Expectations were low for the Denver Broncos in 2024, at least outside the building.

“Are we talking about [media] expectations or ours? I have no interest in their expectations,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said after the 2024 campaign. “I say that respectfully — I have no interest.”

Advertisement

Oddsmakers gave Denver an over/under win total of 5.5 wins last summer. Payton’s squad ended up smashing the over, going 10-7 in the regular season and reaching the NFL playoffs for the first time since 2015.

The Broncos made it to the postseason despite having the largest dead money salary cap hit in NFL history. That dead money — and the state of the quarterback position — perhaps contributed to national pundits having low expectations for the team last year.

“There were a lot of reasons,” Payton said. “It wasn’t just the cap. You paid attention to some of it. ‘We didn’t have a quarterback. We didn’t have this. We didn’t have that.’ I get it, those people are paid to create content. They have a job, but often times it’s just that… I don’t think that existed internally. I think that was more of an external expectation, which they are what they are. Those are the same expectations, or there’s that bus again that’s traveling that everyone’s listening to that tells us how good this player is in the draft, or how good he isn’t. We don’t know who’s driving it. It’s an invisible driver, but somehow we end up listening to it or letting it affect sometimes our opinions on topics.

“I think in seriousness to what you’re asking, I think early on, you don’t know what you have as a team. I get asked that all the time, ‘How’s your team going to be?’ I’m like, ‘I’m anxious to see.’ I think that early stretch of the season, bouncing back was extremely important, and I think coming back from that eastern swing and there’s a stretch we win four or five in a row here. It’s an evolving thing that took place, and that was good to see. There’s confidence that’s built with that, but the other stuff, the outside noise, whatever.”

Advertisement

Denver chose quarterback Bo Nix with the 12th overall pick in last year’s NFL draft. He was the sixth QB to go off the board, and many pundits viewed the selection as a reach at the time. But Nix went on to have a brilliant rookie season, and he was invited to the Pro Bowl as an alternate following the regular season.

Nix and Co. exceeded national expectations in 2024. Expectations are higher going into 2025 — the team’s over/under win total has been set at 9.5 — but the Broncos are merely worried about their in-house expectations.

Social: Follow Broncos Wire on Facebook and Twitter/X! Did you know: These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans.

This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: Broncos: Sean Payton has ‘no interest’ in outside expectations