There is no question that The Sheriff has had his struggles this season.

For the first time since his rookie season in Indianapolis, the 39-year-old quarterback posted under a 60% completion rate and ended the season with an abysmal passer rating of 67.9, the lowest in his 18-year career. If it wasn’t for Blake Bortles throwing two picks in Jacksonville’s 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans on the final week of the regular season, Manning would have led the NFL in interceptions despite only starting nine games this season due to a plantar fascia injury.

To essentially sum up Manning’s season perfectly, the same afternoon that Manning broke Brett Favre’s prestigious record for career passing yards, he also fluttered up four interceptions to the Kansas City defense and completed 5-of-20 passes for a whopping 35 yards before being sidelined in the third quarter for Brock Osweiler. It was the complete opposite of a “storybook” afternoon, and a performance that will likely not be made into a movie any time soon.

Those Chicken-Parms aren’t tasting nearly as good as they once did.

Kubiak has shown that he is not shy when it comes to pulling a struggling quarterback from the field of play. Just like Kubiak pulled Manning versus the Kansas City Chiefs, Osweiler was pulled early in the third quarter against the San Diego Chargers in the final week of the regular season when the Broncos offense looked vanilla and uninspired.

Now that the Broncos are in a win-or-go-home scenario, how long will the future Hall-of-Famer’s leash be this Sunday versus the Pittsburgh Steelers?

The Broncos have proved that they have two, very capable quarterbacks. Osweiler did an excellent job filling in for Manning. In fact, up until a week and a half ago, I was almost certain that we had watched the last snap of Manning’s Broncos career. I believe that Kubiak has a tremendous amount of confidence in the 25-year-old quarterback out of Arizona State University. Osweiler has shown several times this season that he has the Elway gene in him and has the ability to lead his team back from large second half deficits.

Considering the Pittsburgh Steelers are ranked 30th in the NFL for defending the pass, I do not expect Manning and the Broncos offense to struggle immensely on Sunday. It would surprise me if the Broncos didn’t score early and often. Although, if I am completely wrong, do not be surprised to see Kubiak give Osweiler the nod early in the second half, even if he is a little banged up.