Mike Shanahan deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but selectors might be holding the salary-cap infraction involving his Super Bowl-winning teams against him. Karl Mecklenburg, a defensive Swiss army knife who was named NFL All-Pro three times, should be in Canton.

— W.P., Henderson, Nev.

Kiz: Nobody asked me, and I certainly won’t ever be given a vote in the matter, but here’s how I’d rank the pecking order of Broncos all-time greats snubbed by the Hall. No. 1: Louis Wright, one of the league’s original shutdown cornerbacks; No. 2: Shanahan, the Mastermind who helped John Elway finally hoist Lombardi; and No. 3: Mecklenburg, who could wreck an offense from all over the field. All three men are certainly worthy of a gold jacket. Wright and Shanny are both 73 years old, while Meck is still a kid at age 65. Let’s hope all of them get to be enshrined while they can still enjoy the honor. 

While I admire your enthusiasm for predicting a Super Bowl championship, Kiz, you shouldn’t put the cart before the Broncos. Last season was an anomaly, with so many one-score victories, don’t you think? There are too many variables to predict a championship in August.

— Billy, Colorado Springs

Kiz: Well, they don’t call me Mr. Sunshine for nuthin’. And you know what’s crazy optimistic. I predicted the Broncos would win the Super Bowl on Valentine’s Day in 2027 way back in the summer of 2025. You could look it up, as they say. And you can thank me later.

Why don’t the Broncos just revamp their current home at Empower Field? Just put a roof on it. That would be cheaper instead of fighting through all the red tape of trying to build at Burnham Yard, which looks to me like it will have limited parking and highway access for fans.

— R., putting lid on it

Kiz: While certainly not privy to the internal discussion Broncos ownership has had on a new stadium, what I’ve observed from franchise CEO Greg Penner is he diligently collects data points and looks to solve a challenge from as many angles as possible. So I suspect that somewhere at team headquarters, there’s a rendering or two of a retrofitted Empower Field stored in a computer file.

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders looks on during a practice at an NCAA college football training camp in Fountain, Colo., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)Colorado head coach Deion Sanders looks on during a practice at an NCAA football training camp in Fountain, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Deion Sanders is entering Year 4 as coach of the CU Buffs: A Hall of Fame player does not a great coach make. The list of star players who bombed at coaching is long.

— Rusty, shine’s off Prime

Kiz: I enjoy the give-and-take bantering with Prime. Although he celebrates his 59th birthday Sunday, Sanders is still learning the ropes as a Power 4 football coach. As a former world-class athlete who has also beaten cancer, Prime might fail at CU, but he won’t go down without a fight.

And today’s parting shot expresses frustration about the Nuggets’ inability to lock up center Nikola Jokic with a long-term contract until he has the chance to opt out of Denver as a free agent in 2027.

In 10 years, when the documentary rolls out about Joker’s life, a big part will be how Nuggets ownership dropped the ball and got this guy only one ring.

— S.H., Granby