The Broncos are winning small and the defense is closing the door

The Denver Broncos have won at least seven of their first nine games 14 times in franchise history. Half of those teams reached the Super Bowl.

“It’s a coin flip whether the team plays in the Super Bowl or not based off their history,” Zach Bye said on Monday.

That is a thrilling number for a team that, by Bye and Phillip Lindsay’s own account, is nowhere near its ceiling. The 7-2 Broncos got there by winning small, and the guys see that as the point.

Winning small is still winning

Bye leans on a Bobby Bowden progression the show has quoted about a dozen times: “You go from losing big to losing small… to winning small to winning big.” Denver, he said, is in the third stage. The NFL hands out no style points.

The latest win fit the pattern. The Broncos were still down in the fourth quarter against the Panthers and won by one possession. It came on the road, in an early Eastern kickoff that Bye said has historically been a thorn for Denver. It also came a week after what he called possibly the most emotional win of the year, against Kansas City, and against a team under .500.

Bye credits coach Sean Payton for the way the wins keep coming. Payton wins and builds culture, he said, and that is why the fellas can pick apart the good and the bad from a 7-2 vantage point.

The defense closes the door

When the game was in the balance, the offense needed to be bailed out again. Bye said it was Vance Joseph’s defense and Nik Bonitto, whom he compared to Von Miller.

“It looked like Von Miller in Super Bowl 50,” Bye said of Bonitto’s strip sack to seal the game.

His explanation is that the pass rush works as a unit. Jonathan Cooper’s motor pushes the quarterback off his spot, and Bonitto is waiting. If the quarterback stays put, Zach Allen is pushing the middle.

“Big-time players make big-time plays, and this is why you pay these players the big bucks,” Bye said.

What Nix can take from Young

The offense took steps, the guys agreed, but both were most struck by the opposing quarterback. Bryce Young’s movement inside the pocket impressed them. Bye’s view is that if Bo Nix reaches that level, “we’re in business.”

Bye went further and compared Young’s tiny maneuvers to Tom Brady’s, with the caveat that it was “apples to acorns.” His open question was how much of that is instinct and how much can be learned. Young looked instinctive, and Bye said it doesn’t come naturally to Nix, though that doesn’t mean Nix can’t succeed.

Bye offered a partial answer.

“You can teach patience,” he said.

Nix hung in longer a couple of times from shotgun, and Waddle came across for an explosive play. Bye and Lindsay want that every time. Bye noted that for a quarterback whose superpower is getting out on the run, it takes time.

The health caveat

The optimism comes with a held breath. Bye pointed to Riley Moss’s uncertain status and Waddle’s chest injury and concussion protocol. He said the defense is banged up and needed the bye.

His case is that the healthiest team entering the playoffs, with an offense that has turned the corner, could win the whole thing.

That makes the argument about two things: whether the bodies hold up and whether Nix’s step forward continues. Until then, Bye’s ask is simple: “Let’s just keep winning these games.”

Disclosure: This article was transcribed from our original audio content and edited for readability with the assistance of generative AI. The article has been reviewed by our editorial team prior to publication. Please watch or listen to the clip above for the full segment.

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