Perhaps it����ap in the business offices on the third floor, with copious natural light, soaring, exposed wood beams and ceiling, a large outdoor patio overlooking the practice fields and even a golf simulator.

Or perhaps it����ap down on the players’ first floor, in the cavernous locker room, a weight room that will make leg day seem like a good idea or a state-of-the-art training and rehabilitation area that is filled with cutting-edge technology and design detail down to the exact size of the drawers.

All-Pro right guard Quinn Meinerz parked underground in the players’ lot for the first time and realized his truck wouldn’t be “150 degrees” after a long training camp day baking in the Front Range sun.

Then he walked into the building and, right through the doors, found paths to the locker room, weight room and cafeteria.

“In the previous building, the weight room, you have to walk,” he said. “It sounds so spoiled, but you have to walk a little bit to go to the weight room. Right now, the weight room is connected to the locker room pretty much, so everything is so close.

“Those little minutes of time do add up throughout the day, so it’ll be nice to just have a really good flow of traffic and everything.”

Somewhere along the way, it����ap natural to wonder: Is there such a thing as too nice?

Broncos owner and CEO Greg Penner has thought about that question and has at least one antidote.

“Well, I think you’ve met our head coach,” he said with a smile during a recent news conference in the atrium of the Broncos’ new building, which opened for business in July.

Sean Payton didn’t laugh when relayed the comment, but he made it clear that the new digs had been part of his opening message to the 2026 Broncos when they reported for training camp this summer.

His message: It����ap very possible to have a team that stinks residing in a building that shines.

“There have been a ton of new facilities with teams that have had success and a ton of new facilities with teams that haven’t,” Payton said. “I don’t think there’s any story or correlation. It����ap about the guys in the room, what we do on the field. If we’re not successful, it����ap going to be because we didn’t do a good enough job coaching, we didn’t execute well enough. It����ap not going to be because of the new digs. If we are successful, it����ap going to be because we did the stuff needed. It����ap not going to be because of the new digs.”

Building the best to be the best

That����ap mostly true. A new building can’t give Payton and offensive coordinator Davis Webb better ideas for third-and-short. It won’t make a game-saving tackle or force a fumble at a critical moment.

What the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group is betting on, though, is that over time the building will make a difference in football and business.

The bells and whistles are part of that equation, to be sure. Having the best in training and rehab tools won’t prevent all injuries, but if it prevents one or two per year, that����ap real, on-the-field value. If having nearly all business employees relocated from the stadium to the new HQ leads to better ideas, that����ap good for the bottom line, too.

“It����ap a testament to ownership, to Greg and Carrie, the investment they’ve made into football, football first, but also our business to bring nearly 100 business staff into the building to create culture, to design a building with football in mind,” president Damani Leech said. “The spaces are really well thought of. Very intentional layout. The player path of travel was really, really important.

“I love coming to work every day, and I think everybody else does too.”

But there’s another element, slightly less tangible, that might not be apparent on a quick tour of the building but undoubtedly can be felt by players and employees who show up to work there every day.

You’ve got the best of the best. No stone is left unturned.

Leech put it flat-out in early August: “There’s really nothing that we didn’t get. Nothing.”

The result: There is really no excuse for not performing.

“Any time we’re going to — whether it����ap this facility, a new stadium — we’re trying to raise the expectations,” Penner said. “And our expectation is that we want to win championships.

“We’re going to do everything it takes and provide the resources that are necessary to do it.”

What two mixed-use districts in Atlanta reveal about Broncos’ Burnham Yard plans

Now four years into owning the team, Penner and Carrie Walton-Penner increasingly see their vision coming to fruition. They’ve solidified the top of their football operation with coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton, extending each of their contracts this spring with deals of equal length. They’ve got a quarterback in place in Bo Nix. They’ve been to an AFC Championship Game. They’ve designed and built a new home base for the franchise and are in the process of attempting to do the same with a stadium and mixed-use district at Burnham Yard. They’ve overhauled the club’s foundation and community efforts.

The Penners had high expectations from the start in August 2022, to be sure. They showed they weren’t afraid of change when they fired Nathaniel Hackett after 15 games and took on a record $85 million in dead salary cap a year later by releasing Russell Wilson.

With each passing year and each additional project, though, the room for excuses dwindles further.

That doesn’t mean the Broncos must win Super Bowls every year or else. Penner said recently he’s wary of “binary answers” when it comes to what defines success in a particular season.

Still, at this point, the expectations set from the corner offices in the club’s new building are high. And they’re not coming down any time soon.

“I’m excited,” Penner said. “I feel like each season we come in and we’re more prepared and a better roster and a more complete coaching staff and all the pieces are there since the first season. That����ap how I feel about it now. We can’t wait to get out there. We have all the pieces, and we have the right culture.

“Again, we’re providing the right resources. You always need a little bit of luck. And you just have to go out and perform.”

Week 1 on a Monday won’t be unfamiliar to Broncos fans. But this year’s opener in Kansas City arrives under unusual circumstances. The 17-day gap between Denver’s third preseason game and the Sept. 14 contest in Kansas City is the longest duration between a preseason finale and a season opener in team history.

In response, coach Sean Payton has adjusted his team’s schedule. Under Payton, a Monday game week typically means the Broncos are off Tuesday and Wednesday, then practice on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. But Payton shifted the schedule slightly this week: Denver will practice Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday this week, with an added rest and recovery day for players on Friday. The team will fly to Kansas City on Sunday.

“Our work week is planned out accordingly because it����ap not the first game of the season mechanics that all of us have somewhat grown accustomed to, it����ap the first game being a Monday night game,” Payton said.

Payton, a detail aficionado, said he’s thought about how to craft the team’s schedule to prepare for Week 1. The Broncos are 3-0 on Monday Night Football and 10-2 when they have an extended week (more than six days between games) under Payton.

Most of the team’s starters will have gone more than three weeks without game action. Linebacker Alex Singleton said he’s tried to use the extra days between the end of the offseason and Week 1 to prepare for Kansas City.

Because the Chiefs are a divisional opponent, the game will be more chess than checkers, Singleton said. Coordinators could use the extra time to make slight tweaks to the game plan, while players could identify an opponent’s tendencies on tape, or a formation giveaway could emerge.

