Okay, so we’ve reached the day after the day after. Time to stop moping.
It’s time to turn the page.
We’ve done all the rehashing, second-guessing and hand wringing. Even the doom-and-gloomers, the folks who say things like, “You don’t know when the next time will be you that get here,” and oher sad-sack stuff like that. Enough. The fact is, despite the AFC title game loss to the New England Patriots, the Denver Broncos’ best days are ahead of them. They will be back, for one very important reason.
Ownership.
Look around the NFL. Which franchises are contenders on a year-in, year-out basis? Which teams are mentioned as potential Super Bowl participants every summer?
Hint, it’s not the Cleveland Browns. It’s not any of the other dysfunctional outfits out there, either.
It’s about what’s going on – and what’s not going on – at the very top. Is your ownership group rock-solid, consistent, forward-thinking? Does your owner quietly provide the head coach and the players with whatever they need to win, while staying in the background? Or are they consistently in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, day after day?
Just ask the folks in Cleveland, or any other town where dysfunction is a common theme when it comes to the owners. A merry-go-round of coaches. Quarterback controversies. The ticket-buying public talking about stuff that’s going on off the field. Any of that sound at all familiar?
All things considered, the Walton-Penner Group might just be the very best ownership group in the NFL.
Remember, this is an outfit that, after the ill-fated and last-minute decision to acquire and extend Russell Wilson, had to eat that debt and weather the salary cap storm that went with it. They never said a bad word about it – and then they just handled it. Would anyone have believed that, with that albatross hanging around the collective neck of the franchise, that they could put together a roster that would come within one game/injury/blizzard of reaching the Super Bowl before the Wilson contract was officially off their books?
Or that they’d have a 2026 roster where only one impact player – that being oft-injured running back J.K. Dobbins – wasn’t still ascending? Almost all players that were perhaps a year or three away from peaking in the NFL? Let’s recall the last two Bronco Super Bowl wins. Both came on the back of a star quarterback in his final days as a player. Both times, the Broncos began revamping the roster shortly after the parade ended.
That’s not the case today. The vast majority of these guys haven’t shown us the best of themselves yet.
Certainly the roster is, as the man says, “In-com-plete.” They have definite needs at running back and receiver – but they also have a full complement of draft choices, plus free-agent dollars to spend. Even if they lose a coach or even two – passing game coordinator/QB coach Davis Webb and defensive coordinator Vance Joseph are both candidates for head coaching jobs elsewhere – Payton has proven he’s been able to build a quality coaching staff, and he can do so again.
Denver’s rock-solid ownership situation gives George and Sean Payton the rock on which to build their future. And that future is very bright.
