Every year, there are playoff teams that fall and bottom dwellers that make a surprising run to the postseason.

Sometimes the malaise lasts — it did in Denver for nearly a decade after winning Super Bowl 50. Sometimes it doesn’t — would it surprise anybody if Kansas City and three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes were back in contention this fall?

Even in a sport where the wide-open on-field product is a feature rather than a bug, there are still power players and power centers.

As the NFL spring owners meetings in Phoenix wrapped up a couple of weeks ago with black SUVs idling to whisk multimillionaires and billionaires from the Arizona Biltmore to waiting jets, the Broncos had provided plenty of material to fill reporters’ notebooks.

On the field, Sean Payton and George Paton discussed the acquisition of Jaylen Waddle, the decision to move Jonah Elliss to inside linebacker, the upcoming draft and more.

Away from it, owner and ����apEO Greg Penner and president Damani Leech turned up the pressure on the club’s Burnham Yard stadium project, talked about their new, $175 million team headquarters nearing completion, the impact of hosting an AFC Championship Game and coming within four points of the Super Bowl and more.

Tangible stuff. Quite a bit of it.

Less obvious in some ways but just as palpable: The reality that, as they approach five years owning the Broncos, Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner are a growing power center in the NFL. Their stature is growing similarly in Denver and the state of Colorado, too.

Those points were driven home further on Friday when the couple, through their family entity Penner Sports Group, finalized the purchase of a 40% stake in the Colorado Rockies.

The Penners are not going anywhere with the Broncos and the NFL. They will not have day-to-day roles with the Rockies, sources told The Post, and they are plenty busy with football.

Not only are they waist-deep in the myriad, complex processes and business dealings that come with trying to build a new stadium and entertainment district — a project that, if everything progresses roughly along the team’s preferred timeline, will last another five-plus years — but they are set to move into their new HQ in June. They’ll be in the team’s draft room all three days, as they always are, later this month. They are overseeing projects like the team’s $8 million “All In. All Covered.” high school helmet program and other community initiatives. They’ll likely work out a contract extension with general manager George Paton in the coming months. On and on and on.

That����ap just the team. Between the pair, they also now serve on seven NFL ownership committees.

Carrie Walton-Penner: Health and safety, diversity and the NFL foundation.

Greg Penner: The powerful labor committee, compensation, ownership policy and finance.

Those committee assignments put Penner in the middle of the league figuring out whether and now how to invite private equity money into team ownership groups, determining compensation for commissioner Roger Goodell and, in the coming months and years, negotiating first with the NFL Referees Association on a new collective bargaining agreement and then with the NFL Players Association on the same. The biggest story at this year’s league meetings was about whether replacement referees will be needed this fall. As soon as next year, conversations about extending the NFL season to 18 games, growing the international slate, negotiations about player revenue shares and more will likely dominate the conversation.

Essentially, the Penners are in some way, shape or form involved in virtually every core issue the league will tackle in the short and intermediate future and probably the longer-range future as well.

Friday’s announcement about the Rockies stake changes nothing. It remains to be seen just how much their investment in Dick Monfort����ap team will be felt or seen immediately, though it very clearly puts the club in a much better cash position than it previously was.

It remains to be seen, too, to what degree the Rockies become part of the Penners’ overall influence and impact on Denver and Colorado sports. Perhaps it will be in the background for years and decades to come. Perhaps not.

What is clear this spring, though, is that they’ve gone from the new owners on the NFL block to among the league’s foremost figures in less than a half-decade. Ownership groups around the NFL have most certainly taken notice.

Along the way, the club has returned to prominence on the field and has planned a major facelift for part of central Denver.

In Phoenix recently and in the aftermath of Friday’s announcement, though, this all feels like it����ap still closer to the beginning than the pinnacle of the Penners’ influence in football and on the Front Range.

After months bandying about the term joker to describe his team’s need for a matchup-threat pass-catcher, Sean Payton sat with the media at the NFL owners’ meetings in Palm Beach, Florida, last year and confirmed Denver had gotten its guy. The Evan Engram signing was the Broncos’ chips-in move, and Payton told reporters that the Broncos had successfully convinced the tight end to sign in part because of that vision of his role: a chaos agent that could be shifted at will to take advantage of opposing defenses.

“Having had players like him,” Payton said then in Florida, “I’m excited.”

Engram’s potential supervillainy for opposing defenses, however, never quite reached its full potential. A year later, the Broncos have swung on another piece who can be a ceiling-raiser for Payton’s offense: receiver Jaylen Waddle, whose arrival has evidently excited Denver’s head coach so much that . After Engram played just 42% of Denver’s snaps last year, though, Payton will face months of questions on how he plans to utilize the speedy Waddle. Particularly considering the Broncos’ haul to trade for him and a fourth-rounder (sending their 2026 first-round and third-round pick to Miami).

That process will begin on Monday in Phoenix at this year’s league meetings, where the Broncos’ brass will gather for their most extensive media availability since the end-of-year press conferences in late January. General manager George Paton, owner Greg Penner and president Damani Leech are all slated to speak to reporters Monday, while Payton will talk at a coaches’ roundtable Tuesday morning.

It’ll be a chance to gather broad insights into how Denver’s decision-makers view the decisions that have shaped their offseason, as well as a host of key topics that’ll shape 2026 training camp and beyond. Here are 10 questions that bear answering in Arizona this coming week.

How do the Broncos plan to get the most out of Waddle?

Denver, again, does not have a first-round pick in 2026. The Waddle trade, by simple math, is contingent on the fact that he can provide more value across the next few seasons than a theoretical draftee at pick No. 30 could provide. That’s significant. Particularly since Payton organizations haven’t traded for a wide receiver since Bethel Johnson in 2006.

Waddle played 60% of his snaps from the slot as a rookie in 2021 for the Dolphins, but saw his usage there hover around 25% for the last four seasons under Mike McDaniel. It’ll be fascinating to see if Payton views Waddle more as an inside or outside threat, and how he can open defenses up for Courtland Sutton and the rest of Denver’s current WR corps.

So, uh, what did ‘opportunistically aggressive’ mean to you guys?

