James Palmer explains why the Broncos’ run of one-score wins is not just luck

Skeptics around the league say 15 straight one-score wins can't last, but Palmer sees a sideline, a coach and a quarterback who expect to find a way.

BY DENVER SPORTS

Nov 4, 2026, 7:17 PM

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Watch: How do the Broncos keep sustaining the unsustainable? | James Palmer | 9 mins

Fifteen consecutive one-score wins ties the most in NFL history. It is also the kind of number that makes people around the league wait for the correction.

On a recent visit, James Palmer took that question head-on. The skeptics, he said, are not hard to find.

The case against

“There’s enough people around the league, if you talk to them, they go, this isn’t sustainable,” Palmer said. He pointed to the team Denver just beat. Kansas City had the same kind of run, and everyone asked the same question.

Then the swing came. In Palmer’s words, “the pendulum swung the other direction for Kansas City a season ago.” That is the strongest form of the doubt: close-game luck does not stay on one side of the ledger forever.

The case for belief

Palmer doesn’t dismiss that argument. He argues the streak has a source beyond luck, and he saw it from the field, standing near the Chiefs’ tunnel for the closing seconds.

“This team doesn’t hang their head,” he said.

He traces that to the top. Palmer believes Sean Payton can find an edge in any situation, any “little nook or cranny” during the week or in the game. The quarterback, he said, feels almost the same way.

Palmer says the defense has it too, and credits coordinator Vance Joseph and a veteran group that “don’t waver.” With about a minute left and Kansas City at the goal line, he said, he got texts from people on other teams asking whether Denver would let the opponent score. The defense wanted to stop them.

The quarterback is stacking games

That belief has a visible form in Bo Nix. Palmer called his performance against Arizona a step and this game a jump. He liked the moments when Nix stepped up in the pocket, didn’t drift and drove the ball between the numbers.

He sees more decisiveness, more assertiveness and growing confidence over two games. Palmer said people in the Broncos’ building expected a few good games to pull Nix out of his slump, and that now he is putting them together.

“You wanna start stacking performances,” Palmer said.

He also offered a caution. Kansas City’s defensive line is struggling, and Palmer said he thinks “we’re starting to finally see Chris Jones’ age.” Nix wasn’t under heavy pressure, so the performance comes with an asterisk.

What it comes down to

Palmer is not claiming the Broncos will keep winning every one-score game. His point is narrower. Whether a team can keep it up depends partly on whether it expects to win late, and Denver’s coach, quarterback and veterans all seem to.

Whether that belief can outlast the Chiefs-style swing is something the next close game will start to answer.

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.