Peko stays positive despite Broncos’ troubles
DENVER — Domata Peko had no idea when he left Cincinnati for Denver in free agency that he was trading one sad situation for another.
He will face his former team on Sunday when the Broncos (3-6) try to snap out of a five-week funk against the Bengals (3-6).
“It’s a big one for me,” Peko said. “When you play your old team, you want to go out there and show them, ‘What the heck? Why didn’t you keep me?’ I know it’s a business and I was there for 11 seasons. I guess my time was up there, and that’s just how it goes. Even Peyton had to leave.”
Like Manning, Peko has found rejuvenation in Denver, where he has been everything the Broncos were looking for to plug a gaping hole on defense.
“He is probably the most positive teammate that I’ve ever been around,” linebacker Von Miller said. “You look at him like, ‘Man, are you 24 or 23 years old?’ He’s one of the oldest guys in the locker room (32) and he still has that energy on the practice field, off the practice field, hot, cold, raining, loss, win, he’s the same guy. He has been great. He has definitely been a shining star.”
In a dimming season in Denver.
Thanks to Peko, the Broncos are once again a top-five team against the run after slipping to the bottom five last season. But it’s everything else that has gone haywire in Denver during a five-game skid in which the Broncos have been outscored by nearly 100 points.
“I love it here,” Peko said. “Hey, we’re going through a rough time, but in this league you’ve got to do it week by week. So, now we’ve got the Bengals ahead of us. I’m going to be really pumped for this game against my old team.”
This wasn’t what Peko thought he had signed up for after he put his signature on a two-year, $7.5 million deal in Denver in March.
The Broncos had been to two of the previous four Super Bowls and the Bengals, who haven’t won a playoff game since the 1990 season, lost all six playoff games during Peko’s 11 seasons in Cincinnati.
“In Cincy, we’re always talking about, ‘Oh, I want to win a playoff game. I want to win a playoff game.’ But over here, we’re talking about winning championships,” Peko said when he signed. “That’s why I’m here. I want to win a championship.”
That again looks like a pipe dream, but as Miller said, any turnaround starts with a single win.