This Penner term, said in his postseason presser, . It was ridiculed as the Broncos sat pretty in free agency and signed back most of the pieces of their 2025 corps to short-term deals. It was then praised as the Broncos swung the blockbuster Waddle deal.

Denver’s free-agency approach, though, was interesting by all accounts — set strict market caps at running back and tight end, test the waters on a variety of pieces but never actually make an offer, and let John Franklin-Myers walk for a likely fourth-round compensation pick in 2027. Were the Broncos trying to preserve cap space in the years before an eventual Bo Nix extension? Is that fourth-round pick really that valuable? Was Payton really so focused on that he declined to gather any free-agency intel (mostly kidding)?

“Free agency was tough,” Payton told Kay Adams in that video.

Hmm.

Where does the timeline stand for the new stadium at Burnham Yard?

The Colorado Department of Transportation has officially set a price on the Burnham Yard sale to the Broncos — $45.8 million, a deal scheduled to be finalized May 15. The Broncos’ public messaging, however, is adamant that the area remains a “preferred site,” as the franchise has a variety of factors to iron out that are quietly making the planned 2031 stadium opening a bit tricky.

The Broncos are still working through negotiations with public utility Denver Water, which is eyeing Lot M of the current Empower Field site for part of its facility relocation — a move that could bring some city-planning issues. Broncos officials are also still working through negotiations with SRM Concrete, which owns a concrete plant and several pieces of land smack-dab in the middle of the proposed Burnham stadium area that total an appraised property value . And negotiations with the La Alma Lincoln Park neighborhood on a community-benefits agreement have yet to begin.

How’s Bo Nix?

Duh. Any news about Nix’s ankle rehab has been quiet since the Broncos quarterback took to the media to quell concerns about a preexisting ankle issue following some strange post-season messaging from Payton.

The only Nix update since then has come in early March, when he and wife Izzy announced the birth of their first child (and Izzy also took a picture of Nix walking out of the hospital without a boot). In the grand scheme of things, much more important than Nix’s ankle. But Nix also made clear that he’d be back for OTAs in May, an important step in his rehab. It’ll be important for the Broncos’ brass to note if he’s still on track there.

How do Payton and Paton view their needs now, after free agency?

This encompasses several key sub-questions. Are the Broncos comfortable with running back their J.K. Dobbins-RJ Harvey-Tyler Badie-Jaleel McLaughlin quadrant at running back? (Probably not, if pre-draft activity is any indication). Are they looking to move on from Engram, or trying to unlock him at tight end under new play-caller Davis Webb? Are they set with Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad as their starting ILB duo for 2026, and why did they cut Dre Greenlaw? Do they want to replace Franklin-Myers through the draft, the external market, or internal development?

Make no mistake, as healthy top-to-bottom as Denver is, there are still a few notable holes on this roster. This week should provide some strong hints at how the Broncos see their roster now.

The more eagle-eyed members of the Grading The Week team said the same thing many of you did when we saw some of the plans revealed by the Broncos at a community meeting Thursday night.

Parking at Burnham Yard — Incomplete

The Broncos aren’t just the state’s NFL team. They’re the region’s. The time zone’s. Folks drive in from Nebraska and Wyoming and New Mexico and Montana to watch Bo Nix do his magic tricks.

The GTW crew loves RTD as much as the next guy or gal, but let’s keep some common sense in mind here. It would be great to keep the tailgating scene in mind, too. — behind only the college-like scenes in Dallas (No. 1) and Buffalo (No. 2). And ahead of the more famous lots in Kansas City (No. 4).

All well and good on the regional front, you say, but Cubs fans don’t generally park around Wrigley Field, right? That’s true. But the football community, the football game-day experience, isn’t quite the same as a baseball one, is it? Over the course of the season, the Cubs might host four or five games in a given week. The Broncos probably won’t have more than three home games in any given month from August-January.

Every moment with the Orange and Blue feels like a rock concert — a communal, tribal thing that binds a city of different creeds, colors, and political persuasions. In one of the most polarizing eras in American history, the Broncos are one of the few things almost everybody along the Front Range can agree on. And they’ll almost all agree that it wouldn’t be the same without tailgating. Or the parking lots that make such a vibrant tailgating scene possible.

The Walton-Penner Group hasn’t really put a foot wrong since acquiring the team late in the summer of 2022. The new owners have pushed for facility and stadium upgrades on their dime, while continuing to respect the traditions fans have held dear for more than 65 years. They’ve recognized that the Broncos aren’t just their toy, or some property on a Monopoly board. That the franchise is a beloved civic heirloom, a pillar of Colorado pride and a bedrock of Denver culture.

Broncos president Damani Leech told reporters Thursday that the team controls about 7,000 parking spaces presently at Empower Field — and that he expects a similar amount of spaces at the new stadium site “eventually.” Won’t lie: The “eventually” part doesn’t exactly boost our tailgating hopes.

The common man and common fan are already going to be squeezed hard enough if Personal Seat Licenses, or PSLs, do indeed become a reality for ����apountry. Broncomaniacs make memories for life inside Empower Field. But they’ve made friends for life through portable grills, giant coolers, generators and truck beds that double as buffet tables. And Broncos game days aren’t truly Broncos game days without them.

DU men’s hoops surge — A-minus

Is there something in the water along Asbury Avenue? The DU Pioneers’ gymnastics team continues to set the pace for the region. And the men’s hoops team heads into Sunday’s visit to Omaha having won three straight conference games for the first time since February 2018. In a year where, among local squads, only CU women’s basketball has real hope for an at-large March Madness berth, the GTW bracketologists are looking forward to seeing the Pios and UNC make some noise at the Summit and Big Sky league tournaments, respectively.

La Alma Lincoln Park residents got their first taste of what’s to come at an open house in November. A community advisory committee for the city’s small area plan at Burnham has met three times since October and received proposed updates on pathways to the stadium site at a Jan. 21 meeting.

But La Alma Lincoln residents — and Denver residents at large — still have been trying to understand the actual size and community traffic to expect with the Broncos’ new stadium, as resident Felix Herzog told The Denver Post.

