Carolina. Minneapolis. Iowa. UCLA. Flights. Specialist after specialist, trying to race against his own symptoms.

“I’ve just tried to find the answer of, what����ap wrong with me, how to fix it?” Jewell said this week.

After a standout six-year Broncos career as an inside linebacker, Jewell signed a three-year deal with the Panthers in March 2024. In Week 16 against the Cardinals, he suffered a concussion. He never cleared protocol, and Carolina released him in July.

Jewell doesn’t want to specifically disclose what these past few months have brought. He doesn’t want to be pitied. But everything’s progressed “downward,” he said. And no treatment, no kind of rehab he’s tried, has worked.

“I’m not a quitter,” Jewell said. “And I’m going to keep on looking for the answer.”

The 31-year-old doesn’t like to talk about his problems. He prefers, instead, to talk about others’ successes. To this day, Jewell has remained active in a group chat with Broncos linebackers Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad. He has not told them about his symptoms. Instead, they sometimes send photo memories of the 2022 and ’23 days, three musketeers in a Denver locker room that was only just sowing seeds of greatness.

On off days, sometimes, they’d form a golf party with Courtland Sutton and Justin Simmons and hit greens around Denver. Sometimes Arrowhead Golf Course, in Littleton. Sometimes Sanctuary, in Douglas County. It was always a toss-up. Sutton was usually the most consistent. Simmons would get “pissed off” from slicing a drive somewhere foreign, Jewell chuckled.

The veteran has watched this current group most every Sunday, the men he knows well climbing to 14-3 and heights not reached in Denver since the Manning days. It brings elation. It also brings pain, sometimes.

In the three years since Broncos head coach Sean Payton arrived in Denver, he and general manager George Paton have filtered this roster at their respective whims to largely momentous results. Much of the heartbeat of Payton’s original roster in 2023 remains: nearly 60% of the initial 53-man group that season is still in Denver, as the No. 1-seeded Broncos head into the AFC playoffs.

Two heartbeats of that first-year Payton Era roster, though — two golf-squad mainstays — are now on the outside looking in. Jewell is trying to heal. Former All-Pro safety Simmons, meanwhile, has remained a free agent for the entirety of the 2025 season. Both still lament the missed opportunities in their respective tenures in Denver.

Both, still, are pulling for the locker room they once knew.

“You kinda wish you were there,” Jewell said. “You wish you were with the team. You’re like, ‘Ah, that looks like fun, man.’

“It����ap a little tough every once in a while,” he continued. “But at the same time, it’s rewarding.”

Simmons was a four-time All-Pro safety in Denver, a 2016 third-round pick who caught the tail end of Gary Kubiak’s tenure and the very beginning of Payton’s. He existed in purgatory, starring in the era between eras, playing under six different head coaches. In March 2024, the Broncos cut bait with one of their franchise stalwarts. They’ve ascended ever since.

Still, Simmons’s Twitter feed is stuffed full of . He has promoted this group at every turn, from appearances on DNVR to Kay Adams’ “Up and Adams.” His only regret, he told The Denver Post in December, was that he couldn’t get Denver back to the playoffs in his own eight-year tenure.

“Of course I’d love to be there like Courtland, like Garett (Bolles), to be able to celebrate them with me being in the postseason and being back to like, what we know the Denver Broncos are,” Simmons reflected, referring to these Broncos’ two-longest-tenured veterans.

“But,” he continued, “there’s no bitterness or hate or ill will towards anything or anyone in the organization. Like, I consider myself, and always will consider myself, a Bronco and a part of ����apountry. And I literally watch every single Sunday, Thursday, Monday, whatever it is, and I’m jumping out of my seat, excited for the guys.

“I can’t be more proud of the group and how they’ve rallied and how well they’re playing, and it just makes me so happy and so proud,” Simmons finished. “I just, like — I’m elated. I’m full of joy. And I’m so happy for the guys, man. And I just hope they continue to have the utmost success, because they’re great humans, they’re great people, and they’re tremendous football players. And I hope they keep grinding and rising to the top.”

Jewell sees it much the same, a fourth-round pick in 2018 who started next to Singleton for two years in Denver. Payton, Paton and the Broncos elected not to re-sign him when he became a free agent in 2024. And Jewell wishes, too, that he had more coaching consistency in his years in Denver.

“I loved Coach Payton … it would’ve been awesome to spend a little bit more time with him,” Jewell said.

Life has rolled several unforeseen developments his way, after that late-2024 hit. The good ol’ days have become good ol’ days quicker, perhaps, than Jewell intended. He misses it. He wants to be a part of it.

He still is, in a sense.

“I hope the guys,” Jewell said, “make it all the way.”

“I think it’s good, obviously, to get here, to understand what it’s like,” , affable to the last, told me in Buffalo last month, shortly after the Bills ran him and his mates out of Highmark Stadium in the AFC wild-card round.

“And then understand that all these teams are in the playoffs for a reason. You’ve got to be close to flawless to win these games.”

You’ve also got to have a tight end. like

Saquon Barkleys are . But if there’s one position on the field that has the most separation between the new-money Broncos and the Super Bowl LIX cage match between Kansas City and Philly right now … it’s tight end.

