A lot has changed for the Broncos in a year — and now they’re ‘battling positivity’

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Last season, the Denver Broncos leaned into being “young and hungry.” And as Sean Payton said, such teams “can sometimes be pretty dangerous.”

The Broncos caught the NFL off-guard last year. Forecast to be among the NFL’s worst, they were the surprise AFC playoff participant. Nearly every year, each conference has at least one postseason qualifier that unexpectedly flies in through the attic window to the shock of observers; in 2024 in the AFC, it was the Broncos, earning an invitation to the playoff dance while a more lauded team like the Cincinnati Bengals was left with its noses pressed against the window, only able to lament the opportunities frittered away in the season’s first three months.

But they won’t have that luxury this time. Not just because they went to the postseason last season, but because their own head coach hasn’t been reticent about declaring his team’s capability of making a Super Bowl run.

And of such pronouncements, hype is made.

Most coaches wouldn’t go public with such chatter. Sean Payton isn’t most coaches.

“My chest isn’t puffed out,” he insisted Wednesday. “I just think this team is further along than what it was two years ago. Two years ago, quite honestly, we weren’t near where we are now.

“This came in the very beginning; I said our goals obviously start with winning the division. Best seed possible, play for a Super Bowl. I think that’s where your mind has to be if you plan on winning one of those. You don’t just arrive [in] Week 8 and say, ‘We’re on a roll. We might win this thing.'”

PAYTON WILL SAY “SUPER BOWL,” BUT THINKS DIVISION FIRST

To his credit, he put the division title on the front table, considering that only five teams have made it to the Super Bowl by winning three consecutive road games — and one of those was in the COVID-19 year of 2020 with few to no fans in the stands — the odds of making it to Super Bowl LX without a division title are slim.

Also, when you consider the opposing starting quarterbacks faced by teams in those years with hostile crowds en route to the Super Bowl, the challenge is different than the one the Broncos could face if they make the postseason but don’t win the AFC West.

1985 Patriots: Ken O’Brien, Marc Wilson, Dan Marino
2005 Steelers: Carson Palmer, Peyton Manning, Jake Plummer
2007 Giants: Jeff Garcia, Tony Romo, Brett Favre
2010 Packers: Michael Vick, Matt Ryan, Jay Cutler

An AFC team winning three road games might have to deal with clubs featuring some combination of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson or Joe Burrow and Josh Allen. All look to be on Hall of Fame trajectories. So, yeah, think of the division above all.

Still, to win the AFC West — a quartet in which every team could legitimately call itself a playoff contender — is to accomplish something meaningful. Taking the division crown would stamp the champion as a realistic Super Bowl threat. So, to talk division is to talk Super Bowl.

BRONCOS NOW HAVE A HARDER MENTAL TASK THAN LAST YEAR

It’s a long way from dealing with the noise from 12 months ago about how the team would flirt with having the No. 1 pick in the draft. But it also represents a different kind of challenge. And perhaps a more difficult one.

“Yeah, I think battling positivity is harder than battling negativity,” cornerback Riley Moss admitted.

 

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“But I think we have a lot of guys who — we don’t allow that to get in our heads. And, it’s kind of just chip away, go to work. And, that’s what we’ve been doing.”

The work involves avoiding the pitfalls of previous years — specifically, the  Broncos’ slow starts of the last two seasons.

“I feel like even though we were young, hungry and talented last year, we, started slow,” edge rusher Jonathon Cooper said. “We came out not really sure, figuring things out.

“Now we figured things out. We’ve had this whole offseason of work and stuff. So, just going into [the season] with that confidence, with that stride and just getting after it.”

But another slow start could derail the Broncos’ chances — especially since a division title could well be necessary to realistically talk Super Bowl.

Thus, while the Broncos can’t win a world championship in September, they could lose it with a poor start.

“I feel like it’ll be huge, because even though we made the playoffs, those (early) games hurt us, you know, and we gotta defend home turf,” Cooper said of last year’s 0-2 start.

“Honestly, that’s how you get to the playoffs. And there’s a couple games. I mean, I’m thinking about back last year to that Steelers game when we lost at home. And that can’t happen.”

Not if the Broncos want to actually live up to the bold talk — from outside and inside the building.

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