“The (community advisory) committee was fantastic at creating the language that defined equity and access to resources and what we want out of this entire project,” Herzog said. “What I haven’t seen yet so far is what the final design is going to look like.”

That final design is still a ways off. But on Thursday night, at a community information meeting hosted by the Broncos at the La Alma Recreation Center, a crowd received the most detail yet as to the scope of the franchise’s planned mixed-use development at Burnham.

In a presentation outlining the Broncos’ initial vision, Sasaki architect Josh Brooks — who’s leading design on the stadium’s development plan — told community members that the actual stadium area has expanded to 150 acres and said the stadium itself is positioned to the western edge of the region to ensure noise will be “as far away from (La Alma) community as possible.” An updated rendering presented to residents at the meeting outlined a potential tailgate area just south of the stadium, with a swath of surface parking slightly farther south below West Sixth Avenue.

Broncos president Damani Leech told reporters the actual stadium capacity is “still TBD” but said the organization is planning for “between 5 and 7 million square feet of development.”

“So hopefully, people feel good that it’s not going to be a bunch of skyscrapers right up against the residential neighborhood,” Leech said.

The Broncos also presented ideas on preliminary phasing for a mixed-use district around the new stadium at Burnham Yard, with plans for preliminary “open space,” entertainment-district buildings and temporary parking lots all to be in place by the stadium’s opening in 2031. Those parking areas, Brooks said, eventually could be built upon with other commercial buildings, similar to an underground garage.

Meeting organizers also polled the audience on a slew of questions related to stadium development, including preferred kinds of mixed-use structures inside the stadium district. Community members were also asked their primary concern around the Broncos’ new stadium: Attendees voted overwhelmingly for traffic congestion and impacts on property taxes for housing in the area.

“I have mixed feelings about this,” 49-year-old La Alma resident Christy Shinbara told The Post, “because we just don’t want any of our neighbors displaced. … A lot of them are scared about what’s going to happen to everybody.”

The poll results mirrored similar concerns discussed in the small area plan advisory committee’s previous meetings. Committee member Christina Eyre told The Post that the group had concerns over proposed designs presented in a Jan. 21 meeting for pedestrian crossings across the nearby RTD rail line at 10th Avenue, Ninth Avenue and Eighth Avenue, given the crossings’ immediate proximity to several homes in La Alma Lincoln Park.

As part of their presentation Thursday, the Broncos also are proposing to extend an RTD rail line through Burnham up and over West 13th Avenue, creating an underpass for cars and pedestrians to pass beneath.

“I think there’s a lot more work to be done on, actually, what that looks like and what the community wants,” said David Gaspers, a special projects supervisor in community planning and development with the city, speaking on access to Burnham. “At-grade crossings, especially with that many trains, is something that we need to think about thoroughly.”

Multiple members of the small area plan committee confirmed to The Post that the plan is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, as the Broncos work concurrently on a large development plan. The organization also presented an updated timeline Thursday, noting expectations for a community-benefits agreement to be completed early in 2027 and actual stadium construction to begin midway through the same year.

For now, community members still met Thursday’s slew of new information with equal doses of curiosity and skepticism. Herzog noted that planned construction on parking areas would put “a lot of stress on the community.” Others were more positive.

“It’s honestly exciting … if it goes the way they say,” Shinbara said. “It sounds like they have our best interests at heart.”

They’re already turning their attention to 2026 in many ways, though. That includes the opening of the club’s season ticket renewal window Thursday, which this year comes with an average 9% increase in the price of season tickets and a demand that only grew more intense through a 2025 season that came up one game short of the Super Bowl.

Denver has a 99% season-ticket renewal intent, senior vice president of strategy and business intelligence Jesse Nading told The Post, and its season-ticket wait list currently sits at 107,000.

On the secondary market, tickets sold for more than 50% above the season-ticket rate in 2025, a big jump over recent seasons.

All of those factors and more help the club arrive at a price point for season tickets each year.

“We try to be as consistent as possible in our approach,” Nading said. “We really try to make sure we’re taking a data-driven, market-based approach. Really the focus is to make sure the tickets are fairly and competitively priced on a year-in, year-out basis. For this year, that����ap going to be right around a 9% increase. That����ap right around the league average and well below playoff team averages.”

Nading said the club also “tries to balance affordability,” and noted that almost half general admission tickets in 2026 will be priced at less than $150 per seat.

“For us, we’re looking at trends around the league,” he added. “A lot of those different data points in addition to what is the renewal rate? What is the satisfaction? Are people happy and do they feel like they’re getting good value? What are the survey scores? All of those we look at to try to triangulate what is an appropriate amount for us to adjust prices in any one year.”

Fans in 2025 saw Sean Payton’s team go 8-1 at home in the regular season and host a pair of postseason games, including a 33-30 overtime win against Buffalo in the Divisional round and a 10-7 loss to New England in the AFC title game.

“You created the best homefield advantage in the NFL, fueling a league-high nine home wins, our first AFC West title in a decade and the return of the AFC Championship Game to Empower Field at Mile High,” Broncos president Damani Leech wrote in a letter sent to season ticket holders announcing the renewal window Thursday. “����apountry brought the Rocky Mountain Thunder, disrupting our opponents while standing with us for every snap, score and comeback.”

The secondary market is a key indicator on where demand for tickets is. Part of the driver in 2025 for the 50% difference was having high-profile visitors like Dallas and Green Bay, but the Broncos’ success makes a big difference and, Nading says, so, too does the game day experience at Empower Field.

“We look at all those factors and certainly there’s some fluctuation on a year-in, year-out basis but for us it����ap a really strong marker of the demand,” he said. “For us, we price season tickets once a year, but ultimately that resale market is a really good barometer for what the market����ap willingness to pay is for each ticket.

“It gives us a sense of the health of demand vs. where we’re pricing season tickets at.”

Nading noted recent surveys that ranked the Broncos No. 1 in overall game day experience and No. 2 in season-ticket holder satisfaction as reasons the club feels, “really good about the excitement around the team and the demand for tickets. We really look forward to continuing to have one of the best home-field advantages in all of sports. “

Denver will have eight home regular season games in 2026 plus two home preseason games. The Broncos’ home games in 2026 include their three AFC West opponents plus 2025 playoff teams in Buffalo, Jacksonville, Seattle and the Los Angeles Rams and also Miami and Arizona.

