On the challenge of facing the Patriots...
"I think their entire team is extremely well-coached, not just their defense. Their offense and special teams, every time I've ever played against these guys, it's always taken all three phases playing well if you're going to have a chance to win. It's a real credit to all of their coaches, to their players for taking the coaching and doing what the coaches are telling them. It's always been a tough team to play against. They always have a lot of talent and combine that with excellent coaching, it's a tough combination."
- Broncos QB Peyton Manning
On the challenges facing Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady...
"The challenge with Brady is he's one of the best quarterbacks playing in the National Football League. Sometimes he doesn't even need an offensive line. It's just that connection with [TE Rob] Gronkowski, the connection with [Patriots WR Julian] Edelman and with [Patriots WR Danny] Amendola and all of the receivers that he has is just instantaneous. It's just, 'Hut,' and boom, [pass] right now. Half of the time, he doesn't even need a pass [protection]. He's doing most of it himself. We're going to have to be tight in the secondary, which I expect us to be. We will have to get a pass rush every down because you never know what opportunity is going to present itself for you to go and make a big play."
- Broncos OLB Von Miller
[wysifield-embeddedaudio|eid="413801"|type="embeddedaudio"|view_mode="full"]On Malcolm Butler...
"Malcolm Butler, he is a competitor. I enjoy playing against him every time I get an opportunity. He has great sportsmanship, first and foremost. He is a competitor; he loves to compete. He is always going to go balls to the wall. He is always going to give his all, and that's one thing that I like about him. As far as his game, I know [Patriots Head Coach Bill] Belichick, he schemes and pretty much tells those guys to win their matchup. I don't know if he is going to be covering me or not. We'll know from the start of the game. But if he is covering me, I am looking forward to the challenge."
- Broncos WR Emmanuel Sanders
On defending against Tom Brady...
"With a guy like Brady, you've got to be able to have good corners—which we have—that can give the pass rush a little more extra time to get there, because if he's getting the ball off in 1.9 seconds, nobody's going to ever get to him. You can see that from the Kansas City game, in which they had Tamba Hali and they had [Justin] Houston, and they still couldn't get there. So you've got to be able to have those corners to just buy you a little more extra time to get to him."
- Broncos OLB DeMarcus Ware
"It's one of those games that you can't make excuses; we've got to get our hands up, bat down some balls and we've just got to get there, plain and simple."
- Broncos OLB Von Miller
On the 17th meeting between Broncos QB Peyton Manning and Patriots QB Tom Brady...
"First off, it's a credit to both of them because you don't have the rivalry that they've had if you don't last as long as both of them have lasted. They've both been so successful. They're two Hall of Fame football players, two Hall of Fame people. They're leaders on their football team wherever they've been—Peyton has been a couple of places. It's pretty special. For me, it's always been kind of outside looking in. I've played against them many, many times, but this is my first time to be a part of them going against each other. They're special people. They're two good football teams."
- Broncos Head Coach Gary Kubiak
"I know that it's been, I guess, three different teams. I've always kind of given the boring answer, 'Hey, it's the Colts versus the Patriots and now it's the Broncos versus the Patriots.' All I can say about Tom Brady is he plays the position the way it's supposed to be played. He's extremely talented. He's a very hard worker, very competitive guy and he just plays the position the right way. When you do that, there's a reason you play for a long time and play well for a long time. There have been a lot of different players that have played in 16 of those games but as the quarterback, it's always been a great honor and privilege to have competed against him that many times over the course of the past 16, 17 years he and I have been in the league together."
- Broncos QB Peyton Manning
"Yeah, everybody loves playing in games like this—going against the best. Like I said, these two guys [quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Tom Brady] going against each other is like an epic battle where you get to go out and see whose general wins the war."
- Broncos DE Antonio Smith
"It's a great matchup. I can say [QB] Tom [Brady] probably has gotten the best of us, but it's a different one this time. We're looking forward to it. It's going to be a good game. It's two guys that have been going for a long time and doing great jobs at it. We're looking forward to Sunday and to see what happens."
- Broncos WR Demaryius Thomas
On Julian Edelman...
"He is a player. He is a dynamic player. I think, schematically, Belichick uses every single one of his strengths. He is a slot receiver that can go in and make a lot of catches. He is very versatile in terms of when he gets the ball in his hands and as a punt returner also. He is definitely a dynamic player and he is definitely going to present some challenges for us this weekend. Hopefully the defense can lock him up."
- Broncos WR Emmanuel Sanders
On facing Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick in the postseason...
"I think he's difficult all the time. They've won quite a few games over there. They've been very successful. He has a great football team. All you have to do is look at, statistically, the number of AFC Championships they've played in and Super Bowls. This team is as seasoned as you can possibly be in this business. A lot of players have played in a lot of big games. Obviously, Bill has been doing it for a long, long time and [has been] very, very successful. I think they're very comfortable in these environments. We've worked really hard to get ourselves back in this environment and we're looking forward to it as well."
- Broncos Head Coach Gary Kubiak
On the difficulty of facing Rob Gronkowski...
"He has good speed for a big guy. He uses his body well, adjusts to the ball. Having [Patriots QB] Tom Brady back there throwing you the ball helps a little bit. I'd say those are the main things."
- Broncos S T.J. Ward
