Things are going great right now in Broncos Country. The Broncos currently sit at 13-3, have already clinched a postseason berth, and are now your 2025 AFC West Champs. They still have a chance to clinch the one seed later today or do it next Sunday with a win over the Chargers in the season finale. The Broncos are having a magical season and are once again Super Bowl contenders.
However, as many of us remember, things were not always so pleasant.
Just three years ago, our Denver Broncos were the laughing stock of the NFL. They sat at 4-11, without their own 1st round pick, and were just coming off a 51-14 loss to the Rams on Christmas. They hit rock bottom, and a day later, they would fire Head Coach Nathaniel Hackett before he could complete his first full season as the Head Coach of the Broncos.
They did not have a coach, they did not have a quarterback(Just Russell Wilson and his awful contract), no top 5 first-round pick, and were directionless at the moment. However, everything changed the moment the team hired Sean Payton to be their Head Coach.
After being hired, Sean Payton quickly built a foundation that would help lead this team back to being Super Bowl contenders in just three short years. He built a strong coaching staff, emphasized building up the offensive and defensive lines, and developing the young talent on the roster. On top of all that, he had to figure out if Russell Wilson and his massive contract were the answer at the quarterback position.
Year one, the Broncos started slowly, and even had that awful 70-point disaster against the Dolphins, but as the season progressed, you started to see glimpses of the culture Sean Payton was starting to build with this team. While they did not make the playoffs, they finished 8-9 on the year and started to show some promise.
As we know, the Broncos would later release quarterback Russell Wilson and eat a historic dead cap hit in the process of doing so. Payton and the Broncos were mocked for this, but they were confident they would be able to find their franchise quarterback, and they did just that. In the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, the Denver Broncos selected Oregon quarterback Bo Nix. This pick was an unpopular one for the most part, but Payton was confident in his process, and Nix would quickly prove him right once again. After a slow start to his rookie season, Nix started to string together some good performances and had the Broncos back in the postseason conversation. In the season finale, they would defeat the Kansas City Chiefs to clinch a wildcard spot and end their lengthy postseason drought. On top of Nix developing into a really good quarterback, the Denver Broncos’ defense, led by Vance Joseph, who Payton hired a year prior, led the NFL in sacks and turned into one of the better units in the entire NFL. While they would lose in the wildcard round, the Broncos took a major step forward in year two and looked poised to have a big 2025 season.
Due to their sudden rise in 2024, the Broncos were popular offseason darlings and had some lofty expectations placed on them by the media and their Head Coach. However, a 1-2 start to the year that included back-to-back heartbreaking final second losses had many doubting the Broncos. Despite these doubts, the Broncos would turn things around and rattle off 11 straight wins, which included multiple crazy fourth-quarter comebacks, victories over the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles on the road, and Mahomes and the Chiefs at home, and another impressive victory against a hot Packers team.
Now, three years removed from their embarrassing 51-14 loss to the Rams, the Broncos would once again play on Christmas, but this time, as a legitimate Super Bowl Contender. They would go on to win that game, improve to 13-3, remain the number one seed in the AFC, and have an opportunity to win the AFC West with a Chargers loss. As expected, the Chargers fell flat, and the Denver Broncos would win their first AFC West division title since 2015 and now have a shot to clinch the one seed later today or next week with a win over the Chargers.
In just three years, the Broncos went from a dumpster fire to being the top seed in the AFC and a Super Bowl contender. It all started the moment they hired/traded for Head Coach Sean Payton, but he isn’t the only reason for this success story. General Manager George Paton has built a strong working relationship with Sean Payton and has drafted a number of key contributors and starters on this roster. Then you have a Walton-Penner Ownership Group. The Broncos’ new owners, led by Greg Penner, have quickly become one of the better owners in the entire NFL and have allowed the team to sign, re-sign, and extend multiple key players on this roster. They are also building a top-of-the-line team facility, bringing a new stadium to Denver, and haven’t shied away from investing in this team. All three of these factors, ownership, general manager, and head coach, including Bo Nix and the rest of the players on the team, are why this team has made a quick turnaround.
The Denver Broncos are back and have the pieces in place to be Super Bowl contenders for the foreseeable future.
