Broncos locker-room culture has been three seasons in the making

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The job of Broncos coach Sean Payton is a bit different now than it was when he arrived in Denver three years ago — and it’s not simply because he’s handed off primary-playcalling duties to offensive coordinator Davis Webb.

It’s because the three seasons invested in finding the right players and creating a deep-rooted team culture has reached the point to where he doesn’t have to do much prodding and tweaking anymore — at least, not like he did when he first arrived, inheriting a team that had missed the playoffs seven-straight seasons and had posted six-consecutive losing records.

“Ultimately any good team begins to get taken over by the leaders within the locker room,” Payton said Saturday.

It’s not just the nine captains who provide that leadership, as well.

“This locker room is built for leadership by committee,” said placekicker Wil Lutz, who played six seasons for Payton with the New Orleans Saints and arrived via a trade-deadline deal just before the start of Payton’s first regular season as Broncos head coach.

“It’s not five guys leading this team. It’s not nine guys leading this team. We have leadership in all the right groups.”

That didn’t happen overnight. And although Lutz didn’t join the Broncos until seven months after Payton officially became head coach, he’s seen nearly all of the process.

“Honestly, I’m kind of fortunate to have experienced a little bit of a changeover in New Orleans too, and being a part of that, the fact that Coach (Payton) allows me to be a part of that build of a building of a culture is really cool. And I think when he got here, that’s what he wanted,” Lutz said.

“I think you win with a good locker room, first and foremost. Obviously, it takes X’s and O’s, it takes talent, it takes leadership, but at the end of the day, it starts with a well-built locker room.

“… I can’t speak on what it was before I was here, but I know since I’ve been here, it’s been a lot of fun to be a part of.”

ADVERSITY SHAPED BRONCOS ALONG THE WAY

Perhaps the first on-field manifestation of the culture Payton sought to build came at midseason of 2023.

“You look at it, our first year here, we kind of went on a run that year after losing some tough ones,” Lutz said.

The season ended in frustration with a late-year skid, but after a 1-5 start, the Broncos won five games in a row — three of which were by two or fewer points. And one of the wins snapped a 16-game losing streak to the Kansas City Chiefs — and started the current 4-1 run in the series the team rides into Monday night.

In 2024, the Broncos didn’t have a protracted run of frustration, but they did start 0-2 and then lost two games in succession in November at Baltimore and Kansas City to fall back to .500. The frustration of that campaign rested in going 1-8 against teams with winning records that didn’t rest their starters; the Broncos did defeat the Super Bowl-bound Chiefs in Week 18, but that 38-0 defeat was a mauling of the Kansas City understudies. Seven days later, they were throttled in Buffalo for an eighth defeat to a winning team. That trend lingered into 2025 before the trajectory-altering comeback at Philadelphia.

That was the second triumph in an 11-game winning streak before Jacksonville prowled into Denver and humbled the Broncos 34-20. But the Broncos quickly recovered, grinding out a 20-13 win four nights later for the team’s first Arrowhead Stadium win in over a decade. While Patrick Mahomes wasn’t on the field, the Chiefs defense was on point, keeping the offense in check much of the night. But the Broncos pushed through.

“Last year, we were on this hot run. We lose a game and there’s no dropoff,” Lutz recalled. ” It’s like, ‘Hey, we’re all good, back to the drawing board,’ and that’s that speaks to the culture of this building.”

For all the good feelings heading into the season, a rough moment is assured to be on its way. It has been for every team — champions included — since 1972.

“You’re gonna go through adversity. When’s the last time a team has won every game?” Lutz said.

“So, you’re gonna go through it and it’s kind of how the locker room — do they get stronger through adversity or do we kind of lose the locker room? Obviously this team has gotten stronger through losses.”

And now, it has the fuel of falling three points short in the penultimate game of the season. The sense of unfinished business permeates the team.

“I think there is a feeling of, there’s still that hunger coming up short,” Payton said.

And after seven-and-a-half months to let it marinate, the Broncos are ravenous.

“And that was really the the theme of us as captains is, we’ve been here, we we know what it’s going to take,” quarterback Bo Nix said.

“Now we don’t have anything else to do. We just gotta go out here and win and compete at a high level. And we got really good leadership to do that.”

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