Because the good teams, by golly, don’t leave home without one. The Chiefs logged 15 receptions by tight ends that went for 20 yards or more during the regular season. The Eagles had 13. Buffalo totaled 12; Washington logged eight.

The Broncos managed three.

Trautman collected two such grabs; Lucas Krull, one. ����apountry salutes you, gentlemen. Even as it so badly needs to replace you.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes had Travis Kelce long before the Chiefs had Taylor Swift. His Eagles counterpart, Jalen Hurts, has 6-foot-5 Dallas Goedert, who in the NFC title game lit the Commanders up for 85 receiving yards on seven grabs and ran the ball twice for 13 more.

Imagine if Nix had one of those toys to play with, given the brush strokes he left between the hash marks as a rookie QB1. Imagine if Nix had Las Vegas’ Brock Bowers, a 6-4 sledgehammer who caught 112 balls for 1,194 yards and, more impressively, somehow made the Raiders occasionally watchable.

“He’s a true Joker tight end,” Broncos coach Sean Payton gushed of Bowers, a few months back, after the Broncos’ first win over the Silver and Black in Sin City. “And those are — listen, when you have them, there’s nothing better. Because it involves interior people, sometimes not exterior people.”

It involves doing unto others what others liked to do to the Broncos — and to Josey Jewell in particular. Namely, making a downhill defender have to turn on a dime and sprint uphill, backpedaling between wing and prayer.

All-world tailback Ashton Jeanty would look just as sweet in Broncos orange as he did in Boise blue. But if it’s me, and I get one big swing in the first round of the draft, I’m moving mountains for a franchise tight end to grow with Bo over the next decade. Penn State’s Tyler Warren looks like the second coming of Dallas Clark. Michigan’s Colston Loveland is 6-5 with and reportedly runs a 4.7 in the 40-yard dash.

Only loves Jokers as much as Payton. But those guys can be tweener tight ends, too. Right, Jimmy Graham?

“That was the first exposure at this level for me as head coach, where we had Tiki Barber when I was in the Giants. He was a Joker-type player,” Payton recalled last month. “Jeremy Shockey was a Joker-type player. Jason Witten was a Joker-type player early in his career. And so then pretty soon, you had Shockey, then Jimmy Graham, then Darren Sproles, then (Alvin) Kamara (in New Orleans).

“And I didn’t really appreciate it at the time, but in that stretch, we went through a stretch of 15 or 16 seasons with (a) real high-end offense. That maybe (we) didn’t have a receiver get to a Pro Bowl, but those other spots did. And I think in our league, when you look around and you reference, just take some of the top teams — you know, they’ll always remember Kelce with the Chiefs. I don’t know that you’ll remember the receivers, sometimes. …

“Do I think we have some candidates (internally)? Yeah. But that inner triangle of attacking a defense is real important.”

How important? The last nine Super Bowl champs have all featured a tight end who’d caught at least 45 passes during the regular season. The last 10 AFC champions all showcased at least one 45-catch tight end. Of the 10 Super Bowl matchups dating back to Broncos-Panthers, 17 of the 20 participating teams — 85% — brought at least one 45-catch tight end with them to the party.

“Yeah, possession kills,” Trautman noted.

You can platoon at tailback if push comes to shove. You can share the wealth, the load and glory. But like , tight end is a beast to fake. And a joy to cash.

Surtain was a full participant at practice this week after being sidelined due to a head injury, which he suffered in the first quarter of Week 6’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

Sitting at his locker on Friday, Surtain said this was the first time since high school that he suffered a concussion. Surtain added that he was in shock the moment the injury occurred, and felt slight pressure in his head. Once it was determined that he had a concussion, he did what was needed to get through the protocol process.

“I obviously had some slight symptoms, but I was pretty optimistic about playing this week,” he said.

Surtain’s absence in Denver’s 33-10 over the Saints marked his first time not playing since the end of his rookie season. He had played in 40 straight games before that. With Surtain watching the game at home, veteran Levi Wallace played at outside cornerback opposite Riley Moss while Ja’Quan McMillian manned the nickel spot.

The 24-year-old cornerback mentioned that if the game against New Orleans took place on Sunday instead of Thursday night, he still would’ve been ruled out.

“I think it would’ve been too close to call,” Surtain said. “I was still going through protocol (and) had to pass a few more tests.”

Even though Surtain has returned, the Broncos will most likely be without starting safety P.J. Locke, who was ruled doubtful to play after missing the last two days with a thumb injury.

With Locke expected to be sidelined, Devon Key will be in line to start alongside Brandon Jones. Key had a handful of first-team reps during training camp when Jones was out with a hamstring injury.

“(Key is) a very savvy player (and) understands the game,” Surtain said. “We all (have) trust in Key because he puts it out there every week. We’re very excited for him.”

In other injury news, second-year offensive tackle Alex Palczewski (ankle) is questionable to play after being limited throughout the week. Meanwhile, the Panthers will be without top wide receivers Diontae Johnson (ribs) and Adam Thielen (hamstring). Former Broncos inside linebacker Josey Jewell (hamstring/groin) is questionable to play.

