He’s so menacing, even his scraggly beard looks like it’s trying to flee his presence. He devours defensive linemen so ravenously, he might as well pour some barbecue sauce on those guys. There’s even a joke around the Broncos’ locker room that the offensive coordinator is scared of him.
“So I keep that in my back pocket as a little weapon,” Louis Vasquez deadpanned.
He’s big and bad, and the best in the NFL. He’s an all-pro guard.
Vasquez also is the unsung hero of the Broncos’ record-setting offense, and he enters Sunday’s home playoff game against the San Diego Chargers with a unique connection — he has blocked for Peyton Manning and for Philip Rivers.
“The biggest difference between them is the experience. Peyton has been labeled as arguably the greatest quarterback of all time, and I’m on board with that,” said Vasquez, who played his first four seasons with the Chargers before signing with Denver in 2013. “But Philip, he’s a competitor. If I was going to say anything, I’d say that he probably shows his emotions more than other quarterbacks. That’s what a lot of people see and don’t like, but that’s just him; he’s a competitor. He wears emotions on his sleeve. But he’s your all-American kid. I’ve never heard him use profanity or say any bad words toward anybody.”
Sunday’s game provides a fascinating matchup of quarterbacks, two men whom Vasquez has devoted his professional life to protecting. As for Manning, Vasquez describes him as maniacally meticulous, unafraid to bark at anyone, even the hulking Vasquez, proud and Pro Bowl-bound. At a team meeting Wednesday, Manning spoke passionately to Vasquez about a certain blocking scheme.
“He’ll be the first one to point it out. ‘That’ll get us beat,’ ” Vasquez said. “He’s got more experience than I do in this offense, so he has no problem (getting on you). It doesn’t matter who you are. Wes Welker. Demaryius Thomas. He expects — but also demands — your best game.
“If it’s a repetitive thing, he’ll get angry, but it’s one of those things where — whatever he says, he’s the general.”
While Manning throws quick zips on the field, Vasquez said he’s famous at Dove Valley for quick zingers — his sense of humor as dry as Las Vegas in July.
Rivers? He’s a loon. Vasquez describes him as “a big kid,” always ready to fling a joke. Rivers would often hang out with the offensive linemen in the locker room. The guys would participate in what Vasquez eloquently described as “dumb contests.” For example, they would take soft golf balls and have to hit them off an exit sign into a trash can.
“We’d sit there for 30 minutes doing things like that, and Philip’s right along with us,” he said.
As for Vasquez, he has been here before. First in the AFC West and 13-3, heading into a divisional-round home playoff game. It was his rookie season of 2009, and the Chargers were one of the two teams picked to win the AFC, along with Manning’s Indianapolis Colts. But the Chargers lost at home to the New York Jets — just as Manning’s 13-3 Broncos did to the Baltimore Ravens last season — and Manning’s 2009 Colts went on to the Super Bowl.
“So it feels like I have a second chance at it,” Vasquez said. “It gives me more incentive to go out and play my best game each and every week on this run to the Super Bowl.”
In a way, his mind-set is a hybrid of the quarterbacks. He’s energetic and gritty like Rivers but embraces precision and repetition like Manning. His dedication is permanent. Literally. He has a tattoo of an Aztec sacrificial scene, which features a man having his heart ripped out of his body. But instead of a heart, the other man is holding a clock.
“Which is symbolic of the time I sacrificed to be where I’m at today,” he said.
And Sunday, he’s a 6-foot-5, 335-pound hoss, blocking for the boss.
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or twitter.com/hochman
