The Denver Broncos ended their long playoff absence and found a quarterback to build around this season, even with an NFL record $91 million in dead cap charges. With more salary cap space in 2025, a strong team atmosphere with no “prima donnas” — as quarterback Bo Nix described — and a young roster that earned five All-Pro selections, the Broncos feel ready to challenge Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs for dominance in the AFC West.
“Absolutely, yeah, we could very easily have been 2-0 against the Chiefs this year and our absolute goal next year is to win our division,” team owner Greg Penner said during the Broncos’ end-of-season press conference.
The Chiefs (15-2) have dominated the division since 2016 and are aiming for their third consecutive Super Bowl title and their fourth Lombardi Trophy since Mahomes became their starter.
The Broncos (10-8) split their games with the Chiefs this season. They lost 16-14 in Week 10 after Kansas City blocked a last-second field goal but won 38-0 in Week 18 when the Chiefs played their backups, securing the Broncos’ first playoff appearance since 2015.
The Broncos’ loss to Buffalo last weekend ended hopes for a third game against the Chiefs, one the Broncos believed they had a good chance to win.
“We’re not looking backwards, we’re looking ahead,” head coach Sean Payton said. “And it starts with the division. There’s a lot of confidence in this team. If we could get past that game (at Buffalo), the next game we had to play (at Kansas City) we felt real good about.
And so we’re still not there yet — and yet we’re a lot closer than we were at this time a year ago. That was misery, sorrow, trudgery, give me some more adjectives there. That was brutal, I’ll say that.”
Mahomes is clearly in the Broncos’ sights as they reflect on their improved season and look toward 2025, when they will have only $32.25 million in dead cap charges, mostly from the remainder of Russell Wilson’s contract.
The Broncos plan to build around Nix and add players who align with the team’s chemistry, which thrived this season.
“I think Bo talking about no prima donnas is a great testament to what Sean is building here,” Penner said. “We want to be a winning culture, you’ve got to have really high expectations and everybody’s got to be in it together and I don’t think prima donnas would do real well right now here in this culture.
So, we’re going to continue to build this way. We want guys who are incredibly competitive and want to work and want to succeed.”
Payton had mixed feelings about the Broncos’ season, saying, “There were a lot of positives to build on and yet it’s still disappointing to finish the way we did,” referring to the 31-7 loss to the Bills and noting that the Broncos didn’t play up to their potential.
“I didn’t see a gap last weekend until the second half,” Payton said. “I felt real confident we could go in there, play well and win. We obviously didn’t play well enough. But those lines are much finer than we think. I use that term, there’s a fine line between a groove and a run. It’s a player. It’s two players. It’s the line of scrimmage. It’s the kicking game.”
General manager George Paton said the Broncos have only scratched the surface by ending their playoff drought.
“The beauty of going to the playoffs and seeing what it looks like is seeing how close we are, how far we are,” Paton said. “And that has to be our standard moving forward. We have to go to the playoffs. You’re going to play teams like the Bills, the Ravens, the Chiefs and so how do we get there? And so that’s really our goal this whole offseason is trying to find that secret sauce.”
Roster needs
The Broncos could improve by adding players at running back, tight end, and wide receiver to make a bigger jump in 2025. However, head coach Sean Payton said, “I’m not ready to give you our must-needs and wants.” He did mention that he prefers sharing running back duties between two players instead of three, as he did in 2025.
Healthy roster
After the 2022 season, when the Broncos missed 134 total games due to injuries, the team revamped their medical and strength training programs. For the second consecutive season, they’ve been one of the healthiest teams in the league.
“Now, your players are wanting to be here for the recovery,” Payton said. “They want to be here for the offseason, they want to be here lifting, they want to be here. They’re not all disappearing to the satellite private workout expert facilities that are supposedly (better).”
“They’re staying here and there’s more than a year of proof. There’s two years of proof. When you have 134 games missed because of injury, something’s wrong. And then when you have 30-something two years in a row, something’s right.”
