As time keeps on slippin’, slippin’ into the future, we all are slow to realize the Avs and Nuggets are growing old in front of our disbelieving eyes.

Hoisting the Stanley Cup in 2022 now seems like a distant memory for the Avalanche. While Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar are generational talents in their prime, their supporting cast is beginning to show shades of gray and hints of rust.

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At age 36, Nazem Kadri is feisty as ever, but he’s lost a step. With 35-year-old defenseman Josh Manson expected to miss two months with an ankle injury, there’s often not adequate support at the blue line for whatever Colorado goalie is between the pipes. The increasingly frequent games in which captain Gabe Landeskog looks more gritty than great are cause for me to respectfully ask: How many chapters are left in Landy’s amazing comeback story?

Let this be a cautionary tale to Broncos Country, where there’s such Super Bowl fever that it can make otherwise reasonable people believe Denver is this one trade away from winning it all.

How’s that working out with receiver Jaylen Waddle? He’s damn good. But is there solid evidence Waddle was worth the price of three future draft picks? That’s an iffy argument, at best.

What the Nuggets have reminded us in the early weeks of this NBA season is nostalgia for the championship won in 2023 earns this team absolutely nothing in the win column now.

While we’ve seen Jamal Murray compete with playoff intensity, even on an autumn night, 31-year-old Aaron Gordon appears to no longer be the physical force that made him heart-and-soul Mr. Nugget for the championship team. DeMar DeRozan has had a wonderful career, but in a Denver uniform, the 37-year-old veteran looks nothing like a legit Sixth Man of the Year candidate.

Please forgive me for starting an argument, with hot takes spreading like wildfire across NBA nation, when I suggested a week ago that Nikola Jokic had slipped from his three-time MVP form that had elevated Joker into the conversation about the greatest centers in league history.

Yes, his skillset remains like nothing we’ve ever seen from a big man at the top level of basketball. But here’s the truth: Since his knee injury at the end of 2025, Jokic has lost his shooting touch from three-point range and his offensive aggression in the paint. During a victory Saturday over the Indiana Pacers, he needed a very un-Joker-like 20 shots to score 19 points. This hints his legs aren’t quite what they used to be and his chronic elbow problems aren’t going away.

Yes, the Nuggets missed Gordon and had reason to wonder if Peyton Watson had gone emotionally AWOL on them during their humbling opening-round exit from the playoffs last spring. Denver, however, would’ve survived an undermanned Minnesota team if Jokic had dominated Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert with the verve he previously showed messing with a foe Joker finds overrated defensively.

This slippage in Jokic’s play has been obvious for months. If, like Denver coach David Adelman, you profess to have not noticed, then you might be in denial.

The only way this current group of Nuggets can win a championship is if Jokic carries them every step of the way to the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

There are worrisome signs he’s not quite that superhuman anymore.

With the NFL trade deadline looming on Tuesday, there’s a real temptation for Denver to push all its chips to the middle of the table, mortgaging a chunk of its future by sending multiple draft picks to Indianapolis in return for running back Jonathan Taylor.

I admire how Taylor carries the rock … provided he doesn’t carelessly drop it before crossing the goal line.

But unless the Colts are willing to give Taylor away at a bargain-basement price, it makes little sense for Denver.

Pro football is no place for old men, while young legs thrive. At an average age of 27 after the original cutdown to its 53-man roster to begin this season, the Broncos were the fifth-oldest team in the league.

And how old is Taylor? He will celebrate his 28th birthday in January, shortly before the conference championship games are staged.

That’s not old. But here’s what is more concerning. In a brutal sport, where running backs absorb far more contact than they deliver, serious wear often begins to show on the tires at the 2,000-carry milestone.

Taylor’s football odometer will approach 1,900 carries by the end of this season.

It doesn’t mean there’s no great football left in Taylor.

It does shout: Buyer beware.

I get it if you believe this season is Denver’s one and only great shot to win the Super Bowl with Bo Nix at quarterback.

But if you’re a Bo-liever and think Nix has another decade run ahead of him in Denver, what the Broncos need to do is get younger. That means tough decisions ahead on well-paid veteran leaders such as tackle Mike McGlinchey and Courtland Sutton, both 31 years old.

And what if you doubt Nix is the long-term answer for an inconsistent Denver offense?

Then Broncos general manager George Paton needs to stockpile all the draft picks he can as capital to find a championship-caliber quarterback.