Wednesday evening’s event, at the La Alma Recreation Center just southwest of downtown, brought residents out to offer up ideas on what they want to see at the sprawling stadium site and surrounding mixed-use development that would be built just over the railroad tracks to the west.

“The concern that we have is the current residents who are here now — keeping it affordable for (them),” resident Misty Lubin-Salazar told Denver Mayor Mike Johnston during the event. Lubin-Salazar said she wanted some reassurance that she and her daughter, who slept soundly in her stroller nearby, would still be able to live in their neighborhood once the stadium development is complete.

Lubin-Salazar was among dozens of people who voiced their concerns and hopes for the project at the Wednesday evening event. Several people interviewed by The Denver Post, including Lubin-Salazar, seemed curious and open to hearing about how negative impacts could be mitigated — rather than firmly opposed to the project altogether.

Informational and interactive boards lined the gym walls in the rec center. Officials from the team and city stood at each one, giving brief presentations and answering questions. Attendees were given sticky notes to write out their ideas.

One station gave residents colorful stickers to place underneath a list of values — things like year-round community focus and celebrating history and culture — to indicate which ones they thought were most important.

After hearing representatives discussing issues like equity, transportation and affordability, Athmar Park resident Colleen Wallace said it seemed that the team was well aware of the potential concerns residents would have.

“I came out because I really wanted to see how the city and Broncos are engaging the community on this huge project,” she said. “I’m very impressed, honestly.”

The meeting was the first step in developing a , which will outline how the community wants to see the neighborhood grow and develop.

Burnham Yard is a long, narrow 58-acre site, and the team is also acquiring 25 acres from Denver Water’s campus and more private parcels that will bring the total footprint to more than 100 acres. Most of that is in La Alma Lincoln Park.

The first step in the process comes two and a half months after the team announced that Burnham Yard was its preferred location for the next stadium. The team’s lease at Empower Field at Mile High expires in early 2031.

Some used the event to offer their concerns about how the project could impact the surrounding area’s affordability, ease of transportation and community feel.

Bonnie and Douglas Marts, residents of the Golden Triangle neighborhood, said that even though they live a couple neighborhoods away from the site, they’re worried about the lack of planned parking.

“We live there and will have to monitor when events are happening, because you won’t be able to park on the street,” Bonnie said.

Team leaders have said there will be some on-site parking at the stadium, along with integrated parking options in the residential and commercial parts of the district.

The Broncos and Denver officials have said they plan to shift away from the model at Empower Field, which is surrounded by a massive parking lot, to instead create a mixed-use district with housing, shopping and restaurants. There is a light rail stop next to the site, and state officials also hope to someday have a Front Range Rail station nearby to bring in fans from other cities like Fort Collins and Pueblo.

The lack of major surface parking is exactly what other residents are excited about. Jared Morgan, 30, bought a home next to the site four years ago and said he’s looking forward to the stadium activating more of the neighborhood.

“What I was mainly concerned about is it just turning into a huge parking lot,” he said.

Earlier this month, the Broncos submitted a large-area redevelopment plan to the city, which included preliminary details about where the team’s future stadium and surrounding entertainment district will go. The plan included a map outlining the general locations for various parts of the development, along with potential new roadways.

The preliminary plan suggests the stadium will be directly east of a BNSF Railway freight line running through Burnham Yard, on the western portion of the railyard, and directly south of an extended West 11th Avenue and Denver Water’s headquarters.

Alex Parks, a Villa Park resident, said he hopes the project might offer a new way for bikers and pedestrians to safely cross I-25 into the central part of downtown.

Tsinni Russell, 31, said he hopes the project can be a boon for neighboring communities like Sun Valley across the river.

“It sucks that you need a white pony to get people to care about a part of the city that����ap full of brown people,” Russell said, referring to the Broncos mascot.

The mayor and Broncos president Damani Leech both attended the event and spoke with attendees.

“I love seeing the sticky notes on all the boards,” Leech told a Post reporter. “Some of the things, people are being really candid and honest about what they’re excited about, what they’re concerned about. That����ap what we’re hoping to get out of this.”

Johnston said he hopes the extended timeframe will allow people to get their questions answered and provide what they want to see happen in their community.

“What would be a win for us is people who have been here 80 years still feeling home here — and folks that just moved to Denver a year from now would also want to buy their first apartment here,” he said.

Two more community meetings are planned for the first half of 2026, according to a timeline posted at the event.

Other key steps, including an urban renewal plan, a development agreement, the large development review and a mobility study, will also begin this year. Negotiations over a community-benefits agreement also will begin soon.

The rezoning process for land in the area is set to begin next year, and construction is slated to begin in late 2027 and last through 2030.

Staff writer Parker Gabriel contributed to this story.

The Broncos are hosting a fan event at The Admiralty Club near Trafalgar Square on Saturday from 1-5 p.m. London time and a pub-to-pitch style parade beginning at 11 a.m. at The Antwerp Arms near Tottenham on Sunday.

The Broncos, of course, take on the New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Sunday and will try to run their winning streak to three after topping Philadelphia, 21-17.

“You make a trip like this overseas with a football-first mindset,” Broncos president Damani Leech told The Denver Post. “This is about the game and trying to get a win, but it����ap also an opportunity to connect with our existing fans and deepen our relationship with those fans. I found, last time we played there, not only are there Broncos fans from Colorado who made the trip, but there are Broncos fans from all across the U.S. and Canada who use it as an opportunity to go to a different away game site.

“Not to mention all the fans we have across the U.K., Ireland and across Europe. It����ap a great opportunity to deepen our relationship with those fans.”

The last time Denver played in London, Leech and the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group had been on the job for a little more than two months. Now they’re well-established and have a better sense of what ����apountry looks like in the U.K.

They’ve got more than 1,200 fans signed up for their pair of events.

“Last time we played there, I was just genuinely surprised,” Leech said of the number of Broncos fans.