Panthers second-year quarterback Bryce Young will likely start since Andy Dalton was ruled doubtful after spraining his thumb in a car accident.

The burgundy and blue opened a regular season 0-4 for the first time since 1998. So Team Grading The Week pegs the highlight of the midweek, given the worst opening salvo in a generation, actually stemming from a moment this past Wednesday in Chicago.

The moment? Lonzo Ball played.

Heck, Lonzo Ball didn’t just play. In the Bulls’ 125-123 preseason win over Minnesota, the Chicago point guard played 15 minutes, scored 10 points, made two treys and recorded an assist, a block and a steal.

If you’re an Avs fan or even a Denverite, why should you care?

Because it was the first time the Bulls guard had played in an NBA game — yeah, yeah, it was an exhibition, fine — in nearly 1,100 days.

More than that, he played OK.

And he played OK, and at pretty much close to full speed, on a knee with transplanted cartilage — a unique surgical procedure performed back in March 2023.

The same unique procedure, and the same type of cartilage replacement surgery, that Avs captain Gabe Landeskog had two months after Ball went under the knife.

That’s why.

Lonzo Ball’s return, if you’re an Avs fan — A

And the GTW kids know what you’re thinking: Surely, this means the captain should be back skating comfortably by late November or early December, right? Right? Give us something, here, hockey gods!

Well, yeah, not necessarily. Different sport. Different surface. Different rules. Let’s put it this way: If an opponent body-slams Ball into the nearest wall, that’s a fine and a suspension. If somebody tries that with Landy, it’s a Tuesday.

Pro hoops is a contact sport. Pro hockey is a collision sport. Everybody but the goalie’s a running back. Everybody but the goalie’s fair game.

So look on the bright side — there’s life after cartilage replacement, at least on the basketball side. It’s hard to preach patience while the Avs have been drowning on dry land, but sadly, at this point, it’s the best we can do.

Avs slow starts and panic sets in — D

OK, we lied. Let’s try to do one better. Hey, we know y’all remember the spring and summer of 2022 in Avsland. But remember the fall of 2021?

Colorado won its opener against the Blackhawks … then dropped three straight.

Over those three tilts, the Avalanche got outscored by a margin of 15-7. The sky was falling! Those Avs lost four of their first six, come to think of it.

You know the rest of the story.

Are we reaching here? Maybe. Although when you feel like crying, might as well yuk it up. Alexandar Georgiev from two Thursdays ago to last Thursday shaved his GAA from 7.50 to 5.79. At that clip, he’ll be pitching shutouts by Thanksgiving!

Travis Hunter’s other award chase — A

The most talented player in college football, CU’s Hunter, took another big step toward winning one of the sport’s major awards this week, despite missing half of last weekend’s loss vs. Kansas State because of an injury.

Heisman? He’ll get there. In the meantime, the cornerback/wide receiver out of Georgia was recently named as a quarterfinalist for the Lott IMPACT Trophy, which factors in off-field character as well as on-field excellence. The award, presented in honor of former NFL and USC great Ronnie Lott, is given annually, per its website, to the defensive player who shows “excellence in the field of athletics … college football’s Defensive Player of the Year who best exemplifies the IMPACT acronym: Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community and Tenacity.” Recent winners include J.J. Watt, Luke Keuchley, Jabrill Peppers and ex-Broncos LB Josey Jewell. Pretty fair company.

The Broncos defense let Vance Joseph down exactly a year ago this week, failing to communicate, tackle or provide effort in an embarrassing 70-20 loss to the Miami Dolphins that had some calling for his head.

Rather than point fingers at the players, Joseph looked in the mirror. This gets lost when explaining how the Broncos won five straight last season, and why they won last weekend.

Given every reason to go volcanic, Joseph remained calmer than a lagoon. His unwavering belief created trust. A year later, Joseph’s defense is the reason the Broncos are flirting with relevancy.

In a sport where head coaches and coordinators have egos bigger than the 11,000-acre Greenbrier Resort the Broncos currently call home, Joseph tucks his under his pillow like a mint.

“If you are going to be in this league for a long time as a coordinator you have to evolve. I hate saying I am a 3-4 guy or a 4-3 guy. I am a defensive coordinator,” Joseph said after a soggy practice beneath the Allegheny Mountains. “It����ap players first. It����ap what����ap in the building that allows you to have success, so my scheme always fits them. That����ap how you win — with players.”

The modesty is refreshing as it is rare. But let����ap not wait around for Miley Cyrus to give him his flowers. Joseph deserves them now, regardless of how this season plays out.

It����ap not like the Broncos’ went from Red Faces to the Orange Rush because of a free-agent windfall. They added complementary pieces in defensive end John Franklin-Myers, safety Brandon Jones and defensive lineman Malcolm Roach. They also cut Justin Simmons and made no attempt to keep linebacker Josey Jewell.

Yeah, it����ap about the players. And I thought the defense would be better against the run by beefing up around Zach Allen and D.J. Jones. And it is, allowing 126.0 yards per game compared to 177.7 at this time last season. But coaching matters. And few have had a better three weeks than Joseph — the same guy ����apountry despised as a head coach and wanted fired last September.