“What����ap exciting about this matchup is five years in a row we’re getting the same matchup,” Singleton said. “They know what we’re going to do. We know what they’re going to do. And so it����ap who is going to make those slight adjustments that they spent all offseason preparing for each other.”

Denver has also used the two weeks to prepare for the noise at Arrowhead Stadium. On Monday, Payton mentioned the crowd as one of the challenges of opening the season in Kansas City. Denver does have an experienced roster and ,perhaps most importantly for communication purposes in Week 1, returns all five starters on the offensive line

Meinerz said the Broncos’ non-verbal communication at the line of scrimmage will be key. He also said starting fast could help mitigate Arrowhead’s impact.

The Broncos have spent the past two weeks preparing for an abnormal season opener. Come Monday night, we’ll find out if the extra time was a hindrance or a help.

“You guys are really lucky to play for the Penners,” the former Broncos safety, enforcer for the Super Bowl 50 champions, told me recently. “You know your owners are personable when they come up (and say), ‘Here’s my email. If you need anything, hit us up.'”

So he did.

“I met them a few times, actually,” Ward said of Carrie Walton Penner and her husband, Greg Penner, the first family of ����apountry. “They were great. Great couple. Great family.”

And you wonder why we want them to buy the Rockies?

Happy Week 1, kids. The Broncos’ defense of the 2025 AFC West title begins next Monday night in Kansas City. Bo Nix looks fine. Davis Webb is calling plays without Sean Payton calling him names (so far).

Thanks to Jonah Coleman, the orange and blue suddenly has more good tailbacks than carries to feed them. The Sack Pack is back, Jack, even if John Franklin-Myers isn’t. It’s Super Bo or bust.

Lombardi Trophies are usually won from the top down. Smart owners set the bar, then leave the football people alone to try and clear the blasted thing.

Look closely at the last 10 Super Bowl winners. Judy Allen in Seattle. The Hunts in Kansas City. Jeffrey Lurie in Philadelphia. The Kroenkes in Los Angeles. The Glazers in Tampa. Robert Kraft in New England.

With the Penners, the Broncos aspire to have the best of everything — team offices, training facilities, stadium–  in order to be the best, every year. That stuff trickles down. It permeates.

“Oh, 1,000%,” ex-Broncos safety Justin Simmons noted by phone. “I came in, unfortunately, when Mr. B. (former Broncos owner Pat Bowlen) was declining in his health. But I could feel the family vibe. I felt included. I felt a sense of importance in 2016, and it wasn’t just because I was a draft pick.

“As the years went on and we were trying to figure out ownership, and all the things in between, it got messy at times. Some of those things got lost in the (ensuring years).”

Simmons, 32, retired this past spring after a nine-year NFL career, eight of which were spent with the Broncos (2016-2023). No. 31 was a darn good player, and an even better dude, stuck with trying to help carry some forgettable teams. During his Dove Valley tenure, Simmons was named an All-Pro four times and selected to the Pro Bowl twice. But until the Penners arrived in August 2022, what rested above him on the corporate chain of command, at times, really stunk.

The former Boston College star played for six different coaches, including interims, over his eight seasons here. What Simmons didn’t know when he was drafted in 2016 was that the Broncos were careening into The Wilderness Years. He didn’t know that winning a Super Bowl with an injured Peyton Manning and peak Von Miller in 2015-16 convinced management that anybody could quarterback the orange and blue as long as Miller and the No Fly Zone remained intact.

They were, to be kind, badly mistaken. A merry-go-round of “meh” signal-callers and blah coaches followed, and the Broncos averaged 9.9 losses per year during Simmons’ tenure with the franchise.

But No. 31 could also tell you exactly when that spinning slowed down and eventually came to a dead stop. Not long after the Walton-Penner Group purchased the Broncos four Augusts ago, the safety and Broncos punter Brandon McManus, two of the most tenured members of the locker room, were called into new CEO Penner’s office for a meeting.

“Hey, give me a rundown … you guys are longest-tenured players here,” Penner told Simmons and McManus in 2022. “Give me a list of things that people have complained about.'”

For starters? Small locker room. No family room. No individualized nutrition plans. No sauna.

“(Penner) said, ‘This is so helpful,’ didn’t give us any backlash,” Simmons recalled. “I’m super-appreciative of that conversation to this day.”

The proof is in the buildings. Broncos Park Powered by Common Spirit, the team’s brand-new HQ, features a state-of-the-art training room with pools, sleep pods, a hyperbaric chamber — and a sauna.

“In their first year, (the Walton-Penner Group) put in a whole new grass field at the end of the season, and we weren’t even in the playoffs,” Simmons marveled.

“You could just tell the type of people they were. You always see success as an organization, in my opinion, when you have people who lead like that.”

The best NFL franchises almost always are the ones that get it right at quarterback and at head coach first. But the perennial contenders are also the ones that don’t skimp on the margins. Or to accountability.

From 2018 through 2022, the Broncos were an NFL club locked in a contentious custody battle, rotting at the summit. The Battlin’ Bowlens, heirs to Mr. B., schemed and leveraged against one another as if tussling for

Meanwhile, The Bowlen Trust — a trio of former CEO Joe Ellis, team counsel Rich Silva and Denver attorney Mary Kelly — ran the Broncos like a committee of substitute teachers. Underwhelming signal-callers came, failed, and went. Uninspired coaching hires did the same.

Most ownership groups come in and take big swings. Great ownership groups are the ones that can course-correct swiftly, and efficiently, when those swings are obvious misses.

Bad NFL clubs — the Browns of now, the Bengals before Marvin Lewis showed up — are reluctant to move off of whiffs at coach and QB. Not here. Nathaniel Hackett and Russell Wilson quickly gave way to Sean Payton and Bo Nix, despite the costs.

“You see how some of these owners deal with their players,” Ward continued. “As commodities. Or capital. (With the Broncos), you have owners that treat you like people, are empathetic to what you’re going through — not only as a person, but maybe your family, all those type of things.

