And still, he returned for a Broncos curtain call, on Monday, in the building where he helped lay the current foundation.

Ten years to the day that the Broncos drafted him in 2016, the 32-year-old Simmons announced the end of his playing days on Wednesday morning through a video announcement on the Broncos’ account. After a one-year stint with the Falcons and a year-long absence from football, Simmons also signed a ceremonial deal to retire with the Broncos.

Simmons welled up several times in a 30-minute-long press conference later Wednesday afternoon in Dove Valley, thanking a seemingly never-ending slew of backers: wife Taryn for supporting him, Broncos executive John Elway for drafting him, general manager George Paton for extending him, and the Denver fanbase for sticking with him.

“It just felt like there was a lot asked, and I feel like I fell short,” Simmons said, on his eight-year career in Denver. “So, that’s why — a lot of the emotional aspect of it. And so, I felt like I let a lot of people down over the years.”

“And so, to see that type of reaction for me is more than I deserve,” he continued, on the response to his retirement. “It’s heartwarming. I’m thankful. I’m blessed, I’m honored.”

The heartbeat of the Broncos’ defense

For eight seasons after Elway took him with the final pick of the third round in 2016, Simmons led the Broncos’ secondary, defense and locker room at large. His 30 interceptions are tied for seventh all-time in Denver franchise history. And he lives in rooms he’s never touched — still flashing across the tape that Cowboys defensive coordinator Christian Parker shows players, a deep-safety model for the defense that the former Broncos secondary coach wants to install in Dallas.

Parker has a simpler lasting memory of his years with Simmons, though.

By Jan. 8, 2021, the Vic Fangio era as the Broncos’ head coach was over. The locker room, Parker remembered, had a “feeling” about that, heading into a Week 18 matchup with the Chiefs. For a fifth straight season in Denver, they had nothing to play for. Simmons’ safety partner, Kareem Jackson, was hurt. Future Defensive Player of the Year Pat Surtain II was hurt. Ronald Darby, the other starting corner, was hurt.

And yet Simmons trotted out to play like everything was on the line.

“He was still scratching,” Parker said, remembering. “He was clawing, out there.”

One’s football legacy is strange, Simmons said. His is no exception. He was a two-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro, and tied for seventh all-time in Broncos history in interceptions. He showed up, as Parker pointed out, playing 118 of a possible 131 games in Denver. He also had one season with a winning record but never made the playoffs.

It ate at him, as Simmons said. He told reporters on Wednesday that he believed each passing year would be the year. Behind the scenes, he had “a lot of talks” with Parker about a burning desire to simply make the postseason, as the Dallas defensive coordinator recounted.

“That����ap really all he wanted to do, to be honest with you,” Parker said. “I think if you asked if he would trade some of those career accolades relative to the interceptions and All-Pro nominees, and all that kinda stuff — to have that taste of January and February football, he would trade it in a heartbeat.”

That never came, and the Broncos cut Simmons for his price tag while rebuilding under Payton after the 2023 season. He signed in Atlanta in 2024 to try and chase a playoff berth — but found it “miserable,” as he said, to be away from his wife and FaceTime-parenting his three children, who were still living in Denver.

Simmons continued to train throughout the 2025 season but never signed with a franchise. The time he regained with family, though, was invaluable, as he recounted. Eventually, he found peace in realizing that it was “just time” to move away from his playing days, he said.

The safety had always wanted to retire a Bronco, even after being cut, Parker said. And the two years away from Denver helped Simmons find peace, too, with a tenure that lacked wins but had a much greater effect on the orbit around him.

“My overall goal was to leave here, and continue the legacy and to be a Hall of Fame player,” Simmons said. “Obviously, I fell short of that, I think. Not I think — I know I fell short of that.

“I think what I’m the most proud of, though, is the adversity that popped up in those eight seasons … it����ap hard to get recognized as a player when your team is not doing well,” Simmons continued. “It����ap a very difficult thing. So I’m proud of the way I was able to fight through some adversity in that aspect. It����ap hard when you have a lot going on. It helped me, though. It����ap part of my journey and my career. I’m thankful for it.”

Simmons has been a bridge between eras in Denver. He was drafted in 2016, the year after the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 win. His time ended in 2023, the year before the Broncos returned to the playoffs. Denver went 52-79 in Simmons’ eight seasons, and saw six different coaches don a headset, and pivoted through a massive ownership change from the late Pat Bowlen to the Walton-Penner Group.

Still, Simmons became a “legend in his own way,” as former teammate Melvin Gordon told The Post. He organized Thursday bowling sessions and dinners with the defensive backs, and took care of the youngsters, Gordon said. Simmons was named a three-time captain and remained consistently accountable to local media during losing seasons. His impact ripples through foundational pieces still on the Broncos’ roster — Garett Bolles, Courtland Sutton, Surtain and Alex Singleton.

Gordon, a former Pro Bowler who played for the Broncos for three seasons, is quick to admit he fell into a bad place in Denver by his final year. He fumbled five times in 2022 and said he began to lose his “love for the game.”

Simmons, Gordon said, helped keep that passion burning through simple words and simple locker-room games of UNO.

“Sometimes, you do need a leader to show you the way,” Gordon said. “And I think he made his mark that way.”

The safety made his mark��in the community,��too, serving as��an active mentor at the Broncos Boys and Girls Club. And after retirement, Simmons said he intends to try to wedge a foot into the broadcasting world — and explore a potential position at a local high school program, similar to Cherry Creek High head coach Dave Logan.

“I want to be the guy in the community that����ap a consistent, reliable figure for kids to look up to,” Simmons said.

And he hopes he left a legacy, as he said Wednesday, of a man who cared.

“I passionately cared,” Simmons said. “I wanted to do well. I really wanted to win. Didn’t work out. And I’m so glad that they’re winning now.”

Peyton Manning is more organized than Kim Kardashian’s closet. His life operates on routines, consistency. Complete the task. Move on.

So after several weeks of rehabbing a plantar fasciitis foot injury that season, throwing to Jordan “Sunshine” Taylor in the Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse, Manning was ready to return.

Feeling like he was being spied on, Manning delivered a message to coach Gary Kubiak.

“When you are hurt, you feel left out. Like the kid that doesn’t get to go on the playground. I felt like I was throwing the ball well,” Manning said. “I wanted to see if someone was really watching.”

Turns out, Kubiak was indeed checking on the former MVP. What he saw surprised him. And more than a decade later, it still does.

“The first video I saw, it only had one barrel (flipping him off),” Kubiak said with a laugh. “I knew he was mad. Really he was saying, ‘Hey, dumb (bleep), are you going to put me in?’^”

Wednesday night provided a reminder of how it turned out when Manning returned to the lineup. Joined by five teammates and Kubiak, the 2015 Broncos celebrated the Night of Champions at the Paramount Theatre.

The bulk of the team came together last fall for a 10-year reunion and the induction of the late Demaryius Thomas into the Ring of Fame.

But this was different, more personal, more laughs, showing why Manning decided to hold live events honoring the 2006 Colts, 1989 San Francisco 49ers and Pat Summitt����ap legacy at the University of Tennessee.

“It was special (in October), but we didn’t have the MVP of the team there, Von Miller, because he is still out there playing. So we felt like it was missing something,” Manning said. “This was a chance for the fans to go behind the ropes. When you have a team honored in a stadium it is not the most intimate. This event was all about the fans.”

Based on the reaction of the orange bleached crowd, it is clear Manning read the room like he did defenses for 18 seasons. Manning received a standing ovation. And the roar that greeted Von Miller pierced ears down the 16th Street Mall.

There is a common refrain about seasons that end in rings. The players, it is said, walk together forever as champions.

But the fans become part of the connective tissue as well.

“Why come here? Why wouldn’t I? This was such a special team. This gives us a chance to hear the stories and relive it,” said Leroy Garcia from Colorado Springs, before posing with a replica of the Super Bowl 50 trophy. “There was no way I was going to miss this.”

Manning brought together a cross-section of players whose stories highlighted the special talent and personalities on the Super Bowl 50 team. DeMarcus Ware and Manning are football immortals, enshrined in the Hall of Fame. If Miller ever retires, he will join them.

Star power was required, but unselfishness defined the locker room. Kubiak spoke of the importance of everybody contributing, of playing for the person next to you in the locker room.

The Broncos knew during minicamp that something different was percolating. The offensive had weapons and the defense boasted two fang-bearing edge rushers and a No Fly Zone secondary that humbled All-Pros, MVPs and journeymen without remorse.

