Sean Payton’s run in Denver didn’t start with fireworks. It started with a 1-5 stumble that had the whole thing looking shaky fast.
But the Broncos steadied themselves after that, and the results since then have changed the conversation completely: 7-4 to close 2023, 10-7 in 2024, and a 14-3 season in 2025. From that rough opening stretch on, Denver has gone 31-14 in the regular season, a 12-win pace over a 17-game year.
With July here and training camp still a few weeks away, it’s a good time to look back at the five best Broncos wins of the Sean Payton era so far.
No. 5 is the home win over the Chiefs in the 2023 season, which carried real weight because Denver had not beaten Kansas City since the 2015 season. The Broncos’ young pass rushers set the tone and played with an aggressive edge, keeping the Chiefs out of the end zone and never really allowing them to settle in. That game also felt like a turning point against Kansas City, since Denver then beat the Chiefs once in 2024 and swept them in 2025.
The No. 4 spot goes to the Broncos’ home win over the Chiefs to finish the 2024 season and clinch a playoff berth. That victory locked up a 10-win season and, more importantly, ended the team’s first playoff drought since the 2015 season.
Had Denver lost, the Cincinnati Bengals would have taken that final playoff seed. The Chiefs rested most of their notable starters, but the result still snapped one of the NFL’s longest active playoff-drought streaks at the time, and it happened in Denver’s throwback uniforms.
At No. 3, there’s another Chiefs game, this one in the 2025 season and this one decided on a walk-off field goal. The stakes were obvious: a Broncos win could help put the AFC West out of reach, while the Chiefs needed it to keep their division hopes alive.
Denver entered at 8-2, Kansas City at 5-4 after its bye week. If the Chiefs had won, they’d have moved to 6-4 and the Broncos would have slipped to 8-3.
Instead, Kansas City dropped to .500, Denver improved to 9-2, and the Broncos ended up four games clear. The game itself went right down to the wire, and Wil Lutz finished it with a game-winning field goal that wasn’t blocked this time.
The No. 2 win was one of the wildest comebacks Denver has had in years: the 2025 game against the Giants in which the Broncos entered the fourth quarter down 19-0. The day also included a tribute to the Super Bowl 50 team and the late Demaryius Thomas, which only added to the emotion around it.
It looked like a game Denver simply could not afford to lose, and for three quarters, that’s exactly how it felt. Then the Broncos ripped off 33 points in the fourth quarter, and Lutz again delivered at the end with a game-winning field goal after Bo Nix and the offense got into range in just two plays.
The best win of the Payton era so far, though, was the Broncos’ victory over the Bills in the 2025 AFC Divisional Round. The result became a bittersweet one after news broke shortly after the game, but the performance itself was outstanding.
Denver was never going to cruise against Buffalo in a playoff game featuring what looked like the AFC’s two best teams, and the Broncos got another back-and-forth battle. Marvin Mims Jr. drew a key pass interference penalty in overtime, setting up Lutz for a chip-shot game-winner.
Nix was brilliant, carving up Buffalo’s secondary and leading the Broncos in rushing yards as well. More than anything, the game felt like the moment he fully silenced the doubters and established himself as a franchise quarterback capable of carrying this team forward.
In Other News...
Broncos May Have Found A Familiar Answer At Linebacker
The Broncos have spent much of the post-Super Bowl 50 era trying to settle the linebacker spot, and Red Murdock is suddenly giving that search a familiar feel. Denvers final pick in the 2026 NFL Draft arrived with the kind of college production that gets attention, piling up tackles, plays behind the line and turnovers at Buffalo while flashing the sort of instincts that can translate even if the draft slot does not scream immediate impact.
There is also the path he is trying to follow, one Broncos fans know well from Danny Trevathan. Like Trevathan, Murdock enters camp with the long odds that come with being a late-round pickup, and he is not walking into a clear opening so much as a crowded room behind Alex Singleton, Justin Strnad, Jordan Turner and Karene Reid. Early work has been encouraging enough to make him worth watching, but the real question is whether Denver has found another developmental linebacker who can force his way into the rotation. [Read more 🡒]
Bo Nix Has One Flaw Broncos Fans Can't Ignore
Bo Nixs second year gave Denver plenty to feel good about. The Broncos went 14-3, won the AFC West and earned a first-round bye, with Nix handling the offense as the teams leader in passing attempts and completions while helping push the leagues most complete version of this roster into January. For a franchise that had spent years searching for stability at quarterback, the overall shape of the season suggested it had finally found something to build around.
The catch is that Nixs play still had a clear split, and it showed up in the kind of situations that decide postseason games. He was sharp with a clean pocket, but once pressure arrived the efficiency dropped off and turnovers became a bigger issue, leaving Denver with a familiar offseason question: how much of the offense can Nix carry when protection breaks down? That answer matters even more now, with the Broncos trying to turn a division title into a deeper playoff run. [Read more 🡒]
Broncos Let A Familiar Tight End Problem Follow Them Again
The Broncos have spent enough time dealing with tight end uncertainty that it should be a familiar concern by now, and this spring did little to suggest the problem is going away. Denver brought back Adam Trautman on a three-year deal even though his blocking profile has drawn criticism, while making only modest additions to the room through free agency and the draft. The result is a depth chart that still looks built more around hope than certainty at a spot that matters plenty in Sean Paytons offense.
There were reasons Denver stayed relatively quiet, including a desire to protect future compensatory draft value, but that approach also left the team leaning on young options who need time to develop. Justin Joly and Dallen Bentley were brought in as late-round rookies, yet neither is ready to solve the kind of blocking issues that can shape what the Broncos can and cannot do on offense. For a team that wants to be sturdier and more reliable, tight end remains one of the few places where the offseason still feels unfinished. [Read more 🡒]