ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Justin Strnad arrived to a peculiar sight after he trudged into the visiting locker room at Lucas Oil Stadium alongside his Denver Broncos teammates following a heartbreaking loss to the Indianapolis Colts in the middle of September.

“When we hit the field goal against Indianapolis, the first one, I guess the smoke started rolling into the locker room,” the linebacker said, referring to haze produced by a fog machine the Broncos use as part of their postgame victory celebrations. “When the (leveraging) penalty happened, we actually came into the locker room and people were trying to wave the smoke out. Obviously, I wish we had won, but that was a funny memory. It was a crazy time, for sure.”

There have been no premature celebrations for the Broncos since then. What they have had is nine straight parties inside “Club Dub,” the raucous events with considerable production value that take place immediately after wins. That Denver celebrates its wins in a big way is not unique. Every team in the NFL does the same. The weeks of preparation and the games themselves are too grueling not to bask in the satisfaction of a victory. Still, the way the Broncos and Sean Payton light the celebratory fuse has become a brand of their own.

“In college, you come in and you’re blasting the music, but here it’s the smoke with the music,” safety Devon Key said. “Sometimes you walk in the locker room, and you can’t see anything. You’re searching for your locker and everything before you even process, ‘Hey, we just won the game. It’s time to celebrate!’”

The Broncos lockerroom looks like a night club

Culture is back in Denver 🔥 pic.twitter.com/xxM1i5Y40i

— Denver Broncos 365 (@DailyBroncos) October 5, 2025

Club Dub can turn into a euphoric and at times chaotic celebration inside whatever locker room it occupies. After a home win against the Panthers last season, for example, the fog machine tripped the fire alarm system in the bowels of Empower Field. The blaring siren was shut off quickly, but the white lights were still flashing by the time Payton made his way to the auditorium, where his postgame news conferences are held.

The origin of the celebration, though, was anything but haphazard. Payton explained Wednesday that a commitment to winning means creating a “maniacal” attention to detail in all aspects of the operation. It is important for players, Payton said, to believe the organization “has thought of everything” that encompasses winning. Around the 2017 season, when Payton was the head coach in New Orleans, he decided the Saints needed to invest more substantially in the postgame experience. The coach often says that winning can be “addictive,” and he wanted the players to chase the feeling that came with a cathartic celebration after wins. So the team bought a $30,000 sound system to pair with a fog machine and a light display that combine to create a nightclub atmosphere.

“We felt it was important, especially on the road, that everyone that could possibly hear our locker room celebrating (was) like, ‘What is going on in there?’” Payton said when he was hired as the Broncos’ coach in 2023. “That is creating culture with the right people, with the right details.”

The first chance for the Broncos to experience Club Dub came after a 31-28 comeback win against the Bears in Chicago in 2023. Any chance to celebrate would have felt reinvigorating after Denver snapped a three-game losing streak that had included a 50-point loss the week prior in Miami. But entering the fog for the first time created a particularly memorable experience.

“I remember just running into the locker room, and there’s smoke in there — fog, whatever it is — and I’m like, ‘What’s going on here?’” Strnad said. “We came in after that comeback win, and it was just everywhere.”

The Broncos have experienced nine straight postgame parties this season and will try to make it 10 in a row on Sunday when they visit the Las Vegas Raiders. But even if the infrastructure for each party is generally the same outside of an ever-changing soundtrack, each celebratory outburst inside the four walls of the locker room has its own unique footprint. Strnad said the celebration after a win against the Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London back in October was particularly jubilant, even if it’s hard to put his finger on exactly why. After Nik Bonitto knocked down Marcus Mariota’s pass on the final play of Denver’s win against the Commanders in the early minutes of Monday morning, the thumping bass of the celebration rattled the wall that connected the locker room to the adjacent area that hosts the visiting team’s news conference.

“Every game is different, because there’s different challenges, different people playing, different everything,” Bonitto said. “Every one of them is different, and it’s awesome to see so many different people, and you just celebrate with everybody. There are different things each week that let you celebrate new people stepping up and things like that.”

A hard-fought @SNFonNBC W. 😤

Inside the locker room after #DENvsWAS: pic.twitter.com/VuSWiwMP3m

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) December 1, 2025

As much as Payton wants to create experiences for players that will create lasting memories, the 61-year-old head coach is not driven by the good, noisy vibes that permeate a winning locker room. He’s fueled instead by the dread of facing the quiet ones.

“I just think I hate losing more than anything in the world,” Payton said. “I think fear of failure is a very significant motivating factor. I think from a details standpoint, there’s nothing that’s too small, that’s not significant. That has to exist outside the lines, as well.”

Extra points

• Defensive end Zach Allen was added to Denver’s injury report Thursday with a calf injury. Allen, who went through a stretch with the team during the media viewing period of practice, was listed as a DNP (did not participate). Rookie wide receiver Pat Bryant (hamstring) was listed as limited. Bryant was a full participant in Wednesday’s practice, which suggests he suffered his injury during Thursday’s session.

• Defensive tackle D.J. Jones (ankle) and tight end Nate Adkins (knee), meanwhile, did not practice for the second straight day, putting their availability for Sunday’s game in doubt. The Broncos did not place Adkins on injured reserve after he suffered a knee injury against Dallas in Week 8, believing he could return within four games. But if Adkins is unable to play against the Raiders, it would mark the fifth straight game he’s missed with the injury.

• The Broncos dressed only two tight ends, Adam Trautman and Evan Engram, in their victory against the Commanders last week. Practice squad veteran Marcedes Lewis has already used his three elevations, so the Broncos will need to create a spot on the 53-man roster if they want to use Lewis against the Raiders. The Broncos have two other tight ends on the practice squad, Patrick Murtagh and rookie Caleb Lohner, who have all three of their elevations available.