“I remember when I joined the team, I thought I was going to be The Man. Then we went through a walk-through and I was like, ‘(Bleep) I am not going to be The Man,’^” Talib said. “We didn’t have one hole. Not one.”

The Broncos opened the season with seven straight wins. The confidence was tangible. Denver believed they could beat anyone because of a defense that closed better than the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera.

“Legendary. The D-line, they had their own special relationship. Our linebackers (Danny Trevathan and Brandon Marshall) were two of the best in the league, straight ballers. And obviously we knew as a secondary we were always going to do what we needed to,” Pro Bowl safety T.J. Ward said. “When you perform the way we did, that’s how you become legendary.”

The way sports operate, however, titles are required to bring people together years later. Greatness is measured in championships.

Miller and Ware wrote a diary of havoc in the postseason. And the offense did just enough, squeaking past the Steelers and Patriots. The New England game remains the loudest the new stadium has ever been. The victory required noise and faith.

“I played for (defensive coordinator) Wade Phillips for like 10 years. And he dedicated one game every season to his dad (Bum Phillips). We won all of them,” said Ware. “I am tearing up thinking about it. We couldn’t let him down.”

As the confetti fell, the gravity of what was ahead took shape. Owner Pat Bowlen wanted a third Super Bowl crown. The players wanted one for Ware, who was ringless, and Manning, who was expected to retire. And, they did not know it then, they needed it as a touchstone memory to honor Thomas.

“If there was a Hall of Fame for teammates, he would be in it,” Miller said. “When I had my first child, he was the first person I called and Face-timed. He was one of one.”

The Broncos thrashed the Carolina Panthers, turning regular season MVP Cam Newton into a Fig Newton. That game is remembered in photos of the defense pouncing, taunting, finger-wagging. All of the swag came together in one night.

It took a coach with patience, who was honest and stern. It required role players willing to sacrifice. And it demanded stars meet the moment, no matter how bright the glare and long the odds.

As the calendar has flipped, as the years have passed, the narrative of those Broncos has changed, filling in the gaps. They were characters. But they won because of character.

“Everybody that wins a Super Bowl, they all say it was a unique team. But I am telling you that the word team could not be more personified than with that Super Bowl 50 group,” Manning said. “Everybody had a job. Everybody was completely unselfish. We never argued. It was really special.”

In October 2020, Tom Bonds had called Paton one morning and said the family was taking brother Jim home from the hospital for hospice, after a long battle with cancer. So Paton, then the assistant general manager for the Vikings, hopped on a flight from Minnesota to California before the Vikings were set for a rivalry game with Green Bay in a week’s time. No questions asked. This was Paton’s college roommate at UCLA, fraternity brother, revered high school coach in Southern California and longtime friend.

Paton came to Jim’s house in Valencia and stayed. At one point, Paton drove 45 minutes across Los Angeles to a hospital to retrieve some medicine for Jim. He told the family — wife Tricia, and children James and Katie — that he’d be there for them. He regaled the kids the night he arrived with stories of their dad, and after Jim died the next week, his kids have said that the day Paton spun memories with them was one of the most impactful days of their lives.

“That,” said Brian Schwartz, another longtime friend and UCLA fraternity brother, “just exemplifies George.”

Years later, Paton is now in Denver, coming off an AFC title-game run as the Broncos’ general manager just two years after eating Russell Wilson’s $242.6 million contract and swallowing the . Many who call Paton a close friend do not attempt to explain his steadiness via the particulars of roster management or cap analysis. Instead, they mention Jim Bonds and Paton, the friend who was there until the very end and sought no shred of credit or public attention .

“I think it’s because of his personality,” Schwartz told The Post, discussing Paton’s steadiness. “His desire to not see the limelight. Just like he did with Jimmy.”

In Denver, it has created a decision-making ecosystem with some balance, partnering with a head coach who is constantly in the limelight. It did not come easy. When Sean Payton arrived as the Broncos’ head coach in 2023, he needed time at first to feel out Paton. The general manager was a very unpopular man in Denver following a couple of massive misfires — the disastrous hiring of Nathaniel Hackett and��the trade and massive extension for Wilson. So Payton sought advice from longtime mutual friend and NFL insider Jay Glazer.

Glazer, also an MMA trainer and motivational speaker, told Payton he could trust Paton.

“I’ve seen a ton of GMs backstab the head coach, and vice versa,” Glazer told The Post. “And George has always had Sean’s back. Always. And that is so valuable. Especially when you’re going to try and make a lot of changes in the place.”

Three seasons with Payton and the Walton-Penner ownership group, indeed, have brought sweeping change in Denver. But the general manager has not changed. Somehow. Payton is known across the NFL for his desire to surround himself with allies he trusts, and members of Denver’s front-office regime were initially concerned Paton would get pushed out, an NFL source with knowledge of the Broncos’ building recounted to The Denver Post.

“If you ask anybody in the league … they’re like, ‘Oh, well, George’s days are numbered, that’s a bummer,'” the source said.

Instead, Paton’s days are on the verge of extension. He “never wavered,” Tom Bonds said. Paton has led the Broncos to re-sign 13 current members of their 2026 roster to new deals (according to data collected from Spotrac), add key starters from Zach Allen to Talanoa Hufanga on team-friendly deals, and found cheap young offensive production in the draft from quarterback Bo Nix to running back RJ Harvey. The franchise’s baseline foundation, suddenly, stacks up with most any across the NFL.

“I mean, I never flinched,” Paton told The Denver Post on Tuesday in a brief conversation, walking between obligations at the combine.

“Always figured we would turn it around,” he continued. “And we did. And I’m not surprised.”

Payton, across that time, has given increasingly glowing public reviews of Paton, and has privately lobbied Broncos ownership for a new contract for Paton as the general manager heads into the last year of his deal. The relationship has clicked in large part because of Paton’s nature, a man who knows the attention in Denver is centered around the head coach’s office — and who’s perfectly fine with that.

“I think they are positioned to win,” one NFL agent told The Post, “for as long as this group of people stays together.”

Elway’s successor

In January 2021, members of Denver’s scouting department got an email from then-Broncos GM John Elway.

“He was like, ‘Everybody needs to hop on a Zoom call in 30 minutes,'” a source in the building said. “Everybody was like, ‘What the hell?'”

Elway’s announcement — he was stepping away from his duties as general manager, and would lead a search for a new GM — sent shockwaves through the organization . The man, after all, was immortal in Denver, with two Super Bowl rings as a player and one as an executive. Elway told staff on that call he felt the search for his successor was part of his legacy in Denver, too.

Paton, a Vikings assistant GM who’d bootstrapped his way through NFL circles, was among the names floated. After a stint as a defensive back in UCLA’s program and a brief overseas career, he coached the sophomore football team at his alma mater, Loyola High School, in 1996 on a stipend of $1,000 (they went undefeated). In 1997, Paton landed a scouting job with the Bears and showed up on the doorstep of Tom Bonds’ house in Chicago, asking if he could crash in his basement for a few days (he ended up living there for 2.5 years). In the mid-2000s, when Paton was the director of pro personnel in Miami, he’d play games of four-on-four lunchtime hoops with Nick Saban.

Their squad was usually Saban, Paton, and assistant coaches Jason Garrett and Derek Dooley. Paton was a “little scrawny dude,” as friend Schwartz said, who didn’t play basketball much. But he could scrap, and always ended up on the floor. One day, as Garrett recalled to The Post, Paton couldn’t play, and Saban grew frustrated with his remaining teammates’ levels of effort.

“Nobody’s getting any loose balls!” the future Alabama mogul roared, as Garrett remembered.

Paton, too, was a grinder in personnel rooms. Equally as important, he had a sense of how to level out coaching personalities, from working with Saban to working with Mike Zimmer in Minnesota. He’d largely bided his time, outside of a push for San Francisco’s general manager job in 2017, under Minnesota GM Rick Spielman. And the Broncos’ situation in 2021 wasn’t entirely stable, since Denver was operating without a primary owner after the 2019 death of Pat Bowlen.

But Paton respected the history in Denver. When Elway got dinner with him at Elway’s Steakhouse after a formal interview in early January 2021, Elway made it clear he wouldn’t let him leave without a commitment to Denver, Paton told now-close-friend Tom Bonds the following morning.

“I think he saw a lot of the qualities of, like, an old-school football man in George,” a source who was in the Broncos’ building told The Post. “A guy that has a meticulous process that he sticks to that was calm and collected, and confident, and steady, and not erratic as a personality.”

