his coach the middle finger. And he is not the key to a championship run. But he is the key to winning this game.

You see, backs have run through the Bills like Taco Bell after a night on Pearl Street. Only the 2006 Indianapolis Colts allowed more than 5 yards per rush and won the Super Bowl, . The Bills have yielded 5.2 in 18 games. It is their fatal flaw.

McLaughlin can expose it. His entire football journey has built up to this moment. He never had a backup plan. He slept in a car for a time growing up. He refused to give up on his dream. His resilience helped him make the roster three years ago as an undrafted free agent.

This is different. He can go from a feel-good story to the headliner.

Look, this might backfire. But he is the best option to exploit the Bills, even if injured defensive lineman Ed Oliver returns. The trade deadline long ago passed, and Denver declined to deal for Breece Hall.

Then J.K. Dobbins got hurt, and R.J. Harvey has not filled his cleats. Forget attacking downhill, Harvey has been going downhill. He has averaged 3.36 yards per carry over the past three games on 36 carries, and if you subtract his 38-yard touchdown against the Jaguars, it shrinks to 2.37.

Compare that to McLaughlin, who has 118 yards on 18 carries during the same stretch. That is 63 percent of his season total, and 6.56 a pop.

“He outworks just about everybody in the building,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “It’s not a shock to anybody that, when his opportunity came, he did a great job with it.”

So, lean on McLaughlin and call more designed runs for Bo Nix (102 rushing yards since Dec. 21).

Who says no? Payton?

Not so sure. Not this time. He appears to have learned his lesson from abandoning the run last year at Buffalo, from turtling against the Chiefs and Chargers.

It was encouraging to hear Payton’s tone publicly last Friday when asked if he held stuff back over the final two weeks. He made no excuses. Used zero qualifiers. Made it clear that the Broncos have to execute better and become more explosive.

If Payton is not stubborn, the Broncos will win because of the run game in general and McLaughlin specifically.

Don’t believe it?

The Jaguars are watching this weekend because they simply did not run the ball enough. They were gashing the Bills on the ground, and inexplicably finished with 30 passes and 23 carries. They posted 154 yards rushing, and Liam “Keep Your Head Up” Coen decided to keep putting the ball in the air.

If Payton is similarly hard-headed with Nix, the Broncos will follow the Jaguars to the emergency exit.

My insistence on running is rooted in winning.

The best way to neutralize Josh Allen is to play keep away. If the Broncos produce long drives and impose their will upfront, it will create urgency from the Bills.

We all know Josh Allen is not going to play like Woody Allen. It is safe to assume the Broncos are going to struggle at times as Allen bullies his way for yards or finds his tight ends and running backs for easy completions. How Denver’s defense performs in the red zone will be critical.

But the offense has to do its part.

It won’t be easy. It never is with this group. The Broncos have only reached the red zone five times in the last three games, scoring two touchdowns, and only once in a goal-to-go situation.

That won’t cut it on Saturday.

Let McLaughlin provide the body shots. And Harvey or Nix, the haymaker (the Bills have allowed eight touchdown runs of 30-plus yards, most in a season in NFL history).

McLaughlin was already known for rolling up his sleeves and breaking a sweat before the sun wakes. But he added night duty to stay sharp, to be ready, when he lost his role on game day as the fourth running back in the three-man rotation of Dobbins, Harvey and Tyler Badie.

“It was a real challenge just because I am so competitive,” McLaughlin said. “But I just had to trust and believe in what coach Payton was telling me.”

Everyone is running their mouths again. All the Broncos need to do is run the ball with McLaughlin to shut them up.