The statistics reveal a story Joseph refuses to tell. Multiple Broncos insisted this summer that this group would play faster and have a nasty disposition, that Joseph “would keep riding that wave we created last year,” explained D.J. Jones.

But it has gone well beyond that. They are attacking, playing downhill, fighting as if their opponents have hammerheads and razor-sharp teeth. The Broncos are rolling in the deep.

They ranked last in three critical categories after three games last season: net yards, yards per play and points per game. They rank third, third and sixth, respectively, this season. One of the hardest things to do in sports is have confidence without results. Joseph inspired the defenders last season when they were awful, and now they are in a tornadic feeding frenzy. They posted seven sacks against Tampa Bay.

“Confidence is one of the biggest things in this league. And once you see you can do it, it����ap a whole lot easier doing it again,” Franklin-Myers said. “The first win is always the hardest, the first tackle is the hardest, and the first sack is the hardest. After that, you realize this man puts his pants on like everybody else, so (bleep) strap it up and go.”

Nobody expects the Broncos to beat the heavily favored Jets on Sunday, though Sean Payton exacting revenge on Nathaniel Hackett would be delicious.

There is a path to an upset. It goes through VJ’s defense. The Jets offensive line is leaky, so if the Broncos can slow the running game, they can upend a one-dimensional opponent, even with Aaron Rodgers slinging it.

Why? Joseph is coaching with uncommon aggression. The Broncos’ 44.8% pressure rate ranks third overall and their 14 sacks are second. With three corners (Pat Surtain II, Riley Moss and Ja’Quan McMillian) providing coverage tighter than SaranWrap, the rush is getting home. And you also saw at Tampa Bay how much the edge players benefit from playing with a lead, forever a foreign concept in these parts.

“The pressure rate is just game planning, right? Sometimes you’re going to bring pressure. Sometimes you don’t. We’re a 3-4 front, so it can be a four-man rush that sometimes looks like a five-man rush and it����ap not really five. We have simulated pressure that looks like five and it����ap only four,” Joseph said. “It����ap just calling plays and having game plans to stop what they do best. That����ap our first order of business, and the game plan also helps our players to navigate their job.”

With all due respect to Bo Nix, if the Broncos overachieve this season it will be because of Joseph’s defense. He won’t say it, so I will.

It����ap not them, it����ap him.

What a difference a year makes

A look at how this year’s Broncos defense stacks up to last year’s through three weeks:

(Can’t see chart on mobile? Click here.)

Does projecting the Broncos to not be much over 5.5 wins show expertise? They won eight games last year with a sack-prone Russell Wilson and a lot of weaknesses. This year they not only have a much harder-to-sack QB and one who may prove to be among the best rookie QBs. They have a much-improved team. I am not a journalist, but I think the changes Payton has made warrant easily an 11-or-more-win season. We shall see, won’t we? Will a mea culpa be forthcoming if the Broncos exceed six or seven or even eight games?

— Stephen Leonard, Vidalia, Ga.

Hey Stephen, a perfectly fair question. You might be referencing my 6-11 pick in our preseason magazine or more generally the Vegas betting line of 5.5 wins for Denver on the season. And no, it doesn’t necessarily mean expertise. It����ap just based on what I’ve seen during training camp and also the schedule. What I’ve said all along — and what doesn’t get communicated in a simple record projection — is that I think this team has more upward mobility than last year’s. And that����ap largely because of Nix. If he goes out and plays at a high level from the jump or early in the season, then yeah, they have a great chance to surprise people.

But it’s fair to ask that we see more on that front before assuming it����ap going to happen.

More than that, though, the six-win projection is not just about Nix. A year ago Denver was the healthiest team in football. Most roster depth issues they had went mostly without consequence. If that happens again, great. Life in the NFL doesn’t usually work that way. An injury or two on the offensive line or at wide receiver, corner or tight end and the depth gets skimpy in a hurry.

Your “much-improved” claim could end up being right, too. They’re certainly improved personnel-wise on the defensive line, for example. Sean Payton likes this set of receivers better than the one he had last year. But is the safety room improved after losing Justin Simmons? Is getting rid of Jerry Jeudy a guaranteed improvement? Or replacing Josey Jewell with Cody Barton? It’s the same offensive line except Luke Wattenberg at center instead of Lloyd Cushenberry, who got $50 million this spring from Tennessee.

On the quarterback front, you’ll get no argument from me that Nix is a better fit than Russell Wilson was. And Wilson didn’t play at a consistently high-level last year. But he also wasn’t terrible. There’s no one single catch-all metric for quarterbacks, but let����ap take a cross-section: EPA per play (according to Sumer Sports): No. 19. Passer rating:  No. 8. QBR: No. 21. TDs: No. 9.

He took far too many sacks, but also only threw eight interceptions and logged 26 touchdown passes. He led an offense that wasn’t bad in most areas but was horrible in the low red zone.

It’s overly optimistic to just assume Nix is going to exceed Wilson’s performance across the board in Year 1. He could do it. It’s not impossible and it would certainly be a compelling story. But that outcome would be anomalous for a rookie taken sixth in his class, even one that����ap a really good fit long-term for the situation he landed in.

Best part about all of this: We’re all finally about to find out together over the next 18 weeks.