A week before Paton’s first NFL Draft in the spring of 2021, he, Schwartz and Schwartz’s wife were out to dinner at Los Dos Potrillos. Paton’s phone buzzed. It was Elway, who was still serving as Denver’s president. Paton took the call, left, and came back.

“He just wants to know who we’re drafting,” Paton told Schwartz, as he recalled.

So Schwartz asked, too. Paton refused to tell him. Schwartz started to get frustrated. They were buddies, after all. And then it occurred to him that his friend was so quiet on all matters that he hadn’t even told John Elway,��of all people, a week before the draft.

“He probably even keeps it,” Schwartz joked, “from his own son.”

The dark times

The Broncos were drafting Pat Surtain II, of course.

There was plenty of pressure back in 2021 on Paton to take a quarterback in his first draft, and he and staff sat for hours and days and weeks in April, crushing tape on Ohio State’s Justin Fields and Alabama’s Mac Jones. Paton consulted analytics. He consulted scouts who’d visited Ohio State. And he kept coming back to one conclusion: Alabama cornerback Surtain was the cleanest player, regardless of position, in the draft.

Paton is “beloved” in the personnel community, Glazer said, for his aptitude in collegiate scouting. Paton was a key voice in the Vikings drafting longtime Vikings difference-makers like safety Harrison Smith, tight end Kyle Rudolph and defensive end Brian Robison, former Minnesota head coach Leslie Frazier told The Post. And Paton has a near-photographic memory, friend and former Broncos quarterback Matt Mauck said, to recall specific traits and medical history from most any player in any draft class.

All that aside, though, the city of Denver — a quarterback town — was not particularly pleased with the Surtain pick at No. 9 at the time in 2021.

“He’d be like, ‘Oh, (expletive), why you got The Fan on?'” the NFL source with knowledge of the building said, referring to Denver sports radio station 104.3 The Fan. “Those guys are killing me.'”

The city of Denver was pleased, of course, with the following year’s blockbuster deal for Wilson. Paton had gone to see North Carolina’s Sam Howell and Pitt’s Kenny Pickett in person, the source said, and was largely unimpressed with the crop of quarterbacks in the 2022 draft class. The Wilson deal was a win-now move, meant to catapult a struggling franchise behind a 10-time Pro Bowler; Paton already made clear to Wilson’s agent Mark Rodgers during trade negotiations that the Broncos had the intention to extend Wilson, and Paton “kept his promise,” as Rodgers said.

The rest is ugly history. Wilson didn’t fit with Paton and Denver and especially Payton, after Paton hired and then fired young offensive mind Nathaniel Hackett in less than one season in 2022. The Broncos benched Wilson with two games to play in 2023, and ate a record $85 million in dead cap money . Wilson later accused Denver of threatening to bench him midseason if he didn’t adjust his contract.

“I have a very positive feeling about George,” Rodgers told The Post. “And some people might be surprised by that. But I think if you’re going to stay in sports, you have to be able to separate the people from the problem.”

The Surtain pick was made with the philosophy that there would be no shortcuts, after Paton assumed the helm of a franchise that had gone 32-48 in its five seasons since winning Super Bowl 50. The Wilson trade was an attempted shortcut, though, for an executive who has always made his money more from scouting collegiate talent and high-upside pro personnel than gambling on high-leverage deals.

“I think — if you just look at George, I think you would say that’s out of his character a little bit,” Schwartz said, reflecting on the Wilson trade. “Because he’s so much about the draft … he’s like an encyclopedia about people that he didn’t draft.”

Hackett came and went. Wilson’s contract became an albatross. New ownership and a culture-changing new coach arrived at the beginning of 2023. And Paton’s own friends worried privately for him. After an 8-9 season that invited promise in 2023, though, Paton went to a happy hour at Ocean Prime with Mauck, who marveled at the fact that the general manager had stuck around.

“This is gonna sound really bad,” recalled Mauck, who’s now the team dentist for Denver. “But I said, ‘The fact that you still have a job lets you know how good you are at what you do.’

“And I think that����ap true. He was able to survive something that a lot of people wouldn’t.”

In those days, Tom Bonds and his wife, Julie,��tried to visit Denver and attend games as many times as they could when the “times were the darkest,” as Bonds put it.

“Because,” Bonds said, “it felt like that would signal to him that we’re in this forever. Just like he was with us, as Jimmy was in his last days.”

The Payton partnership

At the time, the Hackett hire made some sense. So did the Wilson trade. So did the Wilson extension, even. All were swings that didn’t connect.

“He took a big swing on Nathaniel Hackett, and you could make – just objectively speaking – you could say that was a swing and a miss,” Rodgers said. “And he took a big swing on Russell Wilson, and at the end of the day … some people would say that was a swing and a miss.

“But I’ll be damned if he didn’t take a swing at Sean Payton,” Rodgers continued, “after those two situations.”

Payton’s arrival brought even more potential instability. Inside the Broncos’ building, as the NFL source recounted to The Post, any player who was a previous Paton draftee was “put under a microscope.” The head coach wasn’t initially sold on 2022 second-round pick Nik Bonitto, for one. And Payton verbalized his frustration over the Wilson deal, the source said, done before his arrival.

Payton, though, had a couple of trusted connection points to Paton in Zimmer — who Payton worked with under Bill Parcells in Dallas in the mid-2000s — and Glazer. Paton trusted in Payton’s ability to build Denver’s locker room. And he didn’t waver, even in private, multiple friends told The Post.

“I knew he was going to win, and I knew the culture he would bring,” Paton told The Post in Indianapolis. “I didn’t feel like I had to prove — I just had to be myself. And just do what I’m doing, and come together, and develop a process together.

“And it wasn’t about me,” Paton added. “We just wanted to win.”

That was made slightly more difficult by the Wilson deal, which impacted how the Broncos shaped their offseason approach. From Payton’s first season in Denver, the Broncos focused on “building this up front,” as former Broncos assistant GM and now-Jets GM Darren Mougey told The Post this week. Denver shelled out over $138 million to bring tackle Mike McGlinchey and guard Ben Powers into the fold in 2023 free agency. Beyond that, their payroll was weighed down under Wilson’s cap number.

“We had to really be decisive in who we were bringing in,” the source with knowledge of the building said. “Because you don’t have room to miss, in that situation.”

Paton arrived every day to work, still, at 6 a.m. Free-agency meetings ran later. Denver let defensive lineman Dre’Mont Jones walk in 2023’s free agency to sign a three-year, $51.3 million deal with the Seahawks. The Broncos instead signed Zach Allen for three years and $45.8 million. He’s become a two-time All-Pro in three years in Denver. The Broncos then found major value in safety Brandon Jones and defensive tackle Malcolm Roach in free agency in 2024.

Paton’s superpower in Minnesota, former GM Spielman recalled, was his ability to relate to all members of the coaching staff. Former Vikings HC Frazier remembered feeling “symbiotic” with Paton, and Paton working to understand what Frazier and the rest of Minnesota’s staff were looking for in defensive talent. Much further into Paton’s career, that same understanding has built with Payton, as the Broncos’ general manager has grown well aware of the player profile (smart, tough) that Payton favors.

“I think he treats it just the way he would any other coach,” Schwartz saidof Paton’s relationship with Payton. “His thinking, at least what he’s told me, is, his job is to — know the coaches. And know, and have real good communication with them on what they need. And then he goes out and executes that.”

The Pa(y)ton relationship, now, is about balance. Payton loves trading up. Paton loves accumulating capital. Payton attracts the spotlight. Paton sits a comfortable distance outside of it.

“He’s the face,” mutual friend Glazer said, of Payton. “And George wants him to be the face. That����ap kinda rare.”

Next steps

Recently, Schwartz asked former UCLA buddy Paton what he thought about the Bruins’ hire of new football coach Bob Chesney.

“What do I know,” Paton joked, as Schwartz recalled, “about hiring a coach?”

Jamaal Stephenson, a longtime Vikings personnel staffer, noted that Minnesota’s building “felt different” after Paton took the Denver job in 2021. He brought levity, Stephenson recalled, in a league of serious moments.

“We missed him,” Stephenson said, now a senior personnel executive with the Vikings. “We missed his personality, we missed his evaluating, we missed his friendship.”

