By beating the Chiefs the Broncos won the battle but lost the war

The Denver Broncos won a big battle on Sunday when they took down the Kansas City Chiefs.

But they may have lost the war.

Yes, it felt really, really good to beat Patrick Mahomes for the first time ever. It felt even better to keep him and KC out of the end zone, holding perhaps the scariest offense in football to just nine points. But what did it accomplish in the big picture?

If you believe head coach Sean Payton, the Broncos won’t be sellers at the 2:00 p.m. MT trade deadline this afternoon. Even though they’re in 15th place in the AFC out of 16 teams, this 3-5 squad thinks the season can go somewhere. Heck, running back Javonte Williams is talking about the Super Bowl.

That’s nonsense. All defeating the Chiefs did was make the Broncos pretend this season can be salvaged. It can’t. If the victory means they now go 7-10, pick 14th in the NFL Draft and still don’t have a QB of the future, it did more harm than good. Not moving veteran players who could fetch draft picks would be a mistake (more on that in a bit).

How did the win go down and what were the biggest takeaways? Let’s dive into it with our latest edition of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good

Vance Joseph, you are redeemed!

The Broncos defensive coordinator is no longer fighting to keep his job.

Giving up 70 points to the Miami Dolphins feels like a distant memory, as Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Andy Reid scored just one touchdown in eight quarters against Denver this season. The Broncos created five turnovers, including picking off Mahomes twice and forcing three fumbles. The Chiefs didn’t score in the second half.

Seriously, where was this defense against the Commanders, Dolphins, Bears and Jets? The group flew around, made plays and looked like the top-5 bunch they had for most of last year.

On offense, QB Russell Wilson didn’t have a great statistical day, but threw for three touchdowns and no interceptions. The running game went for 153 yards, and Payton committed to it. Denver ran the rock 40 times and passed it just 19. That’s the type of ratio you like to see.

Wide receiver Courtland Sutton caught his sixth touchdown pass of the year and Jerry Jeudy hauled in his first. Williams certainly looks fully healthy.

It was as complete of a win as the Broncos have had in a long time. There was a lot of good to like.

The Bad

Wilson had yet another monster fumble before halftime that almost swung a game. He can’t put the ball on the ground with Denver up 14-6 and just a few precious seconds remaining. That led to a long field goal by Harrison Butker at the end of the second quarter that trimmed things to 14-9.

It brought back bad memories of the fumble against the Commanders that changed everything. Luckily, this one didn’t cost them a win.

Wilson passed for just 114 yards and took six sacks. If anything, the Broncos proved they can move on from Wilson this offseason, start eating the money from his lucrative contract and win with a much cheaper and younger QB next year by running the ball and playing good defense.

The former Seahawks star isn’t the entire problem, but he’s also not the solution. There can be a middle ground there, despite how divided Broncos Country is on Wilson’s play. However, where there is no middle ground, is that Wilson’s not worth the $39 million he’s due next season.

It’s time for the Broncos to cut him this offseason, and start undoing the mistakes GM George Paton made in not only trading for Wilson, but extending him before he played a down in orange and blue.

The Ugly

Jeudy, Sutton, Justin Simmons, Garett Bolles, Josey Jewell and Pat Surtain II could all still be Broncos by the time the trade deadline comes and goes.

That’s not a wise strategy.

Denver is desperate for draft capital after they’ve been cleaned out in trades with Seattle and New Orleans the last couple of years. They need picks come April, lots of them, to start rebuilding a roster that lacks depth. The six guys listed above could get back at least seven if not eight selections among them. That’d be a lot of darts for Payton to throw at his draft board.

Instead, the head coach says the team is “not openly or even remotely shopping anyone.” Really? At 3-5 with dicey wins over the awful Bears and Packers, Payton has seen enough “good” not to sell? One win against the Chiefs was amazing, but it can’t shift the entire blueprint of where this season is going.

This team is not among the AFC elite, and barely among the mediocre. They lost to the Raiders and Jets. They’re not going anywhere.

Come this spring, no one will really remember the win against the Chiefs. But they would be looking forward to a deep draft and ton of new players headed to Centura Health Training Center early next summer.

Instead, a singular good day is going to shift that plan. And the Broncos will still finish under .500, and we can go through the same mind-numbing exercise next year. Which is a team that should be rebuilding, once again talking themselves into not doing just that.

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