Good morning, Broncos Country. This weekend, a myriad of teams will be facing off against each other in epic gridiron battles for the 2026 NFL Wild Card Playoff round. And guess what? The Denver Broncos won\u2019t be amongst them\u2014given their tremendous 14-3 record and securing the #1 seed in the AFC playoff race.<\/p>\n
With it being a bye week for the Broncos, I thought talking about appreciative aspects of the season would be apt. A little bit of reflection for us as fans before the rubber meets the road in the Divisional Round next weekend. Here are just a few things I\u2019m appreciative of relative to the Broncos\u2019 2025 regular season endeavors.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m grateful for Vance Joseph and the defense<\/p>\n
Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph appears to be poised to secure one of the head coaching positions available this cycle. It seems like only yesterday the Miami Dolphins hung 70 on the Broncos. In turn, making them one of the laughing stocks of the National Football League.<\/p>\n
At that point in time, most all of Broncos Country was looking forward to seeing a different coach on their defensive side of the ball. Now, after having back-to-back Top 3 performances by their defense, there is a strong collective amongst fans that hope Joseph can stay on and continue to be the guiding force for the unit who may just be scratching the surface of their potential.<\/p>\n
If Joseph is hired away, we can only hope that whoever coaches the defense next can have comparable success to what we have seen under the guidance of Joseph the past two seasons. It may be wishful thinking, but the last time the Broncos had such a dominant defense they were able to secure the franchise\u2019s third Lombardi Trophy. Your mileage may vary, but I\u2019m a firm believer that this year\u2019s defense was the primary reason for the team\u2019s success thus far. 68 sacks\u2014another new franchise record\u2014impressive!<\/p>\n
And if they want to win it all, Joseph and the defense are going to have to put together some of their best performances to date. If they can continue to force turnovers they will have as good of shot as anyone in the postseason.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m deeply appreciative for strong leadership across the board in the organization<\/p>\n
Just a few seasons ago, most of us felt the franchise was on the brink of disaster. Dealing with multiple years of being short on picks in the draft and coupled with dead salary cap due to the failed Russell Wilson era, few could have envisioned the Broncos\u2019 quick turnaround with their on the field performance.<\/p>\n
But here we are. Back to the top of the AFC West and hosting our first playoff game in a decade. There is no doubting the new Walton-Penner Group ownership, the trading and hiring of Head Coach Sean Payton, as well as quality drafting by George Paton have played an integral role in Denver\u2019s newfound success.<\/p>\n
During John Elway\u2019s tenure as General Manager with only an \u2018ownership trust\u2019 to deal with, the Broncos experienced a lot of coaching and roster turnover. They were also terrible at drafting, developing, and retaining talented players. Now after ten years of struggling, it appears things have changed for the better and Denver is truly built to \u2018win now and from now on\u2019 as Elway had always wanted.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lot more fun to talk Broncos when the team is winning<\/p>\n
Over the years, it\u2019s been tough to write about the team constantly struggling. With the Broncos back to their winning ways, it has been a lot more fun to talk ball with all of you. That\u2019s also helped with producing better content as writers. I hope you all enjoyed what we set forth as a staff for you all this season.<\/p>\n
On the flip side, a great part of this serves as an appreciation for you loyal readers who have stuck with Mile High Report and the Broncos over the past ten years when things weren\u2019t going so hot. After Super Bowl 50, it certainly felt like we were wandering in the gridiron abyss with no sense of direction. Finally, we have something to be optimistic about and that\u2019s special. I\u2019ve really enjoyed this season to date.<\/p>\n
Nobody knows how the \u201826 postseason will pan out, but Denver is definitely setup with a multi-year window to be Super Bowl competitors. I\u2019d like to thank you for sticking with us and making Mile High Report your go-to source for things Broncos. Now let\u2019s get excited about what the Broncos can do the rest of the way out. Another trophy in the case would be a great kickoff to the new year.<\/p>\n
As always, thank you for reading. Here is today\u2019s slate of articles for Horse Tracks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning, Broncos Country. This weekend, a myriad of teams will be facing off against each other in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,231,258,1151,2426,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-663819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-broncos","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-denver-broncos","11":"tag-denver-broncos-news","12":"tag-denverbroncos","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115859639817061663","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}