Lindsay H. Jones

USA TODAY Sports

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Sorry, Demaryius. Move over Emmanuel.

Peyton Manning might have a new favorite wide receiver, and it’s a player you likely have never heard of.

It’s possible that no one on the Denver Broncos roster caught more passes from Manning this year or was more important to Manning’s late-season return from a torn plantar fascia in his left foot than Jordan Taylor, a rookie from Rice and member of the practice squad.

When Manning needed a throwing partner for his early morning workouts in early December, when the rest of the team was practicing without him, he’d text Taylor, who would show up hours early for work to run through any route the quarterback wanted. It meant the equivalent of almost two full practices a day for Taylor.

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When Manning put himself through a long pregame workout before the Week 17 season finale against the San Diego Chargers, the first game of Manning’s NFL career in which he suited up as a backup, it was Taylor running through a series of different routes.

“I feel bad because I was running him into the ground and he hadn’t even started practice yet,” Manning said. “I have a bad habit of saying, just one more, and one more can turn into 10 more. I don’t think I could have gotten though my rehab and gotten back if it had not been for him. I am very grateful for his help.”

On Sunday, before Super Bowl 50, it will be Taylor on the field several hours before the game going through pregame warmups with Manning.

“It’s a nice reminder of kind of where we’ve been this season, earlier in the year. I look forward to that,” Manning said.

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That will be Taylor’s big Super Bowl moment, running routes on the field at Levi’s Stadium hours before any of the television cameras turn on and the fans fill the stands. But it’s already been a memorable week, one that started with his packing dilemma before the team left Denver.

It was Taylor’s first road trip of the season, because practice squad players don’t travel, and he realized he didn’t own a suit suitable for the team’s charter flight to San Jose.

So he texted Manning.

“Do you have any old suits?” Taylor asked.

Both Manning and Taylor are 6-foot-5, and though Manning is 20 pounds heavier, Taylor figured he could make do with a hand-me-down.

“He texts me back and all he said was, ‘I’ll get you set up,’” Taylor told USA TODAY Sports. “I didn’t know what that meant.”

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What it meant was Taylor was about to receive his first custom suit. Manning’s suit guy showed up at the team facility in Englewood, Colo. the next day and took all of Taylor’s measurements. The suit and a pair of shirts and ties arrived in time for the team’s Sunday departure, and Taylor proudly wore the fitted gray suit – complete with an orange-and-blue tie and blue-and-white pocket square – on the team flight.

“He may have been one of the best dressed players on the team coming out here,” Manning said. “I just appreciate his help, and I’m excited about his career. He’s a tall receiver, maybe the Eddie McCaffrey, Eric Decker-type mold, and I really think he’s got a bright future ahead of him.”

At Super Bowl 50’s Opening Night on Monday, Taylor milled around the floor at the SAP Center in San Jose in his league-issued white pullover, his long curly blond hair pulled into a ponytail and tucked under a ball cap.

He kept gazing around the area, and up at the big screen to watch Broncos stars such as Manning and pass rusher DeMarcus Ware at their podiums.

It was just another surreal moment in what has been a unique rookie year, thanks in large part to Manning.

The bond between the 39-year-old future Hall of Fame quarterback and the 23-year-old undrafted wide receiver began last spring, when Manning invited Taylor to join him and some friends at a U2 concert. But it was cemented on the practice field, as Manning learned he could trust Taylor in practice nearly as much as star receivers Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders.

And as much as Taylor helped Manning in those weeks Manning was sidelined, Taylor believes his game improved too, something that should help as he tries to make the Broncos’ 53-man roster in 2016.

“While he was rehabbing and trying to get himself better, he was critiquing my routes, my technique, my knowledge of the offense," Taylor said. "He definitely helped me out."

Follow Lindsay H. Jones on Twitter @bylindsayhjones.

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