John Harbaugh

Not only did the newly minted New York Giants head coach have two picks in the top 10 after trading Dexter Lawrence to Cincinnati recently, but then the draft started and perhaps the single most talented player in the 2026 class fell right into his lap. That, of course, is Ohio State’s Arvell Reese. He may well play on the edge, but the Giants also have Kayvon Thibodeaux, Abdul Carter and Brian Burnes. So the Giants can trade Thibodeaux and collect more premium draft capital or they can play Reese as a chess piece off the ball early in his career. Then Harbaugh landed Miami right tackle Francis Mauigoa at No. 10, bolstering the offensive line and providing a long-term bookend with left tackle Andrew Thomas. If you want to turn a team around quickly, you’ve got to be good up front. Harbaugh, no surprise, leaned into that on both sides of the ball in the first round.

NFL draft 2026 tracker: Picks, instant reaction and more live coverage

Whichever 2027 QB the Jets draft next spring

Former Broncos GM Darren Mougey had a busy night, selecting Texas Tech OLB David Bailey at No. 2 overall, Oregon TE Kenyon Sadiq at No. 16 and then trading back into the first round to also get WR Omar Cooper Jr. at No. 30. That is one heck of a haul. It����ap good news in the present day, but it����ap really good news for whichever quarterback the Jets take next spring. That����ap when it looks like this rebuild project really, actually starts to get evaluated. Sure, Geno Smith will probably throw the ball to Sadiq a lot this fall, but those are the kind of players who make life easier on a young quarterback. That guy is coming, probably very early in the 2027 first round.

Former Broncos secondary coach Christian Parker

Parker got the job as Dallas’ defensive coordinator, knowing that the unit needed a world of help. It started in free agency and the trade market and now the Cowboys have also doubled up in the first round of the draft. They traded a pair of fifth-round picks to slide up one spot and nab Ohio State safety Caleb Downs — on the shortest of lists as the best player in the class — at No. 11 overall, then took outside linebacker Malachi Lawrence out of UCF at No. 23 overall. Downs is ready-made. Lawrence … we’ll see, but he’s got a ton of talent, he’s long and he’s fast. He’ll have a chance to see early time opposite Rashan Gary. Parker’s depth chart looks considerably different after just one day of the draft.

Losers

Matthew Stafford

When the Los Angeles Rams came onto the clock at No. 13 overall, Stafford could have looked at the board and seen players like Sadiq and WR Makai Lemon and thought, yeah, those guys would really help. Same with any number of tackles. Instead, the Rams took who they hope someday will be his successor. That����ap quarterback Ty Simpson out of Alabama. Teams can say as many times as they want that they’re happy to have their veteran — particularly when that veteran is the reigning MVP — but at some point, you want to see what the young guy has. Maybe that’ll be three years from now. But maybe it won’t be.

A.J. Brown’s Philadelphia landlord

Just kidding, Brown probably owns a house. But his days in the City of Brotherly Love are almost certainly numbered. Somebody somewhere might already be pumping out Patriots jerseys with his name on the back. As if there wasn’t enough smoke around the possibility that Brown gets dealt to New England -- it won’t happen until after June 1 for reasons related to Brown’s contract — the Eagles picked Lemon at No. 20 in the first round. That after they also traded for receiver Dontayvian Wicks just before the draft and also signed Hollywood Brown. The other Brown can probably start looking for real estate in Massachusetts.

Patrick Mahomes

The Chiefs star quarterback is working back from a torn ACL. When he returns, he will certainly be happy to have CB Mansoor Delane and DL Peter Woods on the other side of the line of scrimmage. But to not get any help in the first round on the offensive side of the ball? That����ap got to be at least a little disappointing somewhere in there. The Chiefs hardly ever pick in the top 10 and they pressed that positioning even more by trading up three spots to grab Delane. There were receivers aplenty -- Cooper and Denzel Boston among them — and RB Jadarian Price available late in the first round, but Brent Veach and company went with Woods instead. No qualms with either pick. Just, no help for Mahomes, either.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tangible stuff. Quite a bit of it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When general manager George Paton met the media on Monday at the NFL owners meetings, he provided an interesting nugget about Nix and the acquisition of receiver Jaylen Waddle.

“I wasn’t with him when he found out, but he was pretty excited when I walked down to the training room. He obviously went to dinner with all of us. I think Bo thinks he is a quasi-GM sometimes,” Paton said. “Sometimes he is right, and sometimes he is wrong, but I think he’s right on this guy. This guy is pretty special.”

So, too, is Nix. The Broncos know this. A transition is happening right before our eyes. Nix’s stature in the organization is growing, a testament to his maturity and remarkable first two seasons.