Of all of the major league sports, is NFL cutdown the lousiest time of the year for its players? And in all honesty, do the Broncos have enough talent to escape the AFC West basement? Better yet, where will they slot in the AFC West?

— Ed Helinski, Auburn, N.Y.

Yeah, I’m sure there are tough weeks in other sports, too, Ed, but the cutdown in the NFL is brutal. It����ap nearly 1,200 players losing their jobs in a very short amount of time. And the nature of the process is that most don’t get more than a quick meeting with the brass and a handshake. Of course, many do end up back on practice squads or get another chance at some point, but regardless, it����ap no fun for players and agents and it����ap not enjoyable for teams, either. But it����ap the way of the league.

Escape the basement? Perhaps. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Denver finish ahead of Las Vegas, though that����ap going to likely take ending the eight-game losing streak against the Raiders. The losing streak to Kansas City got all the attention, but it����ap incredible Denver has not beaten the Raiders since they moved to Vegas.

Put me down for another tie with Vegas this year in the divisional race. Co-dwellers.

Hi Parker, with the dust settled on the initial 53-man roster, what is the Broncos’ current cap space for the rest of the season? Is there enough room to sign Pat Surtain II to a contract extension? Thanks.

— Brandon, Rogers, Minn.

Great question, Brandon. Both and show the Broncos as being right up against the cap — think $1 million or less in space — as teams transition to the top-51 allocation for space.

That wouldn’t necessarily preclude them from getting an extension done with their star cornerback, though. Surtain’s cap number for this year is $6.67 million, of which $3.2 million is prorated bonus accounting and the rest is his salary and roster bonus. Denver might have to convert some other guaranteed money on its 2024 roster to bonus, but with a little bit of wiggle room could give Surtain a massive extension without his cap number this year rising too much from where it currently is.

Denver did a similar thing with Quinn Meinerz, who had his base salary for 2024 reduced to the minimum when he signed a four-year extension. That wasn’t a problem, naturally, because he’s getting paid a massive signing bonus as part of the new contract.

So it����ap still possible to get a deal done, but Denver doesn’t have a ton of extra room to operate.

Who’s the most surprising name to make the team? For my money, it’s Eyioma Uwazurike, mostly in that I did not expect him to be reinstated by the league.

— Mike, Denver

Yeah, Mike, fair point there. Once he got reinstated and showed even a hint of being back to form, though, he became necessary for Denver to protect on its 53-man roster. There just aren’t many guys Uwazurike’s size who can move.

As for most surprising, there were a couple of twists and turns down the stretch. Payton didn’t plan on losing Mike Burton and Lil’Jordan Humphrey even though they were released and said he asked for their trust in starting them on the practice squad. Damarri Mathis went on injured reserve as a result of the ankle injury he sustained in the final preseason game. So on and so forth.

For most surprising guy who made it, maybe Blake Watson. It����ap nothing against him, either. He just was hurt for some of the offseason program and got off to a slow start in camp. That����ap not a good recipe for making the team. But he came on strong even just in the final week and the Broncos clearly weren’t willing to risk trying to get him through waivers. Good on him. I also went into the final stretch of camp figuring Frank Crum might be a developmental player on the practice squad, but scarcity probably played a role there, too. Teams are scouring for tackles who can bend and move. He’s not a finished product by any means, but I thought they might try to sneak him through and protect Trey Jacobs. Instead, they protected Crum and lost Jacobs on waivers to New England. So maybe they were destined to lose one or the other. That����ap life with young tackles sometimes.

I have always maintained that games are won and lost in the trenches. The Broncos defensive line has clearly upgraded. In my estimation, the offensive line is still suspect, and very vulnerable should they experience injuries. The center spot is not strong; losing Lloyd Cushenberry hurt. Alex Forsyth (I know he is a backup) is simply not strong/powerful enough to hold up to the big D tackles. Mike McGlinchey is not as solid as hoped for when he signed as a free agent. Should any of these O-linemen get dinged, their backups represent a certain decline and vulnerability. Bo Nix absolutely needs solid O-line play to be successful. The play and health of this group will determine the success of this team.

— Kenny, Lake Oswego, Ore.

No argument here, Kenny. We’ll see how Luke Wattenberg fares at center early in the season. The Broncos knew McGlinchey was a better run blocker than pass protector when they gave him a five-year, $87.5 million deal last spring, but they could certainly use better protection this fall. Same goes for left guard Ben Powers.

The Broncos have four highly-paid guys up front. They have to drive the train. It����ap really that simple.

No nip or tuck revealed this more than releasing Tim Patrick. Few players have been more popular or respected in the locker room than the veteran receiver. And the Broncos absolutely made the right move by cutting him.

Sean Payton is as sentimental as a parking ticket. That is serving him well as he reshapes this roster around his type of players and younger players. Of the 53 left standing on Tuesday, only 19 remain from when Payton took over in February of 2023.

A foul roster has become speckled with foals. Finally, the Broncos are on the right track.

If you haven’t noticed, the previous eight years have — How do I put this? — not gone particularly well. There have been no playoff berths — only the New York Jets have a longer active postseason drought — and seven consecutive losing seasons. What they were doing wasn’t working.

