The Denver Broncos spent the 2025 season looking like a team that had figured out the formula. They went 14-3, grabbed their first AFC West title since 2015 and locked up the AFC’s No. 1 seed. The defense was nasty, the offensive line held firm, and Bo Nix kept delivering in the biggest moments.
Then the run hit a wall. After Denver beat the Buffalo Bills in the Divisional Round, Sean Payton revealed that Nix had broken his ankle and would miss the rest of the postseason. Just like that, a season that felt built for a championship ended without the finish the Broncos wanted.
Now the task is simple to say and hard to do: bring back that same caliber of roster, keep the quarterback upright and turn all that promise into a Lombardi Trophy at SoFi Stadium on Feb. 14 in Super Bowl LXI.
The Broncos have already shown they can survive tight games. Bo Nix authored eight game-winning drives last season, and that clutch edge mattered plenty.
But Denver has the kind of talent that should not need to keep living on the knife’s edge. Too often, they let opponents hang around.
They trailed the Giants 19-0 going into the fourth quarter. They were up only 11-10 on the Jets entering the final frame.
They were tied 13-13 with the Chris Oladokun-led Chiefs late in the fourth quarter.
That’s not the profile of a team trying to overwhelm the league. It’s the profile of a team that keeps inviting drama.
If Denver cleans up its starts, the whole operation gets scarier. The offense can set the tone early, lean on the run game, control the clock and force other teams to chase.
And when that happens, the defense can do what it does best: rush the passer without restraint.
That defensive front was the engine of Denver’s 2025 dominance. The Broncos piled up 68 sacks, more than any other team, and finished within reach of the 1984 Chicago Bears’ record of 72. On a per-game basis, that’s four sacks a night, the kind of pressure that wrecks game plans before they even get off the ground.
And it wasn’t a one-man show. Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper and Zach Allen gave Denver the kind of pass-rushing punch that can attack from the edge and from the interior.
The Broncos have now led the NFL in sacks in back-to-back seasons, topping 60 both times. If they can make it three straight years at the top, that pass rush will again give them a real shot to go deep in January.
Still, everything comes back to Nix. He’s the most important piece in the whole picture, and the Broncos found out how much he means when he was unavailable. Before the injury, he put together the game of his life against Buffalo, completing 26-of-46 passes for 279 yards and three touchdowns while outplaying Josh Allen and steering a game-winning overtime drive.
Without him, Denver lost by three points in the AFC Championship Game. With him healthy, the Broncos believe they had the kind of roster that could have been playing in the Super Bowl. Nix is one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL, and he remains the heart and soul of the team.
In Other News...
Bo Nix Has A Clear Preference For Denvers New Offensive Setup
As the Broncos work through the early details of Davis Webbs first season as offensive coordinator, one of the quieter choices is already carrying some weight: where hell actually call plays from. Webb, a former NFL quarterback, is weighing the sideline against the booth, and while he has not locked in a final decision, the lean appears to be toward staying down on the field. It is a small operational call, but one that can shape communication, pace and the feel of Denvers offense on game day.
Sean Payton has backed the sideline setup, and Bo Nix has made clear he prefers it too, which gives that option plenty of internal support as the Broncos settle into a new offensive structure. The discussion fits a familiar Broncos thread, since past coaches have also favored different spots based on how they wanted to manage the game. For now, the question is less about philosophy than finality, and Webbs choice will be one of the first real tells of how this offense wants to function when the games start mattering. [Read more 🡒]
Colin Cowherd Sees A Troubling Sign In The Broncos Outlook
Fox Sports analyst Colin Cowherd is looking at the Broncos future with a wary eye, and his concern starts with how they won last season. Denver was constantly living on the edge, trailing in a bunch of games before finding ways to come out on top, a formula that can look sturdy in the moment and fragile when the wins stop breaking the right way. Cowherd tied that kind of success to the idea that it can be hard to repeat, especially for a team that has spent a lot of time winning tight ones.
The comparison he reached for was the Chiefs, whose own recent slide serves as a warning sign for any contender trying to stay ahead of the curve. From Denvers perspective, the pressure only gets louder because the opening stretch of the schedule leaves little room to ease in, with a run of opponents that could quickly test whether last seasons resilience was a real step forward or just a hard-to-replicate run of good fortune. [Read more 🡒]
Sean Payton Suddenly Has A Broncos Camp Problem Fans Feared
Training camp is only a few days old, but the Broncos are already dealing with the kind of soft-tissue injuries that can make August feel longer than it should. Jaylen Waddle and Marvin Mims Jr. have both been affected, and the wave of issues has forced Denver to manage practices more carefully as Sean Payton tries to keep the roster moving toward the season without losing momentum.
Payton said the early camp grind brings its own challenges, and he has already pointed to the work that happens before players ever step on the field as part of avoiding those strains and groin or hamstring problems. The concern now is how quickly the Broncos can stabilize things, especially with the position groups they are trying to evaluate and the health questions that keep surfacing while camp is still in its early stages. [Read more 🡒]