Reticent to question anything from coach Sean Payton as a rookie, Nix began voicing his opinion about preferring uptempo last season. He also has no issue screaming at Payton over slow substitutions, something that played out on a weekly basis.

And the offseason has only amplified his gravitas.

He cemented every belief about his character by the way he tackled his ankle rehab, and showed his growth by speaking up about Waddle. Write it off as him having a strong opinion because he played against the receiver at Alabama in the Iron Bowl if you must.

In my belief, there is more to it than that.

Folks in charge want to know what Nix thinks. And we would be foolish to believe that Nix did not welcome Davis Webb’s promotion to offensive coordinator with anything but open arms. He became close to Webb over his first two seasons, his development progressing rapidly under the quarterback coach.

Webb had leverage this offseason as a hot head coaching candidate. There was no reason for him to stay without being given some play-calling duties. Payton reluctantly relinquished the role — don’t blame him, since he remains good at dialing up gems. And in case you didn’t hear, it was — all together now — his decision.

But there is no way this change happens without Payton, Paton or owner Greg Penner — or some combination thereof — having a conversation with Nix.

This is how the NFL works. As a rookie, it was Nix’s time. Last season, it was his team. In his third season, he will become the face of the Broncos, a role filled by Payton since 2023, as he navigated a hairpin U-turn.

Nix should be coming off a third straight playoff berth and in line for a $50 to $60-million a year contract. That kind of deal comes with perks, spoken or not.

We have seen this evolution with Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. They were all rookies once. Now, you can’t mention their team without thinking of them.

Nix is quickly ascending into this role. The good news? He gets it. He knows the Spider-Man principle — with great power comes great responsibility.

The star franchise quarterback is the answer to every question. And he is both the excuse and the target of criticism when expectations are not met. It all comes with it, especially when the salary matches a gross national product.

Since being drafted, Nix has passed every test. If he reaches his potential next year with a Super Bowl berth, it will be obvious that he is the fulcrum on which the organization pivots.

Avs sweaters: The Avs are in position to clinch the NHL’s best record. It is not because of a certain sweater. Best line seen on this: The Avs are the favorites to win the Stanley Cup. The Quebec Nordiques are the favorites for the top draft pick. Time to stop wearing the blue jerseys.

Go-Go Rox: Adding Jake McCarthy and Willi Castro has given the Rockies a throttle. They had 10 stolen bases through six games. They posted 87 last season. The Rockies have no plans to stop running. “It’s how we are going to play,” outfielder Mickey Moniak said. Coors Field awards more than power. Nice to see a front office recognize this.

Obviously, the Chiefs signed Lydell Mitchell, not Keaton Mitchell.

And Jaylen Waddle must be the sequel to

How else to explain DraftKings’ current over-under, season win totals for the AFC West? The amount of disrespect shown the Broncos is disgusting.

The Broncos won 14 regular-season games last season. They captured the AFC’s top seed. Had they stuck with the run-it-back philosophy exclusively this offseason, they would have deserved to be dinged. But after the Broncos acquired Waddle, their victory line changed from 9.5 to 9.5.

Huh?

The Broncos’ schedule is like catching a barbed wire football in the teeth. Nine teams reached the postseason last year. And that does not count the Chiefs. But the toughest opponents come to Denver — Seahawks, Rams, Jaguars, Bills — where the Broncos are 15-4 over the past two seasons.

Even without knowing the draft picks, the Broncos should win 11 games, with 10 as the floor. No one pressures or sacks the quarterback like Denver. And with Waddle and new play-caller Davis Webb, the Broncos should lead more frequently, creating opportunities for takeaways.

Waddle moved bettors’ money, but not the line. This is surprising given how it addressed a specific need to make the offense more explosive. Talking to people who set lines, they believe 9.5 should be 10, but offered reasons why it isn’t.

The predicted minimum four-game drop traces to Bo Nix’s health. And luck.

The team’s messaging is that Nix is fine, enjoying a seamless recovery from ankle surgery. Wife Izzy shared a photo earlier this month of Bo walking out of the hospital with their newborn baby girl, Riley Belle, without a boot, crutches, or scooter.

It was the first evidence that Nix is on track, suggesting he should not have to fundamentally change how he plays quarterback.

The 12-3 record in one-score games remains an issue, given how teams typically trend backwards the following season. That is fair. Waddle, however, will minimize a plunge.

There is no way the Chiefs and Chargers should be listed above the Broncos.

Oddsmakers trust the Chiefs because of their past. They are showing enormous respect to Patrick Mahomes, coming off ACL surgery, and coach Andy Reid. But they shipped off their best defensive player, Trent McDuffie, who forced a trade to get paid, and admitted that he “wanted to go to a team that was a contender.” The Chiefs could not get off the field on third down last year, and losing McDuffie will exacerbate the problem. 