Payton created accountability last season. And he put the Broncos in position to reach the postseason before the team fizzled against the Patriots, which featured underwhelming player performances and Payton clumsily managing the clock.

It spoke for the need to get more athletic, more in sync.

So, if this unannounced youth infusion came as a surprise, you are not paying close enough attention. This decision was made when the Broncos decided to eat $53 million of Russell Wilson’s $85 million in dead cap money this season.

Starting with the draft, most notably at quarterback, the Broncos have made a hard reset. No longer do they possess delusions of adequacy with mismatched parts. The time to shed veterans –– well the best time was after the 2017 season, but let����ap not digress — is now.

Thank goodness. Logic has prevailed.

You cannot always build a future for the youth, but a football team can build a future with its youth. Look across the position groups, and younger players won out consistently. I kid you not.

The reason Patrick was released? Rookie Devaughn Vele brings a similar skill set and can play special teams. He is Patrick, circa 2018.

Samaje Perine was cut because there is more upside with fifth-rounder Audric Estime, and the new dynamic kickoff means keeping an X-factor like Blake Watson.

When news became official that Patrick was gone, my wife asked, “Isn’t that age discrimination?” Not in professional sports. It����ap called athletic Darwinism or rebuilding. Take your pick. Either one works.

Payton is molding this team around core principles. Last year, the buzzwords were smart, tough and disciplined. This summer, they have been replaced by young, hungry and dangerous.

I am here for it.

On cut day last summer, the Broncos were the 24th-oldest team, averaging 26.2 years old. After Tuesday’s cut day, they rank 10th in average age at 25.76, per the Philly Voice.

Youth brings mistakes, hiccups and eye rolls. It also brings energy, enthusiasm and hope.

The most recent success of our professional teams traces to youth movements. The Avs leaned on Gabe Landeskog and crew. The Nuggets’ championship DNA formed around Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. And the Rockies turned Todd and the Toddlers into their first and only World Series berth.

How about Bo and the Booster Seats?

OK, it needs some more workshopping. You get the gist.

What the Broncos are doing is nuanced. Nix is the team’s only rookie set to start the season opener on Sept. 8. But the two-deep depth chart reveals how much younger the Broncos are trending, including two additions in edge rusher Jonah Elliss and inside linebacker Levelle Bailey, who play, according to general manager George Paton, “with their hair on fire.”

Some will argue that Patrick was necessary for Nix’s development. This is a fair point. But Courtland Sutton and Josh Reynolds can serve as his security blanket. And besides, it frees up reps for Vele and eventually Troy Franklin, both of whom figure to be around the next few years.

Fans would prefer Patrick stayed. Just as they wanted Josey Jewell, Justin Simmons and Jerry Jeudy — OK, probably not Jeudy — on the team. Patrick is set to join the Detroit Lions practice squad. He would have helped Denver, but not enough to move on from a younger player with positional versatility.

“It was obviously not an easy (decision). On behalf of everyone in the organization, we cannot say enough great things about the person and the player,” Paton said. “We wish him the very best. But we like our depth at receiver.”

This is how teams fast-track their development, even if it is foreign for Payton, who has traditionally counted on experience. Removing veterans prevents a coach from playing them. It gives those reps to players like cornerback Riley Moss, running back Jaleel McLaughlin and rotational defensive tackle Jordan Jackson.

But this process is nuanced.

The Broncos are integrating young players, not flooding the roster. That is why they resist the notion that they are rebooting. Nobody says it around headquarters. Not the owner, the coach or, on Tuesday, the GM.

“Our expectations haven’t changed,” Paton said. “We are all about winning.”

It hurts to see admired players like Patrick exit. But this is the way the Broncos can become the 2022 Lions or the 2024 Texans.

It is absolutely the right move to go younger because losing is getting really old.

He was a coach coming from a TV set. This year, he is a coach coming from the Saints. There is a clear difference. Last season, he was rusty. This year, he is in rhythm.

In 2023, he spent a lot of time marking his territory, acting grumpy. He was uncomfortable with quarterback Russell Wilson, and it bled into everything. He called a timeout that helped the Chiefs, misfired on a two-point conversion call vs. Washington, picked the wrong play on his sheet because of vision issues (he fixed those this offseason) and mismanaged the clock at the end of the Patriots game.

In 2024, he is still moody, but his energy and happiness remain impossible to miss. He has his quarterback, a player in Bo Nix who fits his scheme with this athleticism, processing and ability to throw on time and on target. He has better weapons, the signing of Josh Reynolds, return of Tim Patrick and emergence of Devaughn Vele justifying trading Jerry Jeudy. He has a more physical, aggressive defense, making it look like he was right to not bring back Josey Jewell or keep Justin Simmons.

And he loves his draft class. He has mentioned this group in the same breath as his 2017 draft with the Saints, which morphed into one of the most decorated classes in NFL history. Nix, edge rusher Jonah Elliss, cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine, running back Audric Estime and Vele are all potential starters in the next two seasons, and perhaps receiver Troy Franklin gains his footing.

It is August, the baseball equivalent of spring training. But there is hope based on the improved roster and coach.

