Zane Beadles

NEWARK: Zane Beadles’ rise in the world of pro football has been meteoric to say the least.

The 6-foot-4, 305 guard was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the second round out of Utah in 2010.

The Utes are a solid college football program in the Pacific-12 Conference of the Football Bowl Subdivision of NCAA Division I, but it’s no gridiron glamour school.

An offensive lineman going to a team that was struggling as the Bronocs were at the time, this was as anonymous a situation as you can get in the NFL.

Denver was 4-12 his rookie year but the talented lineman was able to establish himself as a starter and a durable player. Beadles has not missed a game all four years he has played in the Pros.

It had been a steady climb to the top ever since. After Beadles’ rookie year, the Broncos have been one of the biggest stories in the NFL starting with 2011 when he blocked for the lightning rod of a signal caller in Tim Tebow.

Led by the running quarterback, the Broncos went on a second half run finished the season at just 8-8 but captured the AFC West and upset the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card round.

How did Beadles and Broncos top that?

Well the Broncos brought in a guy named Peyton Manning and never looked back putting up a 28-7 record including playoffs ever since. The Broncos face the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday for the 2013/14 Super Bowl.

“It’s been awesome,” Beadles said at the first Media Day at the Prudential Center. “I never thought in my wildest dreams I’d be playing with Peyton. It is something I’ll appreciate more when I’m done with my career. Right now we’re doing everything we can to win ball games and be do. That’s the main focus. You don’t get caught up in that kind of stuff. It’s a huge honor and very exciting.”

More Beadles:

On playing in the Super Bowl: “I’m very excited. This is a huge opportunity and a great experience. I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet, and I think it’s hard when you’re in the situation to fully appreciate something like this. But it will be something that when I’m done playing football and my grandkids don’t believe that I actually played football, something to be proud of and something to look back on and be happy about.”

On if he’s seen any change in his game as the season has progressed: “I think I’ve improved. I wasn’t really happy with my play early in the season and I’ve been tweaking technique things here and there and just trying to work on something every single day. And towards the end of the season here I think I’ve really settled in and I feel comfortable with where things are at, technically. The big thing is that I look to keep improving every single week.”

On if having new guys on both sides of him affected his play at the beginning of the season: “I don’t want to make excuses. It could be (or) it could not be. I don’t know for sure. The offensive line is the single position on the field where all five of us have to be working together for any one of us to be successful. So that definitely plays a role in being comfortable with each other. Luckily, Manny (Ramirez) was the center all offseason. I got a lot of reps with Chris (Clark) during the summer because Ryan (Clady) was rehabbing his shoulder, so I think that served us well once we got into live, game situations to be able to do that.”

On if he’s finally ready to play some football: “I’m ready to play some football, yeah. It’s been a long week so far. It will be good to kind of focus on the preparation the last few days here and get ready to play Sunday.”

On if he has any concerns about the cold weather: “No. We’ve played in plenty of cold weather games over the last few years and this year alone. I think we had a zero degree kickoff game in Denver earlier this year, so the weather is what it is and we’re not going to be able to change it. The bottom line is to go out there and execute no matter what.”

Meet the Beadles:

• A fourth-year offensive guard who has started 62-of-64 games during his first four NFL seasons (54 at left guard and eight at right tackle).

• Earned his first career Pro Bowl selection in 2012 after allowing just one sack and finishing the season as the only Broncos player to participate in every offensive or defensive snap.

• Named the Broncos’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee for his work in the community during the 2012 season.

• Opened all 16 games during the regular season and started both playoff contests for the Broncos in 2011, helping the league’s top rushing offense (164.5 ypg.) set the franchise single-season rushing mark.

• Named to The Sporting News’ All-Rookie Team in 2010 after opening eight contests at left guard and six contests at right tackle, becoming the first NFL rookie since Andre Gurode (Dal., 2002) to start at least six games at two of the three positions along the offensive line (C, G, T).

• Called for just four holding penalties during his first three NFL seasons.

• Played 51 games (50 starts) at the University of Utah, where he was a three-time All-Mountain West Conference selection and received several All-America honors as a senior.

• Named the 2009-10 Mountain West Conference Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year following his senior season and was a four-time Academic All-MWC honoree.