Denver’s partner in the NFL’s global markets program is Mexico — there haven’t been games there the past couple of years as Estadio Azteca gets renovated ahead of the 2026 World Cup — but the Broncos, “recognize that we have fans there and fans will be traveling, so we do want to use this as an opportunity to deepen our relationship with them.”

In addition to the weekend fan events, the Broncos are also hosting a flag football clinic for about 60 middle schoolers at Grey Court School in London, which Leech called a “really special” event that will feature Broncos owner Carrie Walton-Penner.

“We’ll have Miles, alumni and cheer,” Leech said. “The school is part of the NFL’s flag football program, and the team that����ap participating plays as the Broncos, so there’s a nice connection there with that group. That’ll be fun.

“It����ap great from a community standpoint, it����ap great from a flag football standpoint. That sport alone is just growing. It����ap really important to the league as a strategic lever, and obviously, it����ap going to be in the Olympics in L.A. in 2028. So for all those reasons, it made sense for us.”

1. The Broncos defense did not have its finest day and could really have used ILB Dre Greenlaw

No two ways around it, this will go down as a bad day for defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and company.

The Colts threw it early, ran it late and racked up 473 total yards of offense in the process.

A week after Denver allowed 133 yards total to Tennessee, Indianapolis raced out to 162 in the first quarter alone.

It wasn’t all bad, of course. The Broncos stopped Indy twice on fourth down around midfield and they came up with four red zone stops, too.

The overarching issue: Indianapolis drove the ball into the red zone a half dozen times because Denver did little to slow down quarterback Daniel Jones (316 yards), running back Jonathan Taylor (215 total offensive yards), rookie tight end Tyler Warren (four catches for 79) and a fast, versatile set of receivers who gave the Broncos’ vaunted secondary a run for its money in man coverage.

Perhaps most concerning: Through two games, Denver’s defense looks susceptible to the same things it struggled with last year. Namely: Tight ends and running backs who can do damage in different ways.

Put another way: This would have been a really good week to have a healthy Dre Greenlaw (quad).

Perhaps Greenlaw will be back on the field for Week 3 against the Los Angeles Chargers. And perhaps he’ll stay healthy for a good, long run and will provide the kind of athletic presence the Broncos are currently missing in the middle of the field.

Until both of those things become a reality, though, Denver’s got warts it has to try to mask.

Taylor and Warren combined for three plays alone that accounted for 152 yards.

Taylor’s 68-yarder included some shoddy tackling and then his trademark breakaway speed, but the two big plays in the passing game are perhaps more indicative of Denver’s trouble spots.

Warren got open for a 41-yard completion early in the game when he ran up the field and split right between Denver’s linebacker pair of Justin Strnad and Alex Singleton. Both took steps forward like they were going to cover Taylor in the flat, and nobody bailed out to run with Warren. The No. 14 overall pick in April’s draft out of Penn State, Warren galloped free and easy through the secondary before finally getting pushed out of bounds. Indy settled for a field goal on that first-quarter drive.

Taylor hauled in a 43-yard wheel route from Jones in the second quarter in which he found himself wide open. Singleton was hauling out to the flat to try to provide coverage, but he got caught up in the wash of a crossing receiver and defensive back en route. Whether he’d have got there in time to make the play anyway is an open question, but regardless Taylor found himself all alone. Jones punched in a 1-yard touchdown to cap that drive.

Overall the Broncos’ defense gave up four plays of 40-plus yards, a bad mark in general.

The fact that three of them came from players who operate in the middle of the field — the territory the Broncos thought they were hardening when they added Greenlaw on a three-year deal (though it����ap really a one-year, $11.5 million commitment) can be seen two ways.

Perhaps it����ap a limited-time worry until the former San Francisco enforcer is patrolling the middle next to Singleton.

Or perhaps it����ap more of a wish than a plan that Greenlaw gets healthy and provides a solution to an issue that����ap no longer a new one for Joseph’s defense.

2. Outside of a dominant season-opener, this has become something dangerously resembling a trend for Joseph’s group

Points and yardage totals for the Broncos’ past seven regular-season and postseason games, not including a Week 18 outing against Kansas City’s scout team:

Dec. 2 vs. Cleveland: 32 points, 552 yards

Dec. 15 vs. Indy: 13 points, 310 yards

Dec. 19 at L.A. Chargers: 34 points, 380 yards

Dec. 28 at Cincinnati: 30 points, 499 yards

Jan. 12 at Buffalo: 31 points, 477 yards

Sept. 7 vs. Tennessee: 12 points, 133 yards

Sept. 14 at Indy: 29 points, 473 yards

There are caveats, of course. The games are across two seasons. They featured some different personnel and different game situations. The Bengals game featured more than 100 yards in overtime — which could have been avoided one way or another had the Broncos gone for two after a miraculous last-second touchdown. Opposing quarterbacks on the list include Josh Allen, Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert.

Nonetheless, here are the averages for those seven games: 25.9 points and 403.4 yards. Those marks in 2024 would have been 29th and 31st, respectively, in the NFL.

So much of success in the NFL defensively is about takeaways, third downs and the red zone. The Broncos have been good across the board in those departments, particularly the red zone. They’ve allowed two touchdowns in eight tries for opponents so far this year. Continued success there will keep Denver in a lot of games. At the same time, though, this group needs a couple of overall stingy outings to keep from consistently being on the high wire.

3. Two games in, Darren Rizzi’s special teams groups have a concerning level of critical mistakes

The Broncos’ special teams work so far under new coordinator Darren Rizzi has been a mixed bag at best.

In Week 1, Denver gave up a 71-yard kick return to Chimere Dike right before the half that allowed Tennessee to kick a field goal.

Sunday against the Colts, a 15-yard penalty on Dondrea Tillman turned a 60-yard prayer of a game-winner into a much more manageable 45-yarder, which Spencer Shrader made.

Even keeping Wil Lutz’s missed 42-yarder in the fourth quarter Sunday and Marvin Mims Jr.’s muffed punt in Week 1 out of the equation — no play is solely on one player, but Lutz said the operation Sunday was clean and Mims flat-out dropped a punt for the first time as a pro — that����ap too many high-profile errors.