Talk around a potential Paton reunion in Minnesota has swirled since the Vikings fired former GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in late January, with Paton’s original six-year deal in Denver heading into its last season. Several of Paton’s friends who spoke with The Post, though, said the general manager is quite happy in Denver.�� And staff who’ve been inside the Broncos’ building believe owner Greg Penner sees the value in Paton’s balance in personality to Payton, as Penner said at an end-of-year news conference he believes their partnership is “complementary.”

“Find me the head coach and the GM tied at the hip, and then you got a chance, you know?” Payton said in January.

Tom Bonds would once go to Empower Field and hear boos rain down from the Broncos’ own fanbase — boos Bonds couldn’t help but think were reflective of Paton, given his seat at the table. The dark times have passed, now.

When Bonds does come to games, he usually rides into Empower Field with Paton. The general manager will park and walk into the stadium, and straight onto the grass, Bonds said.

“Just so that he gets to take it in before the stadium’s filled up, and before the people are there …��and just look around and appreciate how far that he’s come,” Bonds said. “And that the Broncos are almost there.”

Watching owner Terry Pegula stumble through Wednesday’s press conference trying to explain the firing of popular coach Sean McDermott and promotion of Brandon Beane elicited one response: Thank goodness the Broncos no longer traffic in this dysfunction.

Pegula rarely talks to the media, and it became obvious why. Even if his intentions were good and necessary when receiving $850 million in public funding for the new stadium, Pegula did the impossible. He made coaching Josh Allen seem unappealing.

It was a disaster class in how not to communicate a message and stay on point. Pegula insisted he fired McDermott because of the visceral reaction he witnessed after the loss to the Broncos. Players were upset. Some cried.

Has he never been in a locker room after a season ended?

Whatever, McDermott was canned for the latest playoff loss (All Pegula had to say was the team had gone as far as it was going to go under the coach, so a new voice was needed). But, wait, didn’t Pegula exclaim in his opening remarks, “that was a catch,” regarding Brandin Cooks getting the football wrestled away by Denver cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian?

So, the coach got fired for a game when your team was robbed?

Make it make sense.

For good measure, Beane, the man who assembled rosters that have never reached a Super Bowl, received a cushy new title and more autonomy and, in case you were wondering, Pegula declared that the GM should not be blamed for drafting Keon Coleman. That beep, beep you heard was Pegula backing the bus over an active player on the roster and the coaching staff.

It is easy to laugh because the Broncos no longer live in this world.

When trying to explain how the Broncos reached the AFC championship for the first time in a decade with $32 million in dead cap money for Russell Wilson, don’t forget ownership.

As someone who began covering the Broncos in the early 1990s, my respect for Pat Bowlen is immense. But Denver was not returning to the NFL’s upper crust as a family business.

A Shakespearean drama played out after Bowlen stepped away from daily operations in 2014, passed away with Alzheimer’s in 2019 and until the team was sold in August of 2022.

In an ideal world, Bowlen would have left a cornerstone NFL franchise for his children that would have united them forever in joy and victories.

Instead, the trust was a mess, leading to legal battles. No child was specifically groomed for the role and Bowlen never declared a successor. There is no way you will ever convince me that the issues upstairs did not affect the Broncos’ product on the field.

The Broncos missed the playoffs for eight straight years and posted seven consecutive losing seasons, their most since 1963-72. This was not a coincidence.

A great quarterback, even if Allen was not that last Saturday, is not a chameleon. They cannot camouflage everything. It is impossible to win championships when discord exists in the corner office.

The Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group gave the Broncos more than deep pockets. They provided direction, discipline, creating the expectation of excellence. No excuses.

The Broncos would not be in this position without the evolution and involvement of Greg and Carrie Walton Penner.

Greg Penner fired coach Nathaniel Hackett with two games remaining in the ownership’s first season. He made it clear why — the team was rudderless — and what he was seeking in a replacement. He wanted a coach with a strong personality and belief system to set the tone for the organization.

He landed on Payton, getting what he paid for in a sport where there is no salary cap for coaches. And to hear Payton tell it, he came to Denver, in large part, because of the owners. He is not shy about saying poor ownership makes winning a fantasy.

Payton established a culture, creating accountability, while leaving no gray area on how and who he needed for Denver to climb back to relevance. He has worked well with general manager George Paton. Both report to Penner, fostering creative and dynamic friction.

As Greg and Carrie have grown to know the NFL, they bring leadership that is present and understanding. They don’t meddle, but they constantly ask questions and seek answers, making them demanding in the name of winning.

The money matters. It always does. But only if spent wisely. Over the past 18 months, the Broncos’ owners agreed to 10 in-house contract extensions totaling more than half a billion dollars, with in excess of $300 million guaranteed for core players.

Bowlen was a Hall of Famer. Even he would not have been able to pull this off.

The Walton-Penners are modern owners. They are not the Dodgers, but they are closer to that model than the Steelers, who are afraid to rebuild, operating under the delusion that a winning record is the ultimate goal.

In their fourth season, the Walton-Penners watched the Broncos win their first division title and playoff game in a decade. They have alignment with the coach, quarterback and front office.

That’s why the juxtaposition between what was happening in Buffalo and Denver on Wednesday was so alarming. The Bills became a bad reality show right before our eyes.

And the Broncos, back in the NFL’s Final Four, were staring at their new reality:

They are just getting started.

He saw Bo Nix and Courtland Sutton maneuver on the grass at the Broncos’ facility during organized team activities (OTAs) in June. He saw a quarterback and receiver who could feel��where the other was. This was the training ground for the second year of the Nix-Sutton partnership, the two growing a shared awareness of space and timing. A tango. A rumba. Swaying to each other’s movements.

Morris knew them both from his days as a college coach. Sutton was Morris’ captain when Morris was rebuilding at Southern Methodist University, from 2015-17 . Nix was Morris’ quarterback when he was an offensive coordinator at Auburn in 2020 , still the most competitive player he’s ever coached. And Morris knew, from just Day 1 at OTAs, that Sutton trusted Nix. And Nix trusted Sutton.

After practice, the three grabbed lunch at the team cafeteria at Dove Valley. At that moment, Sutton’s future in Denver was still unclear, engrossed in extension negotiations after a career-best 81 catches in 2024 . So Morris asked Nix, at that table, about Sutton’s contract.

“Look,” Nix said, as Morris recalled. “We’ve got to get this guy signed. This is my guy.”

Sutton, Nix told Morris, was so much of Denver’s pulse. And so much of its heartbeat.

“I know Bo,” Morris repeated, Nix’s quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at Auburn. “I know Bo. And I know Bo was sharing that with the management and the ownership of the Denver Broncos. I know that for a fact.”

Less than two months later, on July 28, Sutton came bounding out for practice as his representation finalized the particulars of a four-year, $92 million extension with Denver brass.

The Broncos signed the player. Really, though, they signed the pillar.

Sutton has played in 110 of a possible 117 games (excluding a torn ACL in 2020) in his years in Denver . He , while playing for 11 different starting quarterbacks in eight seasons . He’s had five offensive coordinators and five head coaches. And he has never once requested a trade in those eight seasons, sources close to Sutton told The Denver Post.

Sutton’s presence — from Vic Fangio to Sean Payton, from Pat Bowlen to the Penners — sticks in the minds of those who’ve shared a locker with his corner cubby in Denver.

“He wants to be the face of a program, of a franchise, of a building, of a team, however you want to phrase that,” former Broncos quarterback Drew Lock told The Denver Post.

“And honestly, that place — with how much turnover there has been — they’re lucky to have a guy like that … (who) can be so even-keeled,” Lock, now the Seahawks’ QB, said.

Has it been easy? No. Heavens, no. Every offseason brought a new offensive carousel. Around Sutton’s third or fourth year in Denver, his frustration started to boil as the end of his first deal approached, fellow former Broncos receiver Tim Patrick recounted. Fellow former Bronco Kendall Hinton chuckled, remembering the times he’d pass Sutton and remember to steer clear.

If Sutton isolated himself, or got quiet, Hinton knew:��Let me give ‘Court’ some space right now.

Sutton and the Broncos have found stability in each other during the Payton Era. Nothing’s ever perfect. Frequently, opposing secondaries have shaded Sutton’s way in 2025; Denver’s WR1 is second to Troy Franklin on his own team in targets over the last 12 weeks. Frequently, Sutton’s old high school coach Glen West will flip on a Broncos game on Sundays and wonder if his former receiver is even on the field.

