The Denver Broncos Are Schrödinger’s Team
By some measures, Denver is primed to improve even more in 2025. By others, they’re set to regress. So... which is it?
Little — and I do mean little — was expected of the Denver Broncos this time last year.
Denver hadn’t made the playoffs since winning the Super Bowl nearly a decade earlier, during which time they’d compiled a 52-79 record and churned through five different coaches and 12 starting quarterbacks — with a 13th on the way in the form of rookie Bo Nix. They’d also just completed one of the most humiliating transaction arcs in football history: Dealing multiple players and draft picks (including a pair of first-rounders) for QB Russell Wilson, then eating $85 million in dead cap charges when they released him after just two seasons with the team. Even with former Super Bowl-winning coach Sean Payton at the helm, the Broncos went into last season tied for the second-lowest over/under win total (5.5) in the league.
Fast-forward to August 2025, though, and the vibes in Denver have shifted in a major way. That’ll happen when you break through for 10 wins and a playoff berth, while validating your splashy coaching hire (which also cost draft picks in a swap with the Saints) and potentially finding your franchise QB of the future. By the end of the regular season, there was even a case to be made that the Broncos were underrated by the wider football pundit-sphere, their somewhat predictable 31-7 shellacking at the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs notwithstanding.
But now comes the fascinating question with this team: What’s next? The numbers point in a bunch of very different directions.
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