“Yeah, they want to win. Everybody wants to be successful. But there’s a certain way you treat your people, treat your employees. And I think that creates better business, at the end of the day, to get better players to want to come in and play for you.

“I grew up a Niners fan. And at the time (they were owned by) the DeBartolos, (and) they treated players completely different — and that’s why, at that time, they were winning. You start operating like that, providing the best resources for your players, the best training, the best facilities, travel — that stuff results in wins. If you try to shortcut everything and treat your players like items on the shelf, you’re not going to be very successful.”

Physically Unable to Perform list — OL Nick Gargiulo (knee).

Injured reserve — DL Matt Henningsen (Achilles)

Did not practice — WR Jaylen Waddle (muscle strain), WR Marvin Mims Jr., C Luke Wattenberg (shoulder), C Alex Forsyth, TE Caleb Lohner (foot/ankle), OLB Dasan McCullough

Left practice — RB J.K. Dobbins (soft tissue), WR Michael Bandy

Consider Sean Payton officially concerned about the Broncos’ injury situation.

Denver, through its first 11 days on the field, has only lost one player to what is known to be a serious injury — that was Matt Henningsen, who tore his Achilles on Friday — but several key players have missed time with soft-tissue injuries. Receiver Jaylen Waddle strained a muscle last week and hasn’t been back on the field since. Marvin Mims Jr. was in pads Monday after leaving practice Friday. That day, he pulled up while running a deep route and grabbed near his groin on the left side, hobbling off the field.

Then Monday, running back J.K. Dobbins jogged off the field midway through practice with training staff behind. Payton said Dobbins had a “soft tissue” injury.

That continues a trend Payton mentioned off the top Monday.

“We’ve got to get a handle on some of the soft-tissues,” he said. “We’ve had a couple either strains, hamstring or groins. We continue to fight through that.”

Payton said he didn’t think the uptick was due to the heat, but said, “you always try to look at your pre-practice routine. Your hydration, obviously. And it����ap incumbent on the player. It����ap hard for anyone to know your soft tissue. I’m always looking at maybe what we did leading up to the period when a guy had a strain.

Dobbins, of course, has not played a full season due to various injuries in his career, but earlier in training camp, he “pinky promised” he’d stay healthy this fall, play in all 17 regular-season games, and win the NFL’s rushing title.

Payton had the Broncos out for a long practice Monday and finished it not only with some conditioning work — that����ap not uncommon — but also with a “warm-down” period of stretching on the field. That was a first for this training camp for sure and perhaps the first time since Payton became the coach in Denver.

Payton often points out that the Broncos have been among the least-injured teams in the NFL during his tenure here.

“If we’re second in the NFL with fewest games missed, man, that’s extremely important,” Payton said in January after Denver’s season ended. “You guys saw in 2022 (under coach Nathaniel Hackett) where there’s over 125 player-games missed because of injury and no one played in the preseason. There weren’t ever pads on. We’re never doing that.”

Denver’s regular season doesn’t begin for five weeks, but Payton is clearly trying to send a message already.

Elsewhere on the injury front, Mims and center Luke Wattenberg were in pads but didn’t do anything after stretching. They’re each making progress toward full returns, though. ILB Jordan Turner came off the non-football injury list and practiced for the first time.

Bo Nix had a good sequence on a run-heavy day

The Broncos had multiple team periods of all running plays, but quarterback Bo Nix turned in a good sequence later in practice. After starting with an incompletion to Troy Franklin, Nix hit three straight for good gains. First was a quick throw to Pat Bryant for what looked like first-down yardage. Then Nix dropped a perfect back-shoulder throw on Courtland Sutton for about 30. Then he came back to Franklin over the middle for around 20.

Thumbs Up

Center of attention. Veteran Michael Deiter is usually an afterthought in conversations about Denver’s offensive line, but he stepped in and did double duty on Monday with both Wattenberg and Forsyth down.

Deiter took most of the top-unit reps at center and worked in with the second group, too. There are only so many 53-man roster spots if the offensive line group is healthy come September, but Wattenberg and Forsyth have both dealt with injuries in recent seasons. If Deiter’s a trusted third, he’ll probably at least have a standing offer on a practice squad spot.

Kickers are people, too. Wil Lutz had a gripe with reporters and a warranted one Monday. He stepped to the podium after practice and said, “I made a field goal from 73 yards the other day and none of you said a word. But Brandon Jones hits an extra point and my timeline is going off.” Fair point, Wil. It wasn’t easy to see the yardages Lutz was kicking off a stick from last week when he hit from 73, but it was clear he had the fans’ full attention and they were lavishing cheers on him as he kept moving further and further back. Lutz suggested a kicker appreciation day. Next time he hits from 73, it����ap his.

Thumbs Down

Not a day for the snappers. The Broncos had trouble with the snap on Monday. In more ways than one. First, undrafted rookie Gavin Ortega had trouble with some snaps to Jarrett Stidham. Ortega has been playing center in camp but got bumped up the depth chart Monday with both Wattenberg and Forsyth out. Then later in the session, undrafted rookie long snapper air-mailed holder Jeremy Crawshaw on a field goal attempt. Better a Monday camp practice than a regular-season game, but misfires like those aren’t going to help when it comes down to evaluating practice squad spots, position battles and more later in August.

Ball security is… The Broncos also got a look at some of their down-roster kick and punt returning options on Monday with Mims out and Bandy leaving midway through practice. Return ability is one of the key factors Denver used in identifying some of its undrafted wide receiver targets this spring. While Cam Ross has been consistent catching the ball both on offense and in the return game, Kolbe Katsis has struggled with punts and kicks. On Monday alone, he bobbled two.

Odds and Ends

* The Broncos had one of their longer practices of camp Monday, pushing right to 12:29 p.m. before the double horn blew at the end of the “warm down” stretching that closed the session. Payton missed most of Friday and all of Saturday’s practice, but Denver spent just about the maximum amount of time possible on the field for his return. Payton said the Broncos will have a normal camp practice on Tuesday and then spend most of Wednesday’s practice preparing for their preseason opener on Friday in Atlanta.

