Never has the Pro Bowl accomplishment been so bittersweet for some Broncos players.

SAN FRANCISCO — All the Super Bowl LX posters hanging from light posts and buildings may spruce up the downtown San Francisco area, but forgive the Broncos’ Pro Bowlers if it makes them want to pick up a rock and chuck it at them.

With so many Broncos here for the Pro Bowl, you couldn’t help but think: They were this close to arriving here for the Super Bowl.

“Yeah, it hurts, man,’’ Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain said after the AFC Pro Bowl team’s practice on Monday at the Moscone Convention Center. “Shoot, I’m still thinking about it. I mean, I don’t even like looking at the Super Bowl signs.”

Broncos’ defensive end Zach Allen experienced a similar feeling.

“I was going to say, yesterday, when we were walking around downtown, you see the pictures and stuff and it’s either you want to get super angry or you want to tear up,” Allen said. “It’s so fresh. It’s very fresh.

“I guess the semi-positive is the fire’s still burning for next year. Guys are already talking offseason work. Definitely expect to be playing in the Super Bowl next year.”

The Broncos had a great chance to play in the championship game this year. They were the No. 1 AFC playoff seed, they beat the Buffalo Bills in overtime in a second-round playoff game at Empower Field at Mile High and they had the AFC Championship Game at home.

But without quarterback Bo Nix, who was watching from a fourth-level suite with an ankle injury, with headcoach Sean Payton bypassing an easy field goal for a 10-0 lead in the second quarter, and with a debilitating snowstorm blanketing Empower Field’s playing surface after the Patriots capped a nearly 10-minute drive to open the second half with a go-ahead, and as it turned out, a game-winning field goal, the Broncos lost to New England 10-7.

The entire Patriots team is in San Francisco to play the Seattle Seahawks this Sunday in Super Bowl LX. Five Broncos are here to play in the Pro Bowl. A sixth, right guard Quinn Meinerz, declined his Pro Bowl appearance for personal reasons.

For Broncos’ receiver Courtland Sutton, thoughts of the Super Bowl were top of mind as he travelled here for the Pro Bowl.

“Especially with it being in the same city,” Sutton said. “It was a tough flight into this city knowing that we were scheduled to come in a few days [later than] we did to practice for the real game.

“But I like I told you after the [AFC Championship] game, if ‘ifs’ were a fifth, we’d be really, really drunk. We could say, ‘if’ all day.”

But it’s worse for Broncos’ standout pass rusher Nik Bonitto as he had an undisclosed injury and didn’t play in the final 2:18 of the game as the Patriots ran out the clock.

The Broncos would have gotten the ball back with plenty of time to tie or win, but Bonitto’s replacement, Jonah Ellis, and the rest of Denver’s defense bit on a Drake Maye play fake right before the Patriots’ quarterback rolled left and picked up the first down to essentially end the game.

“It was just some things I was going through with my body,’’ said Bonitto, who declined to reveal his injury. “They were just trying to save me for passing situations.”

And so he is in San Francisco as a Pro Bowler, not a Super Bowler.

“Yeah, that’s how we planned it, but unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way,” Bonitto said. “We’ve just got to enjoy our time out here and we’ll be able to run it back next year.”

Left tackle Garett Bolles, a big kid at heart, has been feeling better since getting out here with all the other Pro Bowl players whose teams are also not playing in the Super Bowl.

“Yeah, I mean obviously we wish we were playing in the Big Dance, that’s for sure,’’ Bolles said. “At the same time, it’s fun to be here with all my teammates. There’s five of us here, we wish Quinn was here with us. We love him dearly, hope everything’s good with him back at home, but it’s fun to be here with all the top players in the NFL and to be able to see them in a different atmosphere than being on the field. It’s completely different, but glad we’re here and I’m glad we can represent Broncos Country.’’

Surtain acknowledges the Pro Bowl is a nice consolation prize. Except… not really.

“Being here, it’s a testament to hard work and success,’’ Surtain said. “But obviously you wanted to be in that [Super Bowl] game. It’s something to look forward to. It’s hard to look at it, like you said, it was right there.

“We’ve got to get back there. It’s going to be tougher and tougher every year, but it’s going to put a big chip on our shoulder.’’