Greatest fantasy football team of all time: The Denver Broncos (2024)

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the creation of fantasy football, The Athletic is reviewing the best fantasy players and fantasy seasons in NFL history.

A detailed overview of the system used to grade historical fantasy performance can be found in our greatest fantasy players of all-time introduction page, but here’s a quick summary.

Fantasy player performance is era-adjusted so that players who dominated during lower scoring eras can compete versus players who racked up huge point totals in higher scoring eras.

After these adjustments are made, players are then given credit for having a starter-caliber season (one point), a quality season (one point), an impact campaign (1.5 points) or being an elite starter (two points). These points stack and are measured in both non-PPR and PPR and serve as the basis for determining who are the best fantasy players in NFL history.

Now that we have the preliminaries out of the way, let’s look at the best fantasy players in Denver Broncos team history!

(Note: the numbers listed below are for the player’s performance while on the Broncos.)

All-time fantasy starting lineup

QB: John Elway

RB: Terrell Davis

RB: Floyd Little

WR: Lionel Taylor

WR: Rod Smith

TE: Shannon Sharpe

SuperFLEX: Riley Odoms

Quarterback – John Elway

The amazing part of Elway’s fantasy career is that he was much better in the second half of it than he was in the first. From 1985 to 1991, Elway placed in the Top 10 in fantasy QB scoring six times but was in the Top 5 only two times and had only two impact seasons.

Contrast that to Elway placing No. 6 or better in QB fantasy points in five straight seasons from 1993-1997 and having impact campaigns in two of those. That Elway did this despite having six offensive coordinators in his career speaks volumes and shows why he was a quality QB1 for most of his 16 NFL seasons.

Running back – Terrell Davis

Davis was an impact player in real life and in fantasy football for only four seasons, but he sure racked up some dominant totals in that span. Davis finished 12th in RB fantasy points in non-PPR and PPR in his 1995 rookie campaign, but then finished first or second in non-PPR and PPR in each of the following three seasons. His 1998 campaign was one of the greatest in fantasy history, as his 357 non-PPR points and 381.5 PPR points landed Davis in the elite tier for that season and gave him a perfect 11-point score.

Running back – Floyd Little

Little was much like Terrell Davis in that most of his career fantasy value was concentrated into a few seasons. From 1968-70, Little landed in the RB2 range in fantasy football, placing anywhere from No. 13 to No. 23 in each season in both non-PPR and PPR leagues.

That pace changed dramatically in 1971 when Little led the league in rushing yards and scrimmage yards on his way to a third-place finish in RB points in non-PPR and PPR. Little kept that trend going for two more years, as he posted 200+ points in both non-PPR and PPR formats in 1972 and 1973, which were dominant totals for that era.

Wide receiver – Lionel Taylor

Taylor is a forgotten great from the Broncos’ early AFL days. To be fair, nearly one-third of his 36.5 points were tallied in 1960, the AFL’s inaugural season when the competition level was subpar, but Taylor’s 284.9 PPR points that season ranked eighth all-time at any position in PPR scoring through 1960. That he had four elite PPR seasons and was a quality starting in PPR six times and in non-PPR five times also shows that Taylor was far from a one-hit wonder.

Wide receiver – Rod Smith

Smith had one of the finest two-year stretches of all time for a fantasy wide receiver in 2000-01 when he racked up back-to-back 300+ PPR point totals. That production level had been reached by a wide receiver only 37 times by 2001 and only five other wide receivers had tallied consecutive 300+ PPR point campaigns (Jerry Rice, Sterling Sharpe, Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison, and Terrell Owens).

Smith only had two other seasons as a WR1 in his career, but he did have four more years as a WR2 and, thus, did more than enough to earn a spot on this list.

Tight end – Shannon Sharpe

Sharpe is one of the best fantasy tight ends of in NFL history, as he ranks second only to Tony Gonzalez in tight end points in this system. Sharpe placed first in both non-PPR and PPR TE points in three straight years at one stretch (1996-98) and then placed either first or second in 1993, 1994, 2000, and 2003. Throw in three more years as a Top 5 tight end and it shows why Sharpe was a highly valued tight end in fantasy leagues for over a decade.

SuperFlex – Riley Odoms

Odoms couldn’t win the Broncos’ best tight end honor because of Shannon Sharpe, but he edged out Demaryius Thomas to become Denver’s top flex player. Odoms was a key player on the Broncos’ first AFC Championship team, but he offered even better value in fantasy football. Odoms was a Top 10 fantasy tight end in every season from 1973-78 and was a Top 5 tight end in five of those years.

All-time best era-adjusted fantasy seasons

QB: John Elway, 1987 (232.3 points)

RB: Terrell Davis, 1998 (357 points non-PPR, 381.5 points PPR)

WR: Lionel Taylor, 1960 (234.1 points PPR)

WR: Steve Watson, 1981 (203 points non-PPR)

TE: Shannon Sharpe, 1996 (244.2 points PPR)

FLEX: Shannon Sharpe, 1993 (153 points non-PPR)

(Top photo: Rich Pilling/Sporting News via Getty Images via Getty Images)

KC Joyner is a contributor to The Athletic covering fantasy football and betting. Before joining The Athletic, KC was a senior writer for ESPN, and he has run TheFootballScientist.com since 2004. He is the author of the "Scientific Football" book series and "Blindsided: Why the Left Tackle Is Overrated and Other Contrarian Football Thoughts." KC is a native Michigander. He attended the University of Michigan but moved to the warmer climate of Florida over 30 years ago. Follow KC on Twitter @KCJoynerTFS