This is a ridiculous sports cliche used for referring to a group of players or team. The cliche spewer is probably trying to convey a sense of elitism -- if a player is in John Elway's class, he must be one of the John Elways. It conjures up images of a bizarre cloning experiment. A cliche-riddled comment might go something like this:

"The Broncos have so many weapons and can hurt you in so many ways. There’s no question about it. We're talking about the John Elways, the Terrel Davises, the Shannon Sharpes."

A related cliche is the "a" construction, where you get the sense that many copies of certain players are rolling off a production line:

"When you've got a John Elway calling the plays, good things are going to happen."

This cliche also runs in reverse -- a team can be discussed as if it is a person:

"If you're the Broncos, you'll be looking to throw the ball."