None of it fazes Sutton anymore. Ask Denver’s receivers: Their leader does not care about his touches. He provides a “sense of security” for the rest of his room, as Franklin says. Kyrese Rowan, an undrafted rookie receiver who’s bounced around Denver since May, swears — straight face and all — he’s never seen the 30-year-old vet in a bad mood.

For more than a decade, Sutton has been committed to mastering his own mind. Nobody else’s.

“He has a calmness to him where he knows what he can do on this field, and nothing really surprises him anymore,” Patrick reflected.

“He has stability now with a coach and a quarterback, to where … you don’t have to worry about every offseason or every week, some years, where you don’t know who’s going to be the starting quarterback,” Patrick continued. “So you can tell, he’s at peace.”

The beginning

In late 2014, a book called “The Mental Game of Football” made its way to Morris, who’d just been hired as the head coach at SMU. Morris loved it enough to get his recruiting director, Mark Smith , to call the book’s author, Brian Cain . The three met and agreed that Cain would come on in an official role as a mental-performance specialist.

Sutton was one of the first players the staff wanted Cain to work with.

“If a coach says, ‘Hey, I think this is going to be beneficial for you and your development,’ he doesn’t ask, ‘Why?’ ” Cain said. “He says, ‘when.’ And that����ap Courtland Sutton to a T.”

Sutton was coming off a redshirt-freshman season for a 1-11 program , and was converting from defensive back to receiver. He wanted his development to happen right then, Morris recalled. So the head coach asked Cain to work with him on mental transitions: flushing the bad, keeping him grounded.

Through Sutton’s next three seasons at SMU and beyond, Cain worked with Sutton on what he called “process goals.” Breathwork. Meditation. Visualization. Journaling. Teammates voted Sutton a captain, and voted him as having the best work ethic on the roster, one of many core values that Cain and Morris tried to establish at SMU.

During fall camp before Sutton’s senior season, core players held a two-hour meeting to deliver individual presentations on implementing the core values.��Long after players cleared out at the end of the meeting, Sutton lingered in the back of the room, re-stacking chairs the group had taken from another space down the hall.

“I think of any guy in that program — and any guy I’ve worked with as a college athlete — he understood what was controllable and what was not as good as anybody,” Cain said.

On Wednesday, when asked about Cain, Sutton grinned. Sutton estimated 60% to 70% of football is mental. He is a man of routine, and his routine established at SMU has only compounded in pursuit of self-actualization.

Still, Sutton said he lives by a set of “ABCs” that Cain preaches: Act big. Breathe big. Commit big.

“It’s something so simple,” Sutton said, “but being able to bring yourself back into focus. Into the now. Into where your feet are. I’m a big ‘be where your feet are’ type of person.’ ”

Act big

On Sept. 9, 2018, in the third quarter of his NFL debut against Seattle, Sutton came off the field on third down. Fellow rookie wideout Patrick cycled in, and missed a ball over the middle from then-Broncos quarterback Case Keenum.

Emmanuel Sanders, a 31-year-old veteran receiver, came back with Patrick to the sideline, pulled both he and Sutton aside, and gave both a lashing that would last a lifetime. Four-letter words. Biting words. Patrick was cussed out for not catching the ball. Sutton was cussed out, more importantly, for simply not being out there on third down.

Patrick would not reveal Sanders’ specific words to Sutton, because they are not fit for print. But the sentiment was simple, as Patrick recalled: No matter what’s going on in a game, be on the field on third down. That’s the money down. That’s how you get paid.

“I swear, after he cussed us out, embarrassed us on the sideline,” Patrick recalled, “there was just a different ‘Court.’ Like, he just turned into a different animal on the football field after that.”

With first and second-round quarterbacks, with veterans and backups, Sutton’s reliability on third down has only grown in Denver, even as his overall role has fluctuated. Over the past two seasons, Sutton has single-handedly accounted for 39% of the Broncos’ conversions in third-and-long situations (greater than 7 yards), according to Next Gen Stats data compiled by The Post. It’s where his physical leverage best comes into play: Isolate his 6-foot-4 frame, long limbs, and 216-pound strength in press coverage, and he establishes “a lot of trust” from quarterbacks on third down.

“(Nix) understands that …. If you get into any trouble whatsoever, just find me,’ ” Sutton told reporters in late September. ” ‘I’ma be somewhere around.’ ”

A 23-year-old Sutton learned that from Sanders, Patrick believes. They had two veterans in that room in 2018, their rookie year: Sanders and the late Demaryius Thomas, who Sutton still reveres. And a 30-year-old Sutton carries the torch in Denver, years later.

These days, Broncos rookie Pat Bryant goes to Nothing Bundt Cakes on gamedays to pick up specific orders for the entire receivers’ room. Franklin and Devaughn Vele did the same as rookies in 2024. Sanders and Thomas started the tradition; Sutton enforces it now.

He followed Sanders’ words, back then. And he followed Thomas’ actions.

“They’ve had some guys like Demaryius in the past that have been those kind of people, that are just the rock of that place,” said Steelers receivers coach Zach Azzanni , who coached the Broncos’ wide receivers from 2018-22. “And I think (Sutton’s) that.”

Breathe big

At SMU, Sutton and Cain developed a method they called the “clap” technique. If Sutton dropped a pass, or a play didn’t connect, he’d slap his hands together as a sort of Pavlovian self-conditioning. Wipe the slate clean.

Over the first five years in Denver without a consistent starting quarterback or a stable offensive staff, Sutton learned to control what was within his own sphere, as Azzanni reflected. And the thorn in his side, always, was drops. He dropped nine of his 51 targets in his rookie year in 2018. Six years later, even in a career year with 1,081 yards in 2024, Pro Football Focus credited Sutton as tied with the Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb for the most drops in the NFL (11).

His response to any adversity — within his control or not — has always been internal. Sutton wears his emotion on his sleeve, Hinton said. But he doesn’t erupt. If Sutton puts his hands on his hips and crosses his legs while standing on the sideline during games, he’s in the middle of processing, according to Morris.

“I know he likes that — throw a little tantrum,” Patrick cracked. “And then once he gets that tantrum out, he’s back to normal.”

Sutton’s process has rarely wavered over the years. Undrafted rookie Rowan has sat next to him often in meetings and noticed the veteran’s notebook is still filled to the brim with scribbles. He’s still the most diligent note-taker in the room — in Year 8.

Azzanni began every practice in Denver for years with seven minutes on the JUGS machine; Sutton would be the first receiver out, Azzanni recalled, no matter what.

Sutton’s drop rate in 2025 (6.7%) is now the lowest it’s been in any full season since his only Pro Bowl nod in 2019, according to Pro Football Focus. The misses still come. They linger less.

In Week 5 of October, the Broncos traveled to Philadelphia to play the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles in one of the biggest regular-season games of Sutton’s career. On Denver’s third play of the game, Nix dropped back to loft a one-on-one pass to Sutton down the right sideline. The ball slid through the empty air between Sutton’s open forearms, and the receiver tumbled face-first into a rough drop.

He got up, tossed his head back, and��clapped��his hands together.

“You see some guys that may not be as mentally strong, or have that release,” Sutton said. “And one play turns into two plays turns into three, and it carries over to the next game. And then some people spiral. And the last thing you want to do is to have something spiral, because you can’t get out of your own head.”

Sutton went on to catch eight passes for 99 yards, including three massive fourth-quarter first-down conversions, and the Broncos beat the Eagles 21-17.

Commit big

Before Bo Nix, there was Ben Hicks.

In the third quarter of the first game of Sutton’s junior season at SMU, starting quarterback Matt Davis tore his ACL. SMU’s season suddenly rested on the shoulders of Hicks, the backup QB and a redshirt freshman. Strength coach Trumain Carroll realizing the importance of the coming minutes, went over to Hicks to impart a few words.

Except Sutton was already there, feeding him reassurances, Carroll remembered.

You got this. It’s go time. This is what you’ve been preparing for.

In the season that followed, Sutton spent 15 to 30 minutes after every practice running routes with Hicks and talking through coverages, former SMU safety Jordan Wyatt said. SMU went 5-7 that year, and then 7-5 in Sutton’s subsequent senior season, with Hicks fully running the show.

“He helped Ben grow up,” Carroll reflected. “He helped Ben gain the respect and earn the right to lead the locker room.”

A decade later, Nix shares a certain ESP with Sutton — and a trust — different from any other Bronco receiver. After the Broncos’ win over the Bengals in early October, Nix’s wife, Izzy, and Sutton’s wife, Brea, posted a picture of themselves wearing shirts with Nix and Sutton’s faces A week later, Nix credited Sutton for constantly reminding him he had his back in the Broncos’ comeback win over the Eagles.

