John Elway is undoubtedly one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play football. On paper, the two-time Super Bowl champion had modest numbers, including a career 56.9% completion percentage, 300 touchdowns to 226 interceptions, and over 51,000 career passing yards. These are good numbers, for sure, but they don’t tell the whole story of how clutch and revolutionary he was in his prime.
To put it simply, John Elway walked so that modern QBs like Lamar Jackson could run. Not only did he have a cannon for an arm, but Elway changed the way quarterbacks played the game, utilizing his athleticism to escape the pocket and prolong plays long before it became one of the biggest deciding factors in evaluating a QB’s ability.
To this day, Elway’s 16 seasons with the Denver Broncos are celebrated. But how would he fare in the modern NFL against contemporary greats such as Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, or the aforementioned Jackson? We ran a simulation in Madden 25 to determine how he would perform in such an environment.
How Was The John Elway Simulation In Madden 25 Conducted?
In the interest of transparency, I find it extremely important to disclose how the John Elway simulation was conducted in Madden 25. Instead of looking for a downloadable roster that included him, I simply created him using this template put forth by YouTuber WDR3_Dumes. It might make him a tad “overrated”, but it was the best I could do under the time constraints.
Like the sim I ran with Aaron Rodgers and Kirk Cousins earlier this week, I chose not to interfere in other teams’ affairs. Unlike that sim, however, I did this simulation with the rosters as they are by default in Madden 25 (though a live update was used).
Finally, I placed Elway on the Broncos, the team with whom he spent his entire career. This, unfortunately, displaced the star young quarterback Bo Nix. But, it would’ve been really weird seeing Elway in anything other than a Broncos jersey. So this will have to do.
John Elway Dominated In His One Season
According to Madden 25 (and depending on how accurate the player creation was), Elway dominated in his one season with the Broncos. Elway threw for over 4,235 yards and 46 touchdowns on the season, completing an excellent 71% of his passes and averaging 250.2 yards per game. He also only threw 9 INTs, meaning he was incredibly efficient.
As a team, the Broncos did fairly well, finishing with an 11-6 record. Being in the same division as the Chiefs and the Chargers, Denver finished third in the AFC West (the Chiefs finished 13-4 and the Chargers finished 11-6 as well), which was enough to snag the last Wildcard playoff spot.
In the Wildcard round, the Broncos put up a good fight against the Ravens. Unfortunately, they were unable to out-duel Lamar Jackson, losing 38-35. Elway put up a good fight, throwing for 375 yards on the day and scoring 3 touchdowns to 1 interception.
