Strike 1: Maybe we were right all along.
Maybe the 2025 Denver Broncos are good, but not great. Maybe those who predicted a nice 11 or 12-win season back in August were spot on after all?
Maybe this season was one for significant growth, but not for winning championships just yet? Maybe this season is a stepping stone toward consistent, year in, year out contention like the old days, but not one for any sort of culmination.
Maybe the Jacksonville Jaguars are a really good team, too. Maybe the way they ended Denver’s 11-game winning streak wasn’t fluky at all. Maybe the best team won? If you watched the Jags two-touchdown victory while not wearing your orange-colored glasses, you saw a fifth-year starting quarterback wearing a white jersey who is a considerably better player than the second-year QB who was wearing orange. Clearly experience matters more than we thought. Maybe Denver’s young QB will grow into the kind of player Jacksonville has under center?
Maybe Vance Joseph is a really really good defensive coordinator who has done great things with what he’s had to work with, but isn’t the second coming of Buddy Ryan (Google it) or even Wade Phillips. Maybe having a penchant for untimely and damaging defensive penalties, and a baffling lack of ability to create takeaways subtracts a lot from having a dominant pash rush? It’s been a month of decline on that side of the ball. Maybe as some pointed out, the Washington Commanders quick passing game gave the rest of the NFL a blueprint on how to successfully attack Denver’s D?
Even after the Jacksonville loss, the Broncos are still in a very good place. They’re playoff bound for the second straight season, but will have to defeat their new arch-nemesis, the Los Angeles Chargers, in order to win the AFC West for the first time in a decade. Maybe the Chargers are a better team and the Broncos are destined for another Wild Card berth? We’ll see on the last Sunday of the regular season.
Even if during that 11-game winning streak we tricked ourselves into believing otherwise, this Broncos roster is still lacking. Lacking an every-down, “bell-cow” running back that can become a 1,400 yard rusher and potential game changer. Lacking a game-breaking wide receiver who can “take the lid off” opposing defenses. Lacking a ball hawking safety who can steal some interceptions and still deliver big (and legal) hits. Maybe there’s a reason Talanoa Hufanga was made available by his former team, the San Francisco 49ers, in free agency? Maybe the team that watched him in practice every day the past four seasons realized he’s not all that good in pass coverage.
Let’s remember that this Denver roster is still hamstrung by the horrid Russell Wilson contract, and that everything changes next off season. The Broncos will have money to spend in free agency and a full complement of draft picks. The plan was always about a slow build, not a quick fix. Maybe it’s all about 2027 and beyond after all?
Maybe the Kansas City Chiefs will be ‘back’ next year, maybe not. Maybe the Chargers will continue to play schoolyard bully, or maybe with some enhancements, the Broncos can push back? Maybe now, with outstanding ownership and a championship plan in place, Denver is “back,” too.
Maybe what most observers saw last summer and early this season was what/who these Denver Broncos really are, at least for now. A team that’s made terrific improvement in just two short years, but a team that is still In. Com. Plete?
Would that be so terrible?