Penalty Flag: When Darrell Doucette first said he would be a better quarterback for the 2028 U.S. Olympic flag football team than Patrick Mahomes, it was funny. When he said it again, he exposed his ignorance. Darrell thinking he would be better than Mahomes is like a slow-pitch softball player insisting he’s a better option than Aaron Judge. Enjoy your games, Darrell.  And if NFL players — any of them – decide to participate in flag football, enjoy watching the Olympics from the stands.

Hall Call: With the Pro Football Hall of Fame smartly separating the coaching and contributor categories — meaning one can go from each group now — it should help Mike Shanahan’s bid for Canton. There is no strong argument for keeping him out, given his two Super Bowl titles, offensive legacy and coaching tree.

Saturday fun day: College football returns on Saturday. Love watching it. The top game is Florida State vs. Georgia Tech in Ireland. Will the Seminoles begin a revenge tour after getting snubbed by the playoff committee last season? The most fascinating matchup? Hawaii hosting Delaware State. Now, that is a road trip. And of course it started with Delaware State missing its flight because of a shuttle delay.

Gabe in the woods: Avs captain Gabe Landeskog told fans during Wednesday’s Pro-Am round at Castle Pines that he will return this season. I believe him. But who will he return as? An impact player or a third-liner? So many questions, but impossible not to root for him.

Mail Time

Bo Nix is our best quarterback. It’s time for some winning football again and some great quarterback play.

Katalist Productions, via Twitter

����apountry deserves to enjoy this moment. After using 13 starting quarterbacks since Peyton Manning, the Broncos have finally married the coach to the player and the scheme. I am not sure what the ceiling is, but there is no reason this can’t work. Even if the Broncos go 6-11, the season will be successful if Nix shows he’s a future franchise quarterback.

Nix already fits this offense like it was designed with him in mind — spoiler alert, it was — but it will not matter if the Broncos are not stronger at the line of scrimmage.

Which brings me to today’s topic: nose tackle D.J. Jones.

He is big. He is strong. And he is capable of stopping someone from running faster than the Democratic Party. If not born, he was trained for this.

“I like putting my hands on somebody. Then their head goes back and I displace them from their position, and I hear the air go out of their body legally,” Jones told me recently. “I like that.”

This is why Jones is still on the team. He has the potential to wreck first and second downs.

Jones, 29, is in the final season of a three-year contract. There was speculation that the Broncos might move on from him as part of their reorganization/rebuilding/restructuring. They made no effort to keep veteran linebacker Josey Jewell, happily traded receiver Jerry Jeudy at his request and cut Pro Bowl safety Justin Simmons.

Jones remained. This was by design. He is a human detour.

Payton wants to win at the point of attack on both sides of the ball. He believes most games are decided there. The Broncos have shown this through their financial commitment to the offensive line — $126 million guaranteed to right tackle Mike McGlinchey, left guard Ben Powers and right guard Quinn Meinerz. And this offseason, they bolstered their defensive front, acquiring defensive end John Franklin-Myers and signing tackles Malcolm Roach and Angelo Blackson in free agency.

They brought in new players because the previous ones weren’t very good. Opponents shredded the Broncos for 137.1 rushing yards per game, ranking 30th in the NFL. It was a function of blending two schemes early in the season and too many missed tackles. Even when the Broncos won five straight games, amassing 16 takeaways, they allowed 134.6 yards on the ground and 5.1 yards per carry.

Improvement is not only necessary but demanded. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph has simplified the scheme and deployed his new weapons with uncommon aggression.

Lost in the Nix headlines this preseason, the Broncos defensive line is quietly posting encouraging numbers in the agate type. In the first half of two preseason games, with starters and rotational players logging snaps, Denver has allowed 63 yards on 27 carries. That is 2.3 yards per clip. The Broncos ranked worst in the league at 5.0 last season. Shaving that number to 4.3 will increase their chance of delivering a winning record almost as much as Payton microwaving Nix’s development.

Yes, fake games provide misleading numbers. But what about Friday against the Packers starters in a scrimmage? Josh Jacobs, late of the Raiders, has run through the Broncos like late-night Taco Bell the past five seasons. He was largely ineffective, finding few lanes.

This doesn’t mean everything. But it means something. Roach has talked about how Franklin-Myers is finding his fits inside. Zach Allen continues showing explosive bursts without the annoying double teams, finishing with two quarterback hits and a sack vs. Green Bay on Sunday. And in practice, Jones looks much more like the player he was in 2022, his last season as an elite run stuffer.

“A lot of it is want-to. Or having the attitude ‘I get to.’ I get to take on double teams. It is not the easiest thing,” Jones said. “But you know what you are doing is helping the team.”

For Jones, this group is conjuring memories of his time with the San Francisco 49ers. Truthfully, the Broncos do not have that kind of talent. But they are taking on that persona, playing with an edge and attitude so often missing as this team became a homecoming opponent in the first six weeks of last season.

“Turnovers will come with attacking. If I am standing here right now and I just jump on you, you would drop your phone. ‘Fumble!’” said Jones, who is considered a mild-mannered man off the field. “Attack is everything to me. It was what I was in San Fran. That����ap what got me paid. I think it will change a lot of people’s lives here.”