Denver really only had one big gaffe last year — the blocked field goal against Kansas City — and it was a crusher. They had a systemic protection issue that finally got exposed, they fixed it and it wasn’t a problem again.

Still, Mike Westoff left the next week to address a health issue with his eyes and Ben Kotwica was fired after the season.

Rizzi, of course, has an impressive resume and a deep history with Payton.

For a team that prides itself on being superior in preparation and detailed work, though, the Tillman penalty is inexcusable.

Shrader, a 2024 undrafted free agent, entered Sunday 9 of 9 in his career but had never attempted a field goal longer than 48 yards in the NFL. That����ap not to say you shouldn’t put a rush on him at all. But drawing an over-aggressive, poor-technique personal foul on a 60-yard attempt for a guy trying a field goal 12 yards longer than any attempt in his career is akin to fouling a basketball player heaving a three-quarters court shot at the buzzer while trailing by two. If it goes in, you live with it.  But you absolutely cannot foul the guy.

Tillman explained that he was just attempting to do what he’d been coached to do on the play. When pressed about his specific role in the call sent in from the sideline, Tillman said, “Just try to make a play. That����ap really what it is at the end of the day.”

Tillman did put his left hand on the back of the Colts’ right guard as he leaped, though he didn’t do so with much force. Below, Eyioma Uwazurike’s arms got on the long-snapper’s back and appeared to push him down. That also can be a leverage penalty.

“You can’t do that to the long-snapper,” Payton said after the game, adding that his understanding before seeing the video was that the officials had called the penalty on Uwazurike. That����ap how referee Craig Wrolstad announced the call on the field before telling a pool reporter later the call was, in fact, on Tillman.

Either way, there were two instances squarely in the middle of a very low-probability kick that invited scrutiny. That����ap coaching and situational awareness.

The Broncos special teams units have improved in a couple of ways on the fly under Rizzi. They covered kicks much better Sunday — no touchbacks for Lutz on five kickoffs, and the Broncos netted 25 yards of field position compared to taking touchbacks. Not only that, but rookie punter Jeremy Crawshaw is off to a terrific start after an up-and-down preseason. His three punts Sunday pinned Indianapolis at its own 15, 7 and 8-yard lines, and all six of his punts so far have put the opponent inside the 20-yard line.

Overall, though, the Broncos’ special teams units have been a liability as often as an asset so far.

4. For a second week in a row, the coach on the opposing sideline provided a “WTH” moment. This time, the Broncos couldn’t capitalize.

Never go full Hackett. Among many more alluring goals in the head coaching business, that should be a minimum.

Shane Steichen on Sunday called a great game for the Colts offensively, but man, what on Earth was he thinking down the stretch?

As already established, he’s got a young kicker who’s never attempted a 50-yard field goal. On first-and-10 from the Denver 43-yard line with 1:44 to play, Steichen called three straight runs up the gut and burned the clock all the way down. The third-down run from Taylor lost two yards and turned a 58-yarder into a 60-yarder.

The kick, obviously, came up well short before the Broncos’ penalty. That, quite literally, is on par with Hackett opting to try a 64-yard field goal with Brandon McManus in Seattle in Week 1 of the 2022 season.

It came a week after, among other things, Tennessee coach Brian Callahan mismanaged the clock late in the first half and handed the Broncos a possession on which they promptly scored a touchdown. Later, he admitted he didn’t know that an elbow down inbounds counted as two feet and thus decided not to challenge a deep ball completion to Elic Ayomanor that likely would have been overturned to a catch.

Next up on the schedule: Jim Harbaugh. Betting he doesn’t make any egregious errors like those.

Among a lot of things the Broncos have control over in their own play, they’ll rue that they only took advantage of one instance of an opposing coach handing them a gift in a big spot in the first two weeks.

5.  Here’s one interesting note on the stadium announcement front from this past week.

Tuesday morning around 8 a.m., Broncos owners Greg Penner and Carrie Walton-Penner, president Damani Leech and a couple of others set up shop in a conference room in the team’s facility and started working through an extensive call list.

They called city council members, neighborhood group leaders, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, chamber of commerce types, officials from Lone Tree and Aurora and more.

The Penners have continued making calls in the days since the announcement as they set out into what is likely to be a year-plus of largely community and political conversations, processes and eventually city council votes.

“We’re going to be open and transparent about what we’re trying to do, and we want their input,” Greg Penner told The Post on Tuesday. “We think we’ve got some interesting ideas to think about with access in that area and improving, in conjunction with the city and state, roads and trail access, obviously there’s transit there. We think these conversations we’re going to have with these neighborhood groups, that they’ll end up looking at this as a real positive for their area.”

Irwin Kishner is the co-chair of the sports law group at Herrick Feinstein law firm in New York and has overseen more than a dozen stadium projects throughout his career. He told The Post in recent days that how ownership groups start off with local constituent groups can set the tone for the whole process and that getting off to a good start can be beneficial when the inevitable wrinkles, twists and turns in the process arrive.

“The local political machine needs to be on board with this in a very meaningful and committed way,” Kishner said. “If you don’t have that, that����ap when things get kind of wonky. If you do have that, things can go well. There’s always going to be lefts and rights and middle turns and so on and so forth as this process unfolds. You hit a dinosaur graveyard or something as you put shovels down or you notice some terrible pollution or whatever, there’s always something.”

6. The top of the Broncos’ WR room is pretty set, but it’s possible Pat Bryant is going to work his way more into the picture

Sean Payton came out of the season-opener with a couple of notes for himself regarding playing time.

Namely: He didn’t like the fact that rookie Pat Bryant got only four offensive snaps in the opener.

Bryant, the third-round pick, got more run Sunday and took advantage.

The 6-foot-2 receiver out of Illinois caught two of his three targets for 18 yards and generated first downs on each.

They both came in the middle of the field and the second was a hard-nosed catch in traffic to get just enough for a first-down on third-and-6.

Bryant told The Post during the week that he’d heard Payton talk about his playing time and appreciated the vote of confidence.

