ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Von Miller was feeling plenty nostalgic this week as the Washington Commanders veteran pass rusher began preparation for Sunday’s opponent: the Denver Broncos.

The Broncos, at 9-2 and riding an eight-game winning streak, are looking more like a championship contender than any team the franchise has produced since 2015, when Denver won the Super Bowl behind an MVP performance from Miller. Naturally, the 36-year-old has pondered similarities between his Broncos and this version, one he follows closely from afar.

“There are a lot of comparisons,” Miller told reporters this week at the Commanders’ Ashburn, Va., practice facility. “You got Nik Bonitto and Jonathan Cooper, (compared to) myself and DeMarcus (Ware). You got Aqib Talib and Chris Harris, and Riley Moss and Patrick Surtain. You got (Talanoa) Hufanga, one of the best safeties in the league. We had T.J. (Ward) and Darian Stewart. In the middle, we had Malik Jackson and Derek Wolfe. They got Zach Allen and John Franklin-Myers. So they got a really good defense.”

There is one area, though, where Miller believes the 2025 version has an advantage over its title-winning predecessor of a decade ago.

“This offensive line that they have with the Denver Broncos is better than our Super Bowl team was,” Miller said. “No disrespect to my guys, Ryan Harris and all those guys. No disrespect for those guys, but this Denver Broncos offensive line is better than our Super Bowl offensive line.”

For the second straight season, Denver’s offensive line ranks in the top 10 of ESPN’s pass-block (fourth) and run-block (ninth) win rates. The Broncos have allowed the league’s third-lowest opponent pressure rate (29.7 percent) and the lowest sack rate (3.2 percent). The Broncos are also sixth in rushing yards before contact per attempt (1.86), a rough measure of the holes being created in the run game.

The origin of the group’s success can be traced back to a brutal, marathon film session endured by Sean Payton when he took over as Denver’s coach in early 2023. He called the offense “hard to watch,” and he focused his attention on a collective up front that didn’t consistently set a tone. The priority became clear: The Broncos needed an overhaul up front.

“The offensive line,” Payton said, “can permeate the building.”

Fast forward to this season, and the Broncos are enjoying more continuity along their offensive line than almost any team in the league. They continued that trend this week by signing center Luke Wattenberg, a fifth-round draft pick in 2022, to a four-year extension. The Broncos, during Payton’s first offseason, spent at the top of the market to sign right tackle Mike McGlinchey and left guard Ben Powers in free agency. They also signed an undrafted free agent, Alex Palczewski, who has become an important fill-in starter at multiple positions over the last two seasons. With sturdier play next to them, left tackle Garett Bolles and right guard Quinn Meinerz blossomed, with both earning contract extensions last year.

✍️✍️✍️@LukeWattenberg x #BroncosCountry pic.twitter.com/c2ajg52DwE

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) November 26, 2025

Perhaps just as importantly, Payton identified a coach for the group in Zach Strief, a former Saints lineman whom he trusted to not only teach the offense being implemented in Denver, but also help develop the late-round and undrafted prospects the Broncos have added to the room of veterans. It has all added to a rare blend the Broncos aren’t taking for granted.

“I’ve been a part of a couple great offensive lines going back to college,” said McGlinchey, who was an All-American at Notre Dame before spending his first five NFL seasons with the 49ers. “The best ones were always the closest ones. It’s hard to be close in this league sometimes because of the turnover and the revolving door it becomes in the NFL. How fortunate we are because we have a coach who believes in it, a front office that believes in it and invests in it, and our offensive line coach cultivates that day in and day out.”

McGlinchey noted that the Broncos, after signing Wattenberg to an extension, will enter 2026 with an offensive line that will be playing together for four straight seasons — and under the same coaching staff.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that, at least since free agency started,” McGlinchey said. “It’s a pretty cool deal.”

It also helps explain why signing Wattenberg, who played only sparingly during his first two seasons in the league, became a priority heading into the team’s bye week, a period of business in which the team also extended kicker Wil Lutz and defensive tackle Malcolm Roach. Wattenberg became the starter after the Broncos lost Lloyd Cushenberry, who had started at the position for Denver the previous four seasons, in free agency. Wattenberg has grown in his second season as Cushenberry’s replacement, and Payton emphasized that the transition at that critical position isn’t always as clean as it has been for Denver’s offensive line. After all, Peyton Manning played with five different starting centers during his four seasons with the Broncos after playing almost exclusively with Jeff Saturday during his 13 seasons in Indianapolis.

“There is a vision (for Wattenberg). He’s a good, young player, and it’s important to keep those guys in your building,” Payton said. “I’ve been in the position where you are trying to draft a center, and it’s one of those unique positions. If you say in the draft, ‘We’re going to draft a center that we feel like can start Year 1,’ that becomes difficult.”

The Broncos have created a clear team-building plan while extending seven members of the team’s offensive and defensive fronts in the last 16 months. When there is an opportunity to maintain continuity in the trenches, Denver is typically going to make a bet on its own players. Through that lens, it’s easier to understand why the Broncos just handed big money to perhaps the most unheralded member of its offensive line.

“Part of playing the offensive line is that it’s the rarest position in sports because it’s five guys doing one job at the same time,” said McGlinchey, who added that Wattenberg had earned “every penny” of his new four-year, $48 million deal. “If one guy is off, the whole group is off. So that continuity and that pride of our group of playing together and seeing things as a full group and knowing how it all gets put together and pushing each other to get better is a huge blessing.”