“In that situation, it’s almost like — who wants the football?” Nix said, “And ‘Sutt’ wants the football.”

Sutton has committed to Nix. And the rest of the building. Take undrafted-rookie Rowan, who just re-signed to the Broncos’ practice squad this week after being cut last week. He is waiting out a short-term rental home. He knows his current stay might be short. The 24-year-old has no family in Denver, and no partner, and no kids, and no dog, he rattled off to The Post on Thursday.

Sutton knew all this. So he invited Rowan to his home for Christmas.

“I can talk about him all day,” Rowan said. “I talk about him all day with my friends. Because I thought he was, like — if you’re a WR1, you’ve been in the league for as long as he has, you’ve done what he’s done, you’d expect a little bit of an entitled, cocky (guy).

“But nah. Not at all.”

Sutton has put together another great, if unspectacular, campaign this season: 56 catches, 773 yards, five touchdowns through 13 games . Where could he be, perhaps, if he hadn’t torn his ACL in 2020? Or had more early-career stability? Or played in a different system entirely, where he was force-fed targets?

All of that, though, exists in the past or the future. Not the now. Denver is a “place that appreciates him,” as Lock reflected. And Sutton, Lock believes, understands that.

“There’s so much going on that you can miss,” Sutton told The Post, “if you’re looking past what����ap right in front of you.”

Denver Urban Renewal Authority executive director Tracy Huggins said the Broncos and the mayor’s office held preliminary conversations with DURA in 2024 about the process of obtaining tax-increment financing for redevelopment.

Those conversations were “very limited,” Huggins said, but the parties specifically mentioned Burnham Yard, the industrial area near La Alma Lincoln Park that has drawn increasing buzz as a possible landing spot for a new Broncos stadium.

“There were, in total, maybe three conversations,” Huggins said. “Again, (it was) both the city and the Broncos just really wanting to understand what would it mean, and how we would do it.”

Huggins said her last conversation on the subject came in January, when she spoke to Bill Mosher, Johnston’s chief projects officer, who has been regularly involved in stadium conversations with the Broncos.

No specific plan was discussed, Huggins said, beyond simple inquiries into how the practice works. The Broncos have acknowledged only that they’re evaluating several potential new stadium sites in Denver, Lone Tree and Aurora.

Inquiries into the use of tax-increment financing, or TIF, for urban-renewal purposes are common, Huggins said. Once a property is deemed “blighted” under Colorado state statute, DURA can designate the area for an urban-renewal plan and issue bonds for redevelopment that would go toward infrastructure or environmental costs, along with public improvements.

It’s unlikely that any Broncos stadium redevelopment would rely on a large sum of public money, as the Walton-Penner group is widely regarded as the richest ownership group in the NFL. Still, Burnham Yard appears to be a prime site for tax-increment urban renewal, if selected by the Broncos.

“I think, of any of the places that I’ve seen a lot of urban renewal applications come through, this deeply qualifies,” Denver City Councilwoman Jamie Torres said of Burnham Yard. “It is abandoned, it is kind of an old utilization that needs to be completely renovated for new residential, commercial utilization. That����ap pretty clear. How much, what it covers, I think, stand to be huge conversations.”

The discussions with DURA represent more breadcrumbs in an increasingly public trail connecting the Broncos to Burnham Yard, as The Post has reported that entities connected to the franchise have paid more than $150 million since August to snap up properties around the 58-acre railyard site and has engaged in discussions with Denver Water over the utility’s nearby 36-acre campus. A business entity connected to the team also paid $7 million to the Denver Housing Authority to snap up a vacant lot just east of Burnham Yard.

“As we continue a comprehensive analysis of potential options in Denver, Lone Tree and Aurora, we’re engaging thoughtfully and reviewing all considerations as part of our ongoing process,” Broncos spokesman Patrick Smyth said.

Kennesaw State University economics professor J.C. Bradbury, who has long studied , said the Broncos’ TIF inquiries indicate the ownership is “absolutely serious” about Burnham Yard. And it’s another example of the push from Johnston’s office to keep the Broncos in Denver, exploring potential incentives for the team to redevelop in the city.

Asked Tuesday about the possibility of using TIF for a new Broncos stadium, and about the Broncos’ interest in Burnham Yard, Johnston didn’t directly answer, but told The Post he would have “more to say in the week to come on this.”

“I really believe in the vision and the values of the new ownership of the team,” he said. “I’ve said since I ran, ‘Over my dead body do the Broncos leave Denver.’ And so I’m committed to that today, and I feel like we have a chance to do something special and we’re going to work hard at it to get it done.

“And I feel like we’re close, but I think that’s all I can say now.”

The $tadium Game: Inside the lucrative world of Colorado’s pro sports stadiums

The Broncos' current home, Empower Field at Mile High, was originally built as Invesco Field in 2001 after the team's late former owner, Pat Bowlen, launched a massive public campaign to approve a sales tax increase. Ultimately, taxpayers subsidized close to three-quarters of the eventual $400 million in stadium costs.

In the years since, a variety of NFL organizations have relied on less-sizeable but still substantial public funding to construct increasingly expensive stadiums, from the Atlanta Falcons' Mercedes-Benz Stadium to the Las Vegas Raiders' Allegiant Stadium.

TIF is still a form of public subsidy, but it isn't the same as a direct increase in taxes. Tax-increment financing anticipates increases in tax revenues from development projects and applies it on the front end to specific costs of those developments, rather than those taxes going directly to the city.

The Denver Urban Renewal Authority is also engaged in TIF discussions involving the stadium planned for a new National Women’s Soccer League franchise at Santa Fe Yards. A TIF plan had been approved for redevelopment of the larger surrounding site before the city struck a deal with the owners to locate the stadium there.

"That, I think, was a surprise for some of my council colleagues to remember -- when we have a TIF in place, they keep all of their property and sales taxes," Torres said, speaking on the potential of multiple future stadium-district developments in Denver. "Like, it is retained there. So you're thinking about this in much longer scales than just the next 20, 25 years.

"And so that, I think, is really important for us," she continued. "There’s an identity piece, around the Denver Broncos, that -- if they’re not in Denver, they’re not the Denver Broncos."

If the Broncos decide to remain planted in Denver, and to build at Burnham Yard, the team would have a relatively clear initial pathway to tax-increment financing through urban renewal. The railyard, which lies just east of Interstate 25 and the South Platte River, is a historic site that's been closed for nearly a decade. There would be a "pretty good likelihood" that the area would be deemed blighted, Huggins said.

Under Colorado statute, blighted properties are areas that are hazardous to public health, impede housing and aggravate traffic problems, among several other factors.

Once a property is declared blighted, DURA then studies whether there's a need for public investment in the redevelopment, Huggins said, involving negotiations with ownership over costs and an eventual public hearing in front of Denver's council.

Denver Post staff writer Elliott Wenzler contributed to this story.

They became the most embarrassing franchise in town Tuesday — which is saying something with the Rockies down the street — by firing coach Michael Malone. Yes, general manager Calvin Booth was also dismissed, but that should have happened the moment the trade deadline passed without a move.

Malone deserved better.

He is the winningest coach in Nuggets history. He delivered the franchise’s only NBA championship. And Josh Kroenke, son of Stan, canned him with three games remaining in the regular season.

Regardless of the Nuggets’ current spiral, it is unprofessional and unnecessary.

Malone and Booth did not get along. It was an open secret. And their tension turned into disconnect over the past few weeks. (How did Jamal Murray go from day-to-day to week-to-week without notice?)

Everyone knew that if the Nuggets exited early in the playoffs, one or both were gone. Clearly, Kroenke reached his flashpoint. But there was a way to handle this with class for both men.

Malone, specifically, built up equity, a reservoir of goodwill. He should have been allowed to leave with dignity, not in a news release issued by the vice chairman of Kroenke Sports and Entertainment minutes before the team boarded a charter to Sacramento.

Malone had his faults. But a pink slip with three games left? This is like ending a 10-year marriage with a text.

“It is another sad day for coaching in the NBA,” former Nuggets coach George Karl told The Denver Post. “Ten years ago, firing a successful coach was very unusual. Now the guy in Memphis got fired a couple of weeks ago. Then Malone. We all know Denver was struggling. But it����ap on the players, the coach, the organization. To do it now is the wrong move.”