* Deiter, an eight-year NFL veteran who has played in 92 career games, not only served as Denver’s top center on Monday, but he played well in one-on-ones, too. Twice he was able to anchor against D.J. Jones and hold the rugged nose tackle at bay. Rookie Kage Casey had another good day in one-on-ones, too, and right tackle Mike McGlinchey had a good rep on Jonathon Cooper. Defensively, Zach Allen drew an obvious hold on Ben Powers and Jordan Jackson put a punishing bull-rush on Calvin Throckmorton.

* The Broncos’ run-heavy script on Monday meant a ton of work for RJ Harvey and Jonah Coleman. Coleman’s been more consistent than Harvey between the tackles, but Nix likes what he sees from Harvey so far this training camp, too.

“He’s done a great job of improving in the little things,” Nix said. “It����ap easy for a running back, once he gets the football, to go and be a playmaker. I think it����ap underrated what he does out of the backfield, in protection, in multiple different run looks. We’ve asked him to do a lot more this offseason and in this training camp, and he’s responded really well. You can tell he’s growing and learning more as time goes and it����ap not all new for him.”

* Nix had interesting insight into veteran tight end Evan Engram and what might unlock better production this fall. Engram caught 50 balls for 461 yards last year, but everybody involved finished the season feeling like he had something of an underwhelming first season in Denver. So far in training camp, Nix said, Engram’s been used somewhat differently to the pass-heavy splits in his playing time last fall.

“His ability to strengthen the run game is what����ap showing right now,” Nix said. “He’s a willing blocker. Last year we used him a little bit more as a vertical pass threat, but I think him getting in the box and blocking is going to open some more things up. That����ap a game-plan thing, that����ap a coaching thing to put him in that position. But I also think he’s willing and able and that����ap part of his game I think he’s really going to be able to show off this year and not have to be on and off the field. He’ll just be able to play, he and (Adam Trautman) will be able to roll and just be able to do anything we ask them to do from that position.”

Next: 10 a.m. Tuesday. Parking opens at 8 a.m. and gates at 9 a.m.

It might have been just a throwaway phrase in the middle of a longer answer, but it perked the ears nonetheless.

The Broncos head coach was asked Jan. 15 — a Thursday, Denver’s final full day on the practice field before hosting the Bills on Saturday afternoon — if the preparation process and the hunt for an ‘ah-ha’ moment or a slight advantage ramp up even further during the postseason.

Of course, he acknowledged it did. There is only so much time in a day and so much caffeine one can consume, he said.

Then a quick aside.

“I might have been a pain last night in the red-zone meeting,” he said, “And it might have went later. That����ap just part of the deal.”

It sounded at the time like an understatement. Probably a vast one.

That quote stuck around in my brain long after the Broncos bowed out in the AFC Championship Game, four points short of the Super Bowl without quarterback Bo Nix.

It popped up when Payton fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and receivers coach Keary Colbert. Again, when Payton made Davis Webb his offensive coordinator and play-caller.

And again earlier this week while reading after being embedded with Payton and the Broncos for their postseason run.

The story is filled with all manner of details, from game planning notes to personnel decisions to a so-aggressive-as-to-be-reckless fourth-and-11 fake punt call against the Bills that Broncos players waved off on the field to Payton’s inner struggles and far beyond.

One of the overarching themes that stuck out: Working in the same building as Payton, let alone holding a place on his coaching staff, is not for the faint of heart.

That sentiment in and of itself isn’t new information.

Payton is notoriously intense. He calls himself “borderline maniacal” about details, and he means every detail about everything. Receiver splits, quarterback footwork, yeah, but also room temperatures, rental bus companies, gum flavors and hotel bedsheet thread counts.

Offensive lineman Terron Armstead said on his podcast last year that Payton reached out to him about coaching in Denver when he retires. Armstead’s reaction: “I said, Sean, I appreciate you, but no. I’m not doing it. Especially not with him because his hours is… no. Not for me.”

Still, there was something striking about Wickersham describing Broncos offensive assistants preparing their in-office cots before heading to hours-long meetings with Payton that stretch into the wee hours of the morning. About Payton barking to coaches turning away to yawn and rub their eyes at 1 a.m., “”If you want to leave, go ahead! It’s only the championship game!” and then carrying on until 2:30 a.m.

At one point during the postseason, I asked a Broncos offensive assistant casually how much sleep he’d gotten the night before. The answer: “90 minutes.”

In conversations with almost every offensive assistant who has coached for Payton in Denver and then left — some on their own volition for better postings, some fired — nearly all express some form of two seemingly competing feelings that they can easily justify as coexistent: A genuine admiration for the way Payton runs a franchise and gratitude for the impact he has on careers and also a sense of relief to not be working for him anymore.

In Baltimore alone, there are four former Broncos offensive assistants — Ravens OC Declan Doyle and tight ends coach Zack Grossi left Denver on their own, while Colbert (WR coach) and Lombardi (senior offensive assistant) were fired after this past season. Imagine the stories that come up when they’re together in the office or kicking around before practice.

Not everybody in the NFL operates this way. Just this week, Super Bowl champion Seattle coach Mike Macdonald told Dan Patrick, “If I’m making decisions after 9 p.m., we’re in trouble.” Even within the Broncos building, Vance Joseph’s defensive staff meetings certainly don’t typically carry on well after midnight.

"If I'm making decisions after 9pm, we're in trouble."

–  HC Mike Macdonald on his work/life balance.

— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow)

So why does Payton — a staunch believer in and practitioner of sleep science as it pertains to his players, particularly regarding travel, rest, recovery, and rehab — push his offensive coaches in this way?

“I don’t know any other way to operate,” he told Wickersham.

It’s worked so far in Denver, just as Macdonald’s approach has worked in Seattle. A common denominator: Both men believe in their ways and are likely rigorous about them.

When Nathaniel Hackett was hired in Denver in 2022, he talked about work-life balance and the sacrosanctity of family night on Friday evenings. By October, when the season started to go off the rails, his assistants talked about not having started their cars for a week and sleeping in the office. That’s flailing.