“It means a lot, honestly, knowing he’s got faith in me to be ready and that I can come into the game and contribute,” Bryant said. “But I wasn’t really stressin’ about it. First game of the season, I understand my role and they’re coming off last year and trying to get things straight — first game of the season, you’re trying to figure out your identity, who you are and trying to get the wrinkles out just a little bit.”

Veteran Trent Sherfield has taken Bryant under his wing and said recently he’s been imploring the young receiver to be ready to jump into the fray, even if playing time is scarce early in the season.

“When my time comes — and it����ap going to come — I’m not a guy who’s really going to pressure anybody into that,” Bryant said. “Whenever you feel like it����ap my time to go in, I’m going to go out there and take advantage of it. … God forbid somebody gets hurt, I’ve got to be ready to step up. That����ap how I approach it: Always have to be ready. So I’ve kept that mindset – studying the offense, keeping my head in the books and just waiting on my opportunities.”

Bryant was one of five pass-catchers with multiple receptions against Indianapolis. Conspicuously not on that list: Tight end Evan Engram (one catch for 12 yards) and receiver Courtland Sutton (one for 6).

7a. The Broncos got cooked by Daniel Jones in a way that very few quarterbacks have managed in the past two-plus seasons.

The Indianapolis quarterback averaged 12.4 yards per attempt in the first half and finished the game with 9.3. The Broncos not only haven’t been shredded like that often under Vance Joseph the past two seasons, but on the rare occasion it����ap happened the games have careened out of Denver’s reach. The only two times since the start of the 2023 season that the Broncos have allowed more than 10 yards per attempt over an entire game were the 70-20 debacle in Miami (13.4) and a 41-10 loss to Baltimore last fall (14.2). Instead of allowing that to continue after halftime Sunday, though, the Broncos limited Jones to 5.5  in the second half.

Still, 9.3 per attempt for Jones represents the fourth-most in a game against Denver since Joseph took over as coordinator.

7b. Runnin’ the dang ball still works. The Broncos kind of showed it. The Colts really showed it.

If you can run the ball, you’re likely to be in games. The Colts have proven better at running it against the Broncos the past two seasons than just about anybody. Indianapolis leaned on Taylor again Sunday and this time he didn’t fumble the game away at the goal line. Taylor rolled up 165 yards, the Indianapolis offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage for big swaths of the game and in the process the home team powered its way to 167 rushing yards Sunday against the Broncos.

The Broncos gave up 171 or more yards six times in the 2023 season but a year ago didn’t allow more than 149. That game? Indianapolis in Week 15 at Empower Field. That game would have felt much different had Taylor not let go of the ball at the goal line, leading to a turnover rather than a touchdown run. He was more sure-handed this time around, including on a 68-yard rumble that set up a Colts field goal in the fourth quarter.

7c. It����ap been an adventurous start to the season for running back J.K. Dobbins.

The back is a clear upgrade at the top of the Broncos’ room, but he’s had a couple of can’t-make-em mistakes, too. He had a miscommunication with Nix on what side to go to on Nix’s strip sack in the opener. Then Sunday, he got a delay-of-game penalty for spiking the ball and also wasn’t ready for a snap because he was pointing at the defense trying to implore the officials to call a neutral zone infraction. Both led to broken plays.

“It has to start with quarterback,” the Broncos head coach said when asked to outline why he’s taken such a bullish stance on this team. “It has to start with defense. It has to start with the offensive line. There are certain things that if they’re not on point, it����ap hard to make a statement like that. When you look at some of these critical factors, I told (the team) that, all of that just means you have a chance.”

He had one more factor in mind, too.

“I would say, most importantly, ownership,” Payton said.

That big of a role? How can that be?

“Because there are 20 (franchises) that each year have hopes and dreams and they’re dysfunctional at the top,” Payton said.

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Payton believes the on-field pieces are in place. Every contributor on the offensive and defensive lines — units he and general manager George Paton have each said graded out as the club’s best in 2024 — is back this season. Quarterback Bo Nix accounted for 34 touchdowns his rookie season and has the tools, according to his head coach, to eventually be among the league’s best.

As for the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group, evidence suggests they, too, are what the Broncos need.

Led by CEO Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner, they hired Payton and retained Paton, setting the table for the kind of stability and continuity the football side of the organization has lacked for years. They have made upgrades at Empower Field, are steaming through a $175 million-plus headquarters and training facility rebuild, have overseen six major contract extensions that came with more than $306 million guaranteed in the past 13 months, and are moving ever closer to deciding whether (and where) to build a new stadium.

But those are just the big-ticket items. The less visible ones include investing in player health and science, poaching new chief technology officer Daniel Brusilovsky from the , and making several other hires, tweaks and revamps.

“You feel like you’re never going to be short on resources, for sure,” tight end Adam Trautman told The Post. “They’re committed to building a winner. That started with bringing Coach Payton in, and it����ap continued with everything else they’ve done.

“Everybody looks at (the new facility) every day and basically thinks, ‘I hope I’m here for it.’ It says a lot about them and how much they care for us, and it, for lack of a better word, vibrates through the entire building every day.”

The Broncos' owners are seen as a growing power in the NFL. They are the wealthiest in the league, and they now have a foundation built and plan in place for helping elevate the franchise back into the realm of sports’ elite.

“I think one, setting the vision for the organization and being really clear about what it means when we say we want to be the best team in sports to play for, work for and cheer for,” team president Damani Leech told The Post recently. “And everything cascades down from there.

"What does that look like? That means having a great training facility, a great place for your staff to come work every day. It means having a great stadium for your fans to come and cheer at. And so, setting that vision has been really important, but also explaining and really reminding everybody every day what we mean when we say these things, and what it takes in order to do that.”

The new headquarters and training facility, set to be enclosed by November and ready for move-in by May, will be an upgrade over the current building. But just the construction site alone is a powerful symbol when the Broncos are recruiting free agents, assistant coaches or front office staffers.

“This is an attractive spot,” Payton said. “So you can win a lot of the jump balls if you’re competing against two different teams. I think ownership has a lot to do with that, stability has a lot to do with that.”