Kroenke insisted the decision came with deliberation, that it gives the Nuggets the best chance at “competing for the 2025 NBA Championship and delivering another title to Denver and our fans everywhere.”

He believes this move can provide a spark. How cute. In truth, he took a blowtorch to the season.

The Nuggets will receive a bump for a few days with David Adelman, a worthy coaching candidate, in charge. Then they will get bounced in the playoffs.

Why not let Malone finish what he started?

There will be those who argue that there is never a good time for something like this. Yes, there is. It is after the season, which will be over in a few weeks unless Adelman — an offensive wizard — suddenly convinces the Nuggets to treat defense as something other than a hobby.

The Kroenke family has a history of winning championships with the Nuggets, Avs and Rams. They know how to run an organization. But their conduct in this instance is disturbing.

When things are bad, don’t hide. Fill the space. That is what leadership looks like. Want to fire Malone? Stunning. But OK. Then hold a news conference, Josh, explaining the decision. Don’t let one mistake become two.

And don’t confuse the point. This isn’t about the media. It is about demonstrating responsibility to your players, to your employees and to your fans. And no, talking to the team-owned TV station does not qualify as such. That is the definition of taking cover.

When the late Pat Bowlen fired Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, a two-time Super Bowl winner, he fielded questions for an hour. Then Shanahan was made available.

As of now, the first time a Nuggets official will speak to outside media is Wednesday when Adelman holds his pregame availability.

The Malone Years: A decade-long timeline of Michael Malone’s tenure in Denver

So, he gets a public grilling and is left to articulate the awkwardness? That is laughable. Say this: It fits with how the last coach was treated on his way out. People around the league will remember this for a long time.

As for Malone, as the losses mounted, his anger turned into helplessness. The players’ body language — lacking effort and an inability to finish — reflected poorly on him. And it always comes with this context: Nikola Jokic is having one of the greatest seasons in NBA history, and a potential six or seven seed is all the Nuggets will likely have to show for it?

But Malone did not assemble this roster. He would have never let Bruce Brown or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope go. He wanted a true backup for Jokic, not the ghost of Dario Saric. Malone gave Booth’s prized young players more opportunity and it led to sobering conclusions.

Beyond Christian Braun, none of them took a significant step forward or look like impact players. Throw in Murray’s awful, out-of-shape start to the season and Michael Porter Jr.’s maddening inconsistency, and it is no wonder Malone foolishly leaned on Russell Westbrook in clutch moments.

Malone’s demeanor and competitiveness are better suited for games once a week. But in the end, he won 510 times for the Nuggets. He guided them to six straight playoff berths. He will be a head coach next season for someone else — if he wants it.

His crime in Denver? He was too honest, too accountable. The same cannot be said for those who fired him.

Payton has made this speech hundreds of times, but this one carried special meaning. It represented his first playoff berth with the Broncos, and he wasn’t about to miss.

He cut through the smoke, figurative and literal, by presenting four game balls that help explain why the Broncos have a game this Sunday in Buffalo.

One by one, Payton thanked franchise owners Rob Walton, Carrie Walton Penner, Condoleezza Rice and Greg Penner.

There were anecdotes for each. Rob, Payton told the players, is a walking reminder that the grass is not greener elsewhere, that he has created the best environment in pro sports. Payton reminded the room of how Carrie helps current players in the community and has strengthened the organization’s bond with its alumni. Condoleezza, he revealed, left him sleepless the night before his initial interview with the Broncos. He called Peyton Manning for advice. Her football knowledge is that respected. And he finished with Greg, the team’s operating CEO, crediting his insatiable interest, business acumen and vision for creating this moment.

“I wasn’t choosing to be in the same division as Patrick Mahomes,” Payton said. “I was choosing people and tradition.”

This scene illustrated how effective the Walton-Penner ownership group has been, forming a strong partnership with Payton and general manager George Paton.

When fellow NFL owners approved the richest purchase of a team in North American sports history, on Aug. 9, 2022, at the J.W. Marriott in Minneapolis, it cleared the way for a new era for the Broncos.

In the Walton-Penner ownership group, Denver has found its next Pat Bowlen — and they have done it their way, with a new level of sophistication, caring and discipline. They followed a Hall of Famer, inherited a rabid, suspicious fan base, and have become the force behind the Broncos’ resurgence, a reason to believe this franchise will remain a standard-bearer in the NFL.

The Shakespearean drama of the bickering Bowlen children is now a distant memory. The fretting about the lack of the resources is over — the $4.65 billion winning bid representing a fraction of the wealth buttressing the��NFL’s new richest ownership group.

What has transpired over the past 29 months — on and off the field — has proven the Broncos are in good hands. While working on an accelerated learning curve, ownership has remained visible and accountable. There was a concern this team might be just a hobby since it represents only a slice of the group’s business portfolio.

With players seeing Greg Penner at practice daily, even on the 50-yard line during this week’s snow, bumping into Carrie Walton Penner in the cafeteria, and talking to the owners at every game, it is clear this is a passion project.

They bought this team to change and improve lives. And win games. A lot of games.

“As a player, you feel like you have their full support,” quarterback Jarrett Stidham said. “And what I appreciate most is that they are genuine people. During the bye week, me, my wife and the McGlincheys went to Aspen and we saw (the Walton) kids. The next week at practice Mr. Greg comes over and has a 10-minute conversation about living in Aspen. They really care about us. And when it comes to football, they are totally invested. They are here all the time with boots on the ground.”

The transition was not without hiccups. Even as it seemed like the owners made the right moves — approving Russell Wilson’s contract extension, moving forward with $100 million in stadium upgrades while keeping an eye on future locations, and accelerating league approval of new uniforms — it was clear they inherited a mess.

Head coach Nathaniel Hackett, hired before their arrival, was in over his head. Wilson was dissolving before their eyes. And worse, the team stank.

Bowlen, known affectionately as Mr. B, built his reputation on achieving excellence in everything, producing more Super Bowl berths than losing seasons over three-plus decades. Greg Penner asserted his authority four months after taking over. He fired Hackett and made it clear that he wanted a coach who would create a culture of accountability.

Payton has delivered. Penner felt the coach set the right tone by pushing players hard in his first training camp and cutting veterans early last season, namely Randy Gregory and Frank Clark, who were not buying in.

But the Broncos still finished 8-9, their seventh straight losing season. A seismic change was needed. And the willingness to write a huge check. Payton wanted to cut Wilson. Ownership signed off. It meant that the quarterback was paid $124 million for 11 wins, leaving a record $85 million dead cap hit in his wake.

If not for Penner’s decision to eat the money, an admission the contract was a mistake, Payton would not have been able to clear the deck to draft Bo Nix, who just posted the best season by a rookie quarterback in franchise history. It was Penner in a nutshell: He knows when to push, when to pull and when to ask tough questions, while still having his coach’s back.

“(Ownership) is very consistent, and in today’s sports, it����ap probably one of the biggest indicators of success,” Payton said.

The owners have contributed well beyond deep pockets.

After the club’s dreadful 2022 season, Penner made it his pet project to improve the team’s fitness. He commissioned studies and followed Payton’s suggestion to hire Beau Lowery as the team’s vice president of player health and performance. Over the past two seasons, the Broncos rank among the best in fewest practices and games lost to injury, something they hope continues with the building of new state-of-the-art headquarters at the training facility.

“Everything we do as a team from a recovery standpoint, the (owners) are quick to make suggestions. They are always there to support us,” receiver Marvin Mims Jr. said.

Added left tackle Garett Bolles, “They have 100 percent contributed to our success. It����ap not just on the field. If they know somebody’s wife is having a baby, they want to make sure they are getting them home, taking care of stuff. Those things go a long way in knowing how they feel about us. That’s all you can ask for.”

The bonds extend beyond the current roster. Those paying attention to training camp practices and home games can see the increased presence of former players. While alumni were around before, the Walton-Penner group has made them feel more welcome with new traditions, like planting the team flag before kickoff.

Carrie Walton Penner has been instrumental in strengthening these connections, which included adding a new family room at the stadium.

“They are the best in the NFL. They have improved the facilities for current players, brought former players into the fold. They have us as captains at home games,” Super Bowl 50 champion Ryan Harris said. “I cannot say enough good things about them.”

Or as former star cornerback Chris Harris Jr. put it, “They have been amazing.”

Strong ownership requires balance. You need money, vision and the spine to lead without meddling.