Still, it’s worth wondering whether Payton’s mode will change at all this season with Webb taking over as the primary playcaller. A 31-year-old steeped in three years of Payton but also having played much closer to the new-school era, it����ap hard to imagine Webb’s ideal meeting end time is 2 a.m. But while play-calling duties may be his, the team is Payton’s. The staff, ultimately, is Payton’s. The head coach may not be on the headset to quarterback Bo Nix every play, but it’d be a shock if he wasn’t burning candles and midnight oil looking for last-minute ways to crack his old secondary coach Jim Leonhard’s coverage schemes in the nights leading up to a Christmas Day tilt against Buffalo this winter.

The entire Wickersham story is promoted as an inside look at the Broncos’ quest for a Super Bowl, and it is thoroughly that. Even more pointed, though, it����ap a Payton character study done in a way that would be impossible but for the access Wickersham was granted. It����ap well worth the considerable time it’ll take to read for Broncos fans and anybody else.

Except for Denver’s offensive assistants. They already lived it once and they should instead get some sleep. Training camp starts in a couple of weeks.

Only 11 quarterbacks have thrown for more touchdowns. Only 13 QBs have averaged a better yards per pass attempt in their careers. Only 14 other players have completed more passes. Only 15 other signal-callers have thrown for more yards.

He tossed 353 TDs over his career. His touchdown-to-pick ratio was 3.1-to-1. He averaged 29 passing scores, nine interceptions, and 10 wins per season. He’s the only QB in NFL annals to amass both 40,000 passing yards and 5,000 rushing yards in the same career. He was 121-80-1 as a starter. He won a Super Bowl and was a horrible goal-line call away from winning a second.

If you take the name off the back of the jersey, and just look at the stats, that’s a Hall-of-Fame career, isn’t it? Those are the kind of career numbers you’d hope Bo Nix would aspire to. 

Alas, that resume comes with a name. And a reputation. And a pile of pure cheeseball high enough to climb Mount Elbert.

The subject of Russell Wilson — his career, his legacy — is, no shock, a bit of a mixed bag within the Grading The Week offices. But when we were forced to reckon with No. 3 one more time after he announced a few days ago his was transitioning from the NFL to an analyst job at CBS Sports, the football wonks decided on the following:

Despite a miserable two seasons in Denver that were the beginning of the end of a good career, it was, on the whole, a very good career. A Hall-of-Fame career. The GTW crew is cool with Russ getting his ticket punched to Canton one day. Just don’t force us to have to listen to his induction speech. Please.

Russell Wilson in Canton — B

When the Broncos sold the farm to acquire Wilson from Seattle in 2022, the idea was that, at age 33, Big Russ had enough juice left from a pretty glorious Seahawks decade to author the kind of dreamy coda Peyton Manning authored at Dove Valley a decade earlier.

Instead, what unfolded was a chain of nightmares. Wilson was a step or two slower than the guy who won rings with the Legion of Boom, and that step or two proved immense for a guy who loved to hang onto the ball too long. With Wilson’s quick-twitch fading, the sack count piled up. He never saw a throw in the middle of the field he liked, largely because he never looked in the middle of the field to begin with. Pairing that with a first-time, pleasant, but in-over-his-head head coach in Nathaniel Hackett turned into dark comedy, with fans at Empower Field having to count the play clock down, out loud, back at Russ to get him to get the ball snapped in time.

The pre-snap operations were far cleaner with Sean Payton in charge, but Wilson’s decision-making and sack-taking drove his notoriously fickle coach up a wall. Payton and Wilson were too set in their ways to co-exist. The Broncos chose to eat $85 million in dead-cap penalties just to flush Wilson out of their system — but cold turkey, in hindsight, proved to be the perfect dish. Without Russ crashing so quickly, so spectacularly, the Broncos wouldn’t have had to turn to Nix, nor revamp the locker room with so many young players all at once.

Denver launched Wilson’s NFL death spiral, but don’t let that entirely discount the 10 seasons that preceded it — Seattle Russ was 104-53-1 as a starter in the Northwest, made it to nine Pro Bowls, and led the Seahawks on eight playoff runs. Only eight other QBs have ever led more game-winning drives over a career than Wilson’s 40, which is the same career comeback number as John Elway’s. The more you forget about what Russ did in orange and blue, the better. For everybody.

Russell Wilson on TV — D

That said, the GTW kids would be pleasantly surprised if the notoriously pleasant, bland, inoffensive Russ is anything but terrible television.

Oh, he’ll look good. Dang good. He’ll be cool as heck. But one of the central tenets of an analyst position is sharing an actual, from-the-heart opinion, the occasional hot take. For DangeRuss, that might be too hot to handle.

And if Thursday night on social media was any indication, ����apountry has indigestion.

At age 62 and a first-time grandpa, Sean Payton operates on the premise that everything that demands attention does not deserve attention. But even he must take notice of the Broncos’ buzzsaw of an opening schedule.

Who did Payton (bleep) off in the league office now?

In the first six weeks, the Broncos host five playoff teams from a year ago. The one that did not qualify? The Kansas City Chiefs. And Denver gets them on the road on Monday night to open the season.

How is that for a punch in the eyeballs?

In Payton’s first three seasons, the Broncos never faced more than two previous postseason qualifiers in the first six weeks, and played six total. They went 2-4 in those games.

Payton might as well puff on a Sherlock Holmes pipe, given how much he loves all the smoke. But this is a bit much.

It looks like the NFL put out a fraud alert on the Broncos, and wants to find out if 2025 really happened. You know the 14 wins, the AFC’s No. 1 seed, the ending of the Chiefs’ nine-year stranglehold on the division?

It is unfair. And it is perfect.

Payton never has feelings of inadequacy or insecurity. Give him a test, make him an underdog and he rallies players around the cause like Mel Gibson in “Braveheart.”

Remember the Chiefs’ game last season without J.K. Dobbins and Patrick Surtain? Or the smothering win at Tampa Bay in 2024 after an 0-2 start?

The Broncos’ first goal is to win the AFC West. That guarantees a home playoff game. Staying tethered early represents the biggest challenge to a second straight division crown, along with surviving the final three weeks against the Bills, Patriots and Chargers.

There is a strong chance that the Broncos will be better and win fewer games. You probably know this if you have gone through the schedule game by game and realized they face 10 playoff teams in 2025.