It certainly didn’t hurt when the Broncos were trying to win free agency battles for players like former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw and safety Talanoa Hufanga, or for Jaguars tight end Evan Engram.

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“Two years ago, you’re selling a vision," Payton said. "I can’t tell you what the new building’s going to look like two years ago, but I can tell you what it����ap going to look like now, and it����ap an easier sell when you kind of see it a little bit. It����ap that simple.”

It����ap a franchise with a lot of irons in the fire at this point.

They’ve got an ascending roster squarely in the prime window for building around Nix while he’s playing on his rookie contract.

They’ve got steady hands in Payton and Paton, even though both had to substantially replenish their staffs this winter after teams around the league came poaching.

They’ve got the headquarters opening in less than a year that will give the franchise a cutting-edge home.

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They will make a decision on the prospect of building a new stadium in the coming months.

“I don’t see how you wouldn’t want to be a part of this,” Trautman said. “Especially the guys that are fighting for roster spots, like, you’re hoping that you end up staying here. Because of how they take care of players. And the culture of guys is so awesome, too. We can joke around and everything, but we also take it seriously.

“It����ap pretty much the perfect balance of everything, and I don’t see why you’d want to play anywhere else.”

In a year, this $175 million project will be complete, and the new team headquarters the Broncos have touted since 2023 will be buzzing with the operations of a rising NFL franchise. For now, it is a hunk of wood and steel, hammers echoing across the grass at Broncos Park. But Payton still finds himself mesmerized on occasion. Then he’ll snap back to watching tape of a championship foundation he’s trying to construct himself.

In March, general manager George Paton put up an easel in his office . The idea: Let visiting free agents see what’s coming, in all its sandstone glory.

“I know they’re trying to leverage that,” team president Damani Leech told The Denver Post, “as much as possible.”

Come May 2026, the Broncos will finally see the finished jewel of the early Walton-Penner ownership era. It is on schedule, a remarkably quick undertaking from its announcement in November 2023. It is on budget, thanks in part to the cost maneuvering of senior VP of construction Amy Dee. And it is a short-term lift in league standing for a franchise that, as Payton said, has become an “attractive spot” for players and coaches alike.

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But this plan went far beyond Payton, Paton or any current era. Two years ago, when Leech and ownership first pitched a new facility to staff, they played a clip of an old piece that went inside the Broncos' current business headquarters, which opened in 1990. Late head coach Dan Reeves was in the video wearing a 1980s-era sweater. A voiceover lauded a state-of-the-art film room that, of course, used physical film.

The message was clear: The game and the league have evolved. And Leech, Dee, and ownership envisioned a facility that can itself evolve with NFL generations to come.

"How does a workplace -- and, or, football space to an extent — keep reinventing themselves? Because if you don’t, then it����ap just going to be stagnant," Dee told The Post.

"... We’re building something ... that����ap going to be, for decades, part of a changing organization.”

Leech knew Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner were "curious about" constructing a new team headquarters soon after he was named team president in August 2022. Research began from there, with Leech and constituents touring NFL facilities in Miami, Dallas and Minnesota, as well as newly-constructed NBA headquarters for the Golden State Warriors (opened in 2021) and San Antonio Spurs (2023).

In time, plans formed for a space that would consolidate business operations and football staff. Leech noted that 70 Broncos team employees are currently based at Empower Field, 20 miles north of Dove Valley, because space is too tight at the current headquarters. Players themselves have to walk across the parking lot from the weight room to the locker room, and across practice fields to the indoor facility.

One of design partner HOK's first steps, Leech said, was to measure the number of steps players needed to take to move between the three areas. They discovered "massive spikes" compared to a half-dozen other facilities across the league.

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“The biggest was, 'How do we create a space that has the most minimal player path of travel for our team?'" Leech said.

A small detail, it might seem. A large one, when added over the course of a season. And the Walton-Penner group has invested many millions of dollars in such small details since taking over the franchise.

"It����ap a great credit to Greg and Carrie and their vision," Payton said. "Not just short-term, but for years to come."

Dee was hired to oversee construction a few months after the project's announcement. The organization felt it needed an in-house captain after previously routing operations through an outside agency. Dee was immediately faced with a slew of budgetary questions.

She came from a job as the chief construction officer at Powder Mountain, a ski resort on top of a mountain in Utah. She expanded Netflix campuses into Europe and South America. This facility in Denver was far from her largest undertaking.

"I've built a lot of one-offs," Dee reflected. "And so, I do like building things that are very unique."

Dee's greatest impact has been to fine-tune project musts to stay under budget, even as new administration under President Donald Trump has enacted a range of tariffs on imported goods, . Dee hasn't hedged on preferred materials, but has had to change suppliers to maneuver around increased costs.

"I certainly don't have a budget for tariffs," Dee said. "Let's put it that way."

Overall, though, the Broncos are sourcing a "good percentage" of materials from Colorado-based distributors, Dee said. Ownership, Dee and Leech said, pushed for construction costs to contribute to the local economy.

"We want this to feel like it����ap of the place -- it����ap of here, when you walk in the building," Leech said. "It����ap not just, 'This is the Denver Broncos,' but this is also a building that����ap in Colorado."

Beyond that, Dee has also implemented a flexible interior design. Much of the facility will be built with modular walls and easily movable weight room equipment to make sure the foundation can last as long as possible.

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"Does the outside need to change? You kinda build that to where it����ap a classic style, it����ap very Colorado, it’ll live forever," Dee said. "But if we can change the inside, why wouldn’t you just keep using the same building, right? So, make it adaptable.”

On July 31, a day before the highest beam was placed on the facility, Penner and Walton Penner tightened up hard hats and climbed rung-over-rung roughly 20 stories up the crane. They strolled out on the catwalk of the counter boom, and Walton Penner snapped a picture of a lofty view. She texted it to Payton.

"I just said, 'No thank you,'" Payton grinned.

The future lay 200 feet below, a whole new world for Payton -- and years beyond.

Correction (10:32 a.m., Sept. 2, 2025): Due to a misinterpretation in an interview with Amy Dee, Broncos senior VP of construction, a quote that previously appeared in this story was misconstrued. That quote — "We're building a monument" — has since been removed.