“It was all I was thinking about then. ‘Oh, my contract year, I am out of here.’ That����ap not what it����ap about. You have to stick to the details and your teammates,” Jones said. “That����ap what I plan on doing.”

The D-line is more sloppy than sexy. It certainly does not move the needle like Bo Nix. The Broncos’ improvement starts from the inside out. They are going to run the ball to ease the burden on Nix with play-action concepts and bootlegs. But the Broncos have become an afterthought in the AFC because of their inability to control the line of scrimmage.

Young and hungry is the catchy slogan for this team. Being mean and angry up front is equally important if the Broncos want to restore their glory.

“That����ap on the top of the list,” Jones said. “They haven’t really won around here since 2015. We made our run last year, but we have to start like that. Then I think we can finish that way. It����ap big for me to turn it around. It����ap what I want.”

I’d say the tires go flat about three blocks into

Funny. Come on, hear me out. Your QB1 is either ; , who picked up Wednesday right where he’d left off in June, ; or a first-round rookie.

The offense figures to be every bit as volatile as Sean Payton’s mood at news conferences. is setting up for more hairy twists and turns than in March. Buckle up.

“I loved how we began taking the ball away (last fall),” Payton said during Day 2 of what they’re calling “training camp acclimation” at Dove Valley. “I think it helped our team win. Quite honestly, that one statistic can really mask, if you will, some deficiencies.

“I don’t ever think we felt like we stopped the run well enough, as we had hoped. I think it’s gonna be important this year — just as I think it’s gonna be important that we improve on our running game. And I think that’s something we pointed out.”

Hey, other than that, no pressure, VJ. All you, baby!

If Payton’s half as smart as he keeps reminding us he is, he’ll double down on the basics this fall. Stuff that always travels well. Stuff that always will. Running the ball. Stopping the run. Defense. The eternal verities. Wanna get good? Get good at the boring stuff first.

“Kudos to them last year, just the way that they were able to overcome adversity early on in the season and ended up being one of the top-ranked defenses,” said earlier this week. “So now being a part of that, it’s something that … we’re able to grow on out of this year. And (we’re) definitely headed in the right direction.”

The headlines will be yapping about Bo vs. Sparky. The secret is taking as much off of their respective plates as conceivable, and doing it as early as possible.

Which brings us to VJ, the second-year defensive coordinator, the elephant in the room. Namely, how the Broncos gave up 25 points or more in seven of their 17 games last fall in Year 1 of Joseph’s second tour of duty in Denver.

There was a 70-burger in Miami, a 42-burger in Detroit, and a whole lot of takeaways in between. But as Payton himself pointed out, that last part probably isn’t sustainable, much less repeatable.

On paper, the Broncos are the anti-Buffs, the anti-Prime, in that the coaching staff should be better this fall while the talent — the proven talent, anyway — is trending down. With the former, landing former Broncos defensive back and Wisconsin DC/coach Jim Leonhard could be an absolute coup. It could also provide Payton with a quick-fire Plan B at defensive coordinator if this September starts to resemble 2023’s dumpster fire.

Although you can already hear Payton’s defense for that defense, can’t you? Joseph can only ride with the horses in his stable, and the Russell Wilson divorce helped push thoroughbreds such as safety Justin Simmons and inside linebacker Josey Jewell out the door.

Whatever you thought of Simmons as a tackler in open space, it’s still worth noting that over the eight games he missed over the previous two seasons, the Broncos gave up 30 points or more three times and 25 points per tilt.

Whatever you thought of Jewell as a pass defender, he missed just 13 tackles, per Pro-Football-Reference.com, over his final 29 appearances for the Broncos. Alex Singleton, the anchor linebacker who remains,

“I just think we’re just practicing faster,” Singleton noted on Wednesday. “I think we said it during the OTAs, but I think it’s the same thing. It’s just Year 2 with the same staff, and so it’s just going faster.”

You want to know what’s funny? Precedent actually likes VJ and continuity as a play-caller. At least in the short term.

For one thing, That’s followed by a roadie to the Chiefs (No. 10), but those are the only “name” toughies, on paper, until the Week 14 bye.

And recent history, what little there is, rests in VJ’s corner, in that this is only his second NFL stop in which he’ll get a Year 2 as defensive architect.

In Year 1 as a DC in Arizona, the Cardinals gave up 27.6 points per game, which ranked 28th in the league, and 2.38 points per drive, which ranked 30th.

The next fall, 2020, Joseph’s D had shaved enough off the opposition scoring average (22.9 per game) to jump to 12th in points allowed

“You can just really tell that guys are locked in and confident by … how vocal they are, how confident they are,” Jones observed, “and always ready for the next step.”

Who says familiarity breeds contempt? The rookies who “made it” at quarterback over their debut seasons recently all had one thing in common: The heavy lifting, by and large, was done by somebody else. Somebodies on defense, especially.

As rookies, C.J. Stroud (Houston, ’23), Brock Purdy (San Francisco, ’22) and Mac Jones (New England, ’21) played in 14 games in which their respective defense allowed 25 points or more. They went 3-11. When their opponents were held to 24 points or fewer? Said rookies went 30-7. Handing off is easy. Kneeling is fun.

Boring as heck. But fun.