Thank goodness for the Jets, who have the league’s longest playoff drought, the Cardinals, who hired Nathaniel Hackett to run their offense, and the Dolphins, whose roster suggests they are not even trying.

By the morning of Oct. 16, we will know whether the Broncos are legit. That is the day after facing the defending champion Seattle Seahawks at home on Thursday night, one of five standalone games. If they navigate at the Chiefs, Jaguars, Rams, at the 49ers, at the Chargers and Seattle with a 3-3 record or better, they will be poised to reach the Super Bowl.

Anything less will be alarming and likely feature questions about Payton’s next contract and quarterback Bo Nix’s health.

So, let’s borrow Nathan MacKinnon’s goggles, flippers and snorkel and dive in:

Week 1 at Chiefs

San Jose Jazz Summer Fest annoyance index on scale 1-10: 7. The Broncos would have preferred this game at home. The Chiefs are 8-2 in their last 10 openers at Arrowhead Stadium, and it likely marks the return of Patrick Mahomes. But the future Hall of Famer is coming off ACL surgery, might lack mobility, and has a receiving corps that frightens nobody. Steal this game, and the Broncos will have a card up their sleeve all season.

Week 2 vs. Jaguars

Jazz Fest annoyance index: 6. The “smaller market” Jaguars delivered a big punch to the Broncos’ gut last season, snapping their 12-game home winning streak. Denver fears no one. But facing the Jaguars after the Chiefs and before the Rams is nasty business. Trevor Lawrence is willing to take sacks to make big plays. This needs to be the game the Broncos show how takeaways have become a top priority.

Week 3 vs Rams

Jazz Fest annoyance index: 3. Sean McVay is who Sean Payton used to be. The wunderkind continues pursuing a second Super Bowl title. Payton, who is close friends with the Rams coach, was 46 when he won his ring. He hasn’t been back since. McVay claimed his at age 36. He boasts the reigning MVP in Matthew Stafford and weapons that conjure images of the Broncos with Peyton Manning. This could be the day where we find out if Davis Webb is really calling plays or the offensive coordinator in name only.

Week 4 at San Francisco

Jazz Fest annoyance index: 8. The music has died. But the Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon takes over the streets, including a 5K and KIDS ROCK event on Saturday. If vice president of operations Chip Conway, a tireless worker in a thankless job, books the wrong hotel, he will likely be forced to run back to Denver. The good news? The 49ers are aging like Nick Nolte, making this a very winnable game.

Week 5 at Los Angeles Chargers

Jazz Fest annoyance ranking: 4. Forget the glitz. Los Angeles is a business trip. Jim Harbaugh has given the Chargers a jolt, but this isn’t exactly like playing Pete Carroll’s 2004 USC Trojans at the Coliseum. The problem with the Chargers in this spot is the physical games leading up to it. The Chargers want a rock fight. The Broncos’ ability to pull off the upset will depend on limiting penalties and multiple big strikes from Justin Herbert, who figures to improve under former Smoky Hill grad Mike McDaniels.

Week 6 vs. Seattle Seahawks

Jazz Fest annoyance index: 6. By my math, the Broncos are facing the league’s best two teams back-to-back. It was for games like these that Denver acquired Jaylen Waddle. You have to be able to keep up with the Rams, and deliver a few gash plays through the air (looking at you Waddle) and on the ground (hello, J.K. Dobbins) to stiff arm the Seahawks’ pass rush.

It definitely feels like something is up with this schedule set up. It is tilted with heavyweight matchups. And September has not been their friend. Payton is 4-7 in the first month as the Broncos coach.

If they can hold serve through mid-October, the next eight weeks offer a runway for a long winning streak or a 6-2 stretch.

The schedule matters more to teams with poor coaches and bad quarterbacks. That is no longer the case with the Broncos. They are equipped to get in the ring or an octagon.

But even for those who believe orange sunsets are an ode to the Broncos must acknowledge the challenge ahead. Those opening six games are straight out of the SEC. In all, they play six teams projected to win 10 games.

The Broncos will return to the playoffs. Mother Nature helped knock them out last year. The challenge this season will be avoiding a haymaker from September and October.

They are the hunted. The reigning AFC West division champions and last year’s No. 1 seed in the conference.

They carry heavy expectations after coming just one win short of the Super Bowl.

They also already know they will play a rugged schedule, though the sequencing will not be fully unveiled until 6 p.m. Thursday.

What fun is waiting, though?

We know the opponents and the locations. We know how the story begins now that ESPN has announced the Broncos will open the season at Kansas City on Monday Night Football, a Sept. 14 capper to Week 1 in the NFL.

We don’t know the rest, but we are here to guess. It����ap time for The Post����ap most meaningless time-honored tradition where Broncos beat reporters Parker Gabriel and Luca Evans guess the schedule.

It says here that Gabriel nailed the Week 16-18 stretch last year of vs. Jacksonville, at Kansas City and vs. the L.A. Chargers — though the Chiefs date was announced ahead of time.

Good luck getting anything right beyond the opener this year, let alone three in a row.

Gabriel’s schedule prediction

Week 1: at Kansas City (Monday Night Football)

Mark it down. One for one. ESPN will hit a home run with this one as long as Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes is on the field after tearing his ACL and LCL in December. If not, it����ap a mega advantage for the Broncos.

Week 2: vs. Miami

We know this game won’t be Buffalo (opening its new stadium Thursday night of Week 2) or the Chiefs. So, guessing should be easy, right? Well, not so much. Non-division home game feels right after the Broncos open on the road against K.C. The Jaylen Waddle Bowl arrives early.

Week 3: vs. Las Vegas

This would represent a chance for a hot start. The Broncos have to take advantage, given their overall rugged schedule.

Week 4: at New England (Sunday Night Football)

The rematch of the AFC Championship game arrives early and in prime time. Bo Nix and Drake Maye were in the same draft class, are friends and hung out at The Masters together this spring. Now they get their first matchup.

Week 5: at Carolina

The NFL gives head coach Sean Payton what he wants, putting two of Denver’s four East Coast road games back-to-back. Now the only question: A week at The Greenbrier in West Virginia, or somewhere else? Just a free thought, Sean: How about IMG Academy on Florida’s Gulf Coast, instead?