No one knows when Mahomes will return. And even the most optimistic timeframe suggests he will miss a chunk of September, replaced by Justin Fields, who is on his fourth team in four seasons.

And the Chargers spent the offseason shopping for discounts or off the clearance rack. Like the Broncos, they focused on retaining players. Just getting their offensive tackles healthy will not make them better than Denver, not with road games at Baltimore, Buffalo and Seattle.

The Broncos are not a great team. They need a few more tweaks. But there is no way to interpret the DraftKings’ 9.5 wins number as anything other than an insult.

Avs as Kings: The Avs posted a 4-0 road trip after the disappointing home loss to the Stars. Time to draw some conclusions. Marty Necas has been worth every penny of his new contract (yes, he needs to produce in the playoffs). And Scott Wedgewood must enter the postseason as the No. 1 goalie, no debate, no controversy.

No Cinderella: There are no Cinderfellas in the NCAA tournament anymore. Don’t bring me Iowa. They are in the Big Ten. Culture and coaching matter. But the days of George Mason and Loyola of Chicago reaching the Final Four are over. Any kid who stars at smaller schools transfers before the program can become a threat to the behemoths.

Down. Up. Down. Close wins in the NFL, year-to-year, are

“You can’t coach clutch,” Plummer texted me Tuesday. “It����ap either in your blood, or it isn’t.”

The Bo-lief is strong enough in ����apountry right now to bench press a F-450 Super Duty. Bo Nix is 24-10 as a Broncos QB1 in regular-season tussles, 25-11 overall. He’s 13-8 in games decided by eight points or fewer as an NFL starter, and went 12-2 last fall.

The Broncos put up a mark of 11-2 in one-score games in 2025, tying an NFL record for one-score victories (11) in a season. Nix replaced Patrick Mahomes as the NFL’s Comeback King. Before the madness of Sean Payton’s fourth-down call in the AFC Championship, Denver had a method.

“The ones that have it, you can see it in their eyes,” Plummer continued. “It permeates the whole situation and something akin to faith!”

Faith is contagious.

Fortune is fickle.

Why did Denver trade for Jaylen Waddle?

Why are fans clamoring for another hammer at tailback to pair with J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey?

Why do they want more speed at inside linebacker, someone who can run with tight ends up the seam?

Because history doesn’t say 11 one-score victories is hard to repeat.

History says it’s nearly impossible.

Over the last five decades, only five NFL teams have won 10 or more one-score games in a season — the Broncos became the newest member of that club last December.

But get a load of how those other four teams fared the very next year:

• 2024 Chiefs: 11 one-score wins, 15 wins overall. The following fall? A record of 1-9 in one-score games, six wins overall.

• 2022 Vikings: 11 one-score wins, 13 wins overall. The following fall? A record of 6-8 in one-score games, seven wins overall.

• 2019 Seahawks: 10 one-score wins, 11 wins overall. The following fall? A record of 8-3 in one-score games, 12 wins overall.

• 1978 Oilers: 10 one-score wins, 10 wins overall. The following fall? A record of 6-3 in one-score games, 11-5 overall.

Summing up? Two of the four teams that’d racked up double-digit close wins regressed badly, while the other two improved slightly.

But none of them won more than eight games by eight points or less the following season.

In fact, their combined winning percentage in one-score games that next year was 45.6% (21-25). And the average relapse was a 3.25-win falloff compared to the prior season.

With a tougher schedule, a new offensive coordinator and the usual spate of wacky, unpredictable , would it shock you if the Broncos finished 11-6? Or 12-5? In this division, you’d take either one of those records in a so-called “regression” year. Take it and run with it.

The Broncos’ floor is as high as it’s been since Sheriff Manning hung up his spurs. The ceiling is fluid. You swap draft picks for a proven, win-now talent such as Waddle because the football gods are going to demand that you make your own luck from here on out.

“Each season is different,” Plummer said. “When there is unfettered belief in each other, it’s contagious and those wins can happen naturally. On the contrary, when there is unrealistic expectations from the outside, pressure to perform can impede the natural flow of what’s happening on the field. That’s why believing is paramount to achieving!”

While the Snake’s Dove Valley chapter was coming to a close, the New Orleans Saints won four games by eight points or less in 2006, en route to a 10-6 mark.

The Saints were 2-3 in those close contests the next season and slipped to 7-9 overall. The year after that? A 3-6 record in one-score games and an 8-8 mark overall. Payton knows. And if he doesn’t, he’s sure as heck about to find out.

Mike Evans? Good luck!

Romeo Doubs? See ya!

Wan’Dale