No one was better than Bowlen. He empowered employees while holding them to a high standard. He was always around, forming relationships with players during his stationary bike workouts in the training room or running the team’s weekly college football pick ’em pool.

Penner is similar. Like Bowlen, he is a fantastic athlete — it is hard to name a mountain he hasn’t climbed — with a fiery competitive streak. He is not one to let tradition get in the way of progress, unafraid of making tough decisions with a coach or a contract.

So yes, the Broncos are back in the playoffs. This is not a coincidence.

“You guys have accomplished a lot this season. And there’s something in life about always going higher than what people think you can do. Again, couldn’t be more proud of you all,” Penner said in the locker room after receiving the game ball. “This front office, coaching staff, this is an incredible, incredible group. And we are privileged to be part of it.”

Frankly, it is the other way around.

, the Broncos consumed 700 Uncrustables per week last season. Multiple players told me the number is likely greater this year.

“I definitely believe that,” cornerback Riley Moss said.

Like me, just as many players found the number stunning. Is Joey Chestnut in the building? Were they counting those munched by 12U soccer and football teams that periodically practice in the Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse?

“I think there is probably an IT guy upstairs crushing like 100 of them,” joked Zach Allen, who insisted he has not devoured one since joining the Broncos last season. “There is no way just players are eating that many.”

Understandably, team officials are not leaning into the idea that their success is traced to a sealed crustless sandwich consisting of peanut butter and jelly filling held together by crimped edges. The Broncos use sports science and employ nutritionists to make sure their players, coaches and employees eat healthy.

But what happens between well-planned meals? When childhood innocence returns and a player, coach or security guard wants a snack? Move over, banana. Stay on the plate, orange slice. There is nothing like a soft, gooey, hockey puck to provide a kick.

“I get here around 6:30 a.m. and eat breakfast. So, around 11 you want something before heading out to practice,” center Alex Forsyth said. “I will have probably two a week. I like them.”

After spending a few hours in the locker room checking this out, I wondered if the whole thing was a hoax. That volume PBJ eaters don’t exist, or they heard I was on their trail (mix) and disappeared like D.B. Cooper.

I began my search for answers with the usual suspects: the offensive line. They are big guys with large appetites. In looking around, I saw no wrappers scattered on the floor, no purple stains on shirts.

Right tackle Mike McGlinchey might occasionally eat one at halftime, but he explained PB&Js are not exactly his jam. Center Luke Wattenberg has one here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary. So, I figured, the answer was across the room. The storage shed for all that peanut butter and all that jelly had to be The Belly.

Quinn Meinerz, I am on to you. Confess.

“I have eaten them, but I promise you I am not crushing them,” Meinerz said. “It����ap funny. I have gotten so many messages across social media platforms asking about this.”

The offensive linemen’s explanations were perfectly reasonable, so maybe it is time to think outside the frozen cardboard box. Perhaps the backup quarterbacks are in some secret Men vs. Food competition.

“It����ap not me,” Jarrett Stidham said.

“I have had a few, but I don’t really eat them much,” Zach Wilson explained.

OK. None of this makes sense. The Broncos are inhaling Uncrustables like grade schoolers at band camp and nobody has an appetite for them? Who in the H-E-double hockey sticks is eating all these raviolis of PB&Js?

I get a tip from a source. Follow the crumbs to the corner. Specifically the cornerbacks. We all know that Pat Surtain II ranks among the NFL’s upper crust. What I did not know until this week is that he is also an All-Pro consumer of Uncrustables.

“I have two a day. The consistency of the peanut butter with that jelly filling in the middle. MMM, it works. They are good,” Surtain said of the premade delicacies. “So I definitely pick up a few here and there. It wouldn’t surprise me if people are leaving the building with some in their pockets.”

Riley? Is he talking about you? Are you guilty? Alas, he is not. But he is funny. Which my peanut-butter-coated-tongue-in-cheek investigation appreciates.

“Listen, they are light. They are quick. Easy to eat,” Moss said. “We didn’t have them at Iowa (in college). That was one of the exciting things my first week here was, ‘Wow, we have Uncrustables. That����ap huge.’ I love them.”

Not all teams do. The Saints and Bengals, per The Athletic, eat the fewest at 50 per week. The Seahawks ranked second at 320.

And then there are the Broncos in The 700 Club. It remains an impressive number, like a rebuilding team with a 5-3 record. I am going to say it now: If the Broncos reach the playoffs, it will be the greatest thing since sliced bread and peanut butter and jelly.

“Somebody is eating them,” said receiver Michael Bandy with a laugh. “They keep disappearing.”

Who does that?

“Him. When you think about what you want in a leader, Justin’s face should be right next to it,” explained Broncos safety P.J. Locke. “My dad always told me that when you get to the top, bring the ladder up. That����ap exactly what Justin does.”

In March, the Broncos went full HGTV, breaking ground on an unannounced rebuild. They made no attempt to re-sign free agents Lloyd Cushenberry and Josey Jewell. And they cut quarterback Russell Wilson — and Simmons.

There is a reason the NFL does not broadcast games on the Hallmark Channel. Sports stories end happily never after. Simmons was a Pro Bowl and All-Pro safety, media Good Guy winner, and the most impactful player in the community.

He would have reason to believe his exit would be more seamless, like standing at a podium in a few years announcing his retirement. Instead, he received a heads-up call the night before he was cut that the Broncos were planning to part ways. Coach Sean Payton viewed an $18.25 million salary for a safety as a luxury.

The market correction at the position shows Payton was right. But it still felt wrong because it was Simmons. By any measure, he was the Broncos’ best player over the past eight years. He was the franchise’s modern-day Floyd Little. Honored for his individual play, but left feeling hollow on a team that never made the playoffs.

So, he gets cut, and what did he do next?

Simmons showed up at the Broncos facility the morning of the transaction to say goodbye.

From the blue-collar workers to the white-collar executives, the star safety knocked on doors and delivered one message.

“There is so much that goes into playing well on Sunday. Even outside of practice. The nutritionist, the athletic trainer, those in the training room, the people upstairs in the front office who help with logistics, and so many others,” said Simmons, speaking about it for the first time on Monday night. “I might not have said thank you every day I walked in, but I wanted to make sure that my last time roaming those halls as a player I said thank you and took time to let them all know that their work and words behind closed doors meant so much to me and played a big part in my success.”

Employees who have been with the Broncos for the past two decades could not recall a player more gracious in his departure, more intentional in his purpose. It is one thing to get laid off and post a social media message about being grateful with more cliches than a Nickelback song. It is something entirely different to show up at your former employer’s door and — fingers crossed the key card works — become an in-person email.

Simmons told me he learned from the exits of Von Miller, Demaryius Thomas and Chris Harris that every player is eventually vulnerable because of their contract, age or a coaching change. Still, couldn’t he have just sent a group text like the rest of us?

“It was just important to me,” said Simmons, whose father and grandmother died within a few days of each other last summer. “It was how I was raised.”

I can hear eyes roll. They shouldn’t. What Simmons did was not a designed photo op. Employees revealed his actions. Simmons had no desire to share it, answering only when I asked about it.

“When I got here and learned what the Denver Broncos looked like and stood for under Pat Bowlen, I wanted to emulate what I saw from some of the vets that were under his tutelage when he was the owner,” Simmons said. “Those were some of the things that ran through my head and I made the conscious decision to do it.”

The purpose of this column is not to rehash a decision from three months ago. Selfishly, I wanted Simmons to stay because of his insightful and thoughtful answers during interviews. But I was also happy for his fresh start because he deserves to win. It still stings that it did not happen in Denver, where he played in 118 games, leaving him in the top 10 among active players without a postseason appearance.

“I have no regrets about my career in Denver. My biggest reflection, though, is that I didn’t see things through and I didn’t personally — and I know it����ap a team game — get us back to the postseason,” Simmons, 30, said. “But I know that is something that will happen. There’s great players, great coaches, great leadership. That will happen sooner rather than later and when it does it will be a special feeling around here.”

Simmons remains unsigned as a free agent. There has been plenty of interest. He could make sense in places like Atlanta, Miami or Philadelphia.

“Honestly, I am looking for a team that is going to give me the best opportunity to play at the level I have been playing at, and on top of that, I am looking for a team that is a contender and is ready to win,” Simmons said. “I feel like I bring a lot to the table leadership-wise but also in my play. I think I can help whichever team it is reach their dreams and goals of winning a Super Bowl.”

Simmons is what is right about sports, if not life. He is a nice guy who shouldn’t finish last anymore.

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