Week 6: L.A. Rams (Thursday Night Football)

A short week into a matchup between Sean Payton and Sean McVay. It would be almost a shame to get a matchup this good on Thursday night, but, hey. Dollars for the billionaires.

Week 7: at Arizona

Week 8: Buffalo

A midseason rematch of January’s AFC Divisional round classic. This time, if things are going well for the Broncos, there is no lurking ankle issue for Nix.

Week 9: at San Francisco

Week 10: Bye

Week 11: at Las Vegas

Week 12: at L.A. Chargers (Black Friday)

The Broncos, somehow, someway, are going to end up part of the NFL’s holiday scheduling. It feels inevitable. So, why not try something novel and slot them at SoFi — home of a Valentine’s Day Super Bowl, come to think of it — on Black Friday.

Week 13: Seattle (Sunday Night Football)

What a year for the AFC West and NFC West to square off. The reigning Super Bowl champs come to town in early December for what should be a terrific matchup. And a big, ol’ what-if for ����apountry given how close Denver was last year.

Week 14: at New York Jets

Week 15: Jacksonville

Big matchup, small market.

Week 16: L.A. Chargers

Week 17: at Pittsburgh

The final of four East Coast road games for Denver and one with potential postseason implications — especially if Aaron Rodgers A) actually signs with the Steelers as expected and B) is still upright as we ring in 2027.

Week 18: Kansas City

Why not? The Chiefs get the opener and the Broncos get the closer. Let this happen and let it be heads up for the division. Please and thank you.

Evans’ schedule prediction

Week 1: at Kansas City Chiefs (Monday Night Football)

Starting off with a bang. This one was cemented on Tuesday, and on the surface, kicking off the season at Arrowhead sounds less-than-ideal. But Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes is still somewhat up in the air for the start of the season after a late-season ACL tear in 2025, giving Denver a chance to see Mahomes with some rust and avoid this matchup later in the year.

Week 2: Miami Dolphins

The Jaylen Waddle revenge game. Is it revenge if Miami’s entire regime is different, with new head coach Jeff Hafley and new general manager Jon Eric-Sullivan? Not really. Still, an exciting early-season matchup with some extra motivation for the Broncos’ newest offensive weapon.

Week 3: at Carolina Panthers

Week 4: at Pittsburgh Steelers

Let����ap just copy-paste the 2024 East Coast trip here for funsies, when the Broncos just stayed on the other side of the country in between a Week 3 trip to Tampa Bay and a Week 4 trip to New York. That was this Broncos’ regime’s first introduction to Sean Payton’s beloved Greenbrier Resort, and the schedule could align again to give this Denver team another week of practicing and bonding up in West Virginia. The Greenbrier lies almost exactly in the middle between Charlotte and Pittsburgh. It����ap too perfect not to happen.

Week 5: Bye

Yes, this is early in the year. But Denver has learned its lesson from last season, when the Broncos didn’t call for a bye after an early-season gauntlet: a Week 5 trip to Philadelphia, an immediate trip to London to play the Jets, and no bye before a trip home to play the Giants. The Broncos started off brutally sluggish in that famous Week 7 game, before exploding for a franchise-record 33 fourth-quarter points. Here, they target an off week after the East Coast trip.

Week 6: Jacksonville Jaguars

Hop right out of a bye and right into a brutal matchup. Jacksonville played Denver as well as any team in the regular season last year, and snapped an 11-game win streak with a 34-20 win over the Broncos in December 2025.

Week 7: at Arizona Cardinals

A midseason reunion with Nathaniel Hackett, now Arizona’s offensive coordinator.

Week 8: Buffalo Bills (Sunday Night Football)

Of course, the league will want to platform the rematch of one of last year’s great playoff duels between Bo Nix and Josh Allen. How about a little late-October primetime action? This matchup becomes even more juicy in 2026, with former Broncos defensive staffer Jim Leonhard now in Buffalo as the Bills’ defensive coordinator and dueling with new Broncos play-caller Davis Webb, a former Bills backup quarterback.

Week 9: at New York Jets

Week 10: at San Francisco 49ers (Sunday Night Football)

This intra-conference clash seems primed for primetime treatment — and not on a Thursday night, when a short week of practice could stunt the potential offensive chess match between Sean Payton and Kyle Shanahan.

Week 11: Los Angeles Chargers

Week 12: Seattle Seahawks (Thanksgiving, Thursday Night Football)

Let����ap set up a sheer defensive slugfest on a holiday. No way either Denver’s or Seattle’s offenses are at full operating power here. That’ll set the stage for the No. 1 defense in 2025 (Seahawks) and No. 3 defense to muck it up.

Week 13: at Las Vegas Raiders

Week 14: Kansas City Chiefs

Back-to-back AFC West slate here, as the divisional standings get tight late in the season. The Chiefs’ home matchup later in the year is considerably more favorable than a November or December trip to Arrowhead.

Week 15: Los Angeles Rams

Week 16: at Los Angeles Chargers

Back-to-back Los Angeles matchups, in two different settings. Rams-Broncos should be a dynamic showcase of offensive weaponry, and this Chargers Week 16 showcase could shift the entire tide on divisional standings.

Week 17: at New England (Christmas)

The NFL will want this AFC Championship rematch on the grandest stage possible. What better than Christmas? Nix and Drake Maye finally square off in a matchup that could have massive conference-seeding implications, and could feature a blizzard in Foxborough instead of a blizzard in Denver this time around.

Week 18: Las Vegas Raiders

Safety Justin Simmons, who spent all but one of his active seasons with Denver, announced his retirement Wednesday at the age of 32. He did so as a Bronco, where he spent the better part of a decade building a legacy as a fan favorite on the field and a model in the community.

Simmons’ announcement came 10 years to the day after Denver drafted him.

“My time in Denver literally shaped me into the man that I am,” Simmons said in a retirement announcement video shared by the team. “To the best fans in the world and ����apountry, thank you so much for all your support both for myself and for my family.”

Simmons was selected in the third round of the 2016 draft by the Broncos and played eight years in blue and orange, earning a pair of Pro Bowl nods and making second-team All-Pro four times. He blossomed into one of the best safeties in football, logging 30 interceptions over his eight seasons in Denver.

Simmons was released by the Broncos in the spring of 2024 and spent the ensuing season with the Atlanta Falcons on a one-year deal. A free agent through the 2025 season, Simmons never latched on to a team and has not played in a game since Atlanta’s regular-season finale on Jan. 5, 2025.

Simmons, his wife Taryn and their children still call Denver home and Simmons’ legacy off the field will endure every bit as long and perhaps even more profoundly than his on-field exploits.

Simmons has done extensive work with the Boys & Girls Club in Denver among many other endeavors through the Justin Simmons Foundation.

Simmons occupies a unique place in Broncos history. His numbers and impact are that of a Ring of Fame-type player. His time with the franchise, though, did not feature much winning.

Simmons arrived to the Broncos as the club came off a Super Bowl victory to cap the 2015 season.

Selected by then-general manager John Elway to play for head coach Gary Kubiak, Simmons saw the field as a rookie but Denver finished in third place in the AFC West at 9-7 and missed the postseason. They didn’t make the playoffs in any of the following seven seasons under head coaches Vance Joseph, Vic Fangio, Nathaniel Hackett or Sean Payton, either.

Then Simmons was released but took some solace in latching on with the Falcons, who looked like a contender in the NFC South. Instead Atlanta missed the postseason and the Broncos have made it each of the past two years, following up a 10-7 Wild Card year in 2024 with a 14-3 campaign and subsequent run to the AFC Championship Game last season.

Still, Simmons will be universally revered by ����apountry for who he was as a player and who he is as a man.

They won 15 games. They reached the AFC Championship in their second-straight playoff appearance. And their roster cements them as an annual contender, faster than anyone thought possible.

Which makes it obvious which big move should happen next.

Give general manager George Paton a contract extension.

You haven’t always liked him. You still might not like him. And if you bought a Russell Wilson jersey, you may never like him.

Too bad. He’s really good.

And, it is time for co-owner and CEO Greg Penner to reward him.

“It is overdue,” coach Sean Payton explained Tuesday. “It will get done.”

Paton is set to enter the last season of a six-year contract. Are the Broncos really going to let the man who drafted the Oregon Duck quarterback enter 2026 as a lame duck?

Penner is too smart for this. The parties have talked. There is no concern that it won’t get worked out. And it should. For several reasons.

Though he is not looking for credit, a new deal validates the vision Penner had for Paton. The GM has evolved, improved from the owner challenging him.

When people ask what’s the rush or are curious why Paton is in line for another payday, they bring up Nathaniel Hackett and Wilson. Paton hired the failed coach, acquired the failed quarterback and ultimately paid Wilson $121 million for two seasons.

He got it so wrong we all assumed — myself included — that Paton would be fired after the Walton-Penner group no longer needed his expertise to navigate a coaching search. Or that Payton would bring in somebody he knew from New Orleans.

Instead, Penner gave Paton a second chance, exercised patience, creating a triangle of leadership. Paton and Payton report to him and have flourished working together.

They watch more film together than Siskel and Ebert. Paton creates equilibrium. He is measured. Payton, especially on game day or when forced to listen to jazz music in San Jose, is nuclear.

The partnership is “very complementary,” as Penner put it. And there’s more depth to Paton that most realize. Under Penner, he has become better at the manager part of his role. He holds people accountable, and not surprisingly, it has helped the Broncos rebound.

Don’t believe it?

These numbers should change your mind. Over the past five years, Paton has secured second contracts with five players he drafted: All-Pros Pat Surtain, Quinn Meinerz and Nik Bonitto and starters Jonathon Cooper and Luke Wattenberg. Bo Nix is on track to become the sixth after next season.

John Elway signed three players to contract extensions in the previous 10 years — Von Miller, Derek Wolfe and Garett Bolles. A fourth, Courtland Sutton, agreed to a new deal under Paton in 2021.

Paton has found his groove, a point driven home when wandering through the Indiana Convention Center, where so much talk focuses on misses, whiffs and busts.

That is why Elway hired him. Paton had a track record for acing the draft and keeping homegrown prospects in the fold.

There is no question that Penner appreciates what Paton has done. He admitted as much when I asked him a few weeks ago, saying, “We’d love to have both (Paton and Payton) here long-term.”

Penner trusts Payton. They can have open, honest conversations.

So why make him wait any longer?

Finding a date to talk with Paton’s representative, who has been busy with coaching contracts, appears to be the biggest obstacle. That is a wrinkle that is easily ironed out.

In a sport where continuity and stability pay dividends, Paton shifted perceptions this season.

The Broncos won their first division title and playoff game in a decade. That does not happen without a balanced roster, one that produced victories even when Surtain and starting running back J.K. Dobbins were sidelined.

Seriously, how many teams are deeper than the Broncos right now?

It is a testament to Paton that his process withstood failure. With ownership in flux and feuding under the Bowlen family, Paton took his shot with Hackett and Wilson. He missed. And admits it.

But instead of waiting for a pink slip, he rolled up his sleeves. While critics believe Payton runs the draft, that thinking misses clear facts. Like the 2021 class.

This group has helped form the foundation of this team. And with Payton clear on what he wants from players as competitors and learners, Paton has become even better at identifying fits.

This is not just a football story. In a transactional business, Paton excels at relationships.

It is not just how he does his job, but who he is. He holds people accountable, but treats them well. His confidence has been built over decades of hard work. During his first combines, he ran errands and kept the suite stocked with snacks.

He has never lost his love for the game or forgotten his roots. He treats people the way he wants to be treated. It inspires fierce loyalty and helps those around him reach their potential.

You don’t think relationships matter? Paton has signed 11 players to contract extensions since July 2024 for nearly half a billion dollars. Money is always the driving force, but so is the faith that players and agents have when Paton gives them his word.

Not surprisingly, he received an ‘A’ grade from the NFLPA players survey released Thursday.

The Broncos are back for a number of reasons. Most have become obvious during games with the man on the headset and the improved talent on the field.

Whatever the terms of his contract, Paton has certainly outperformed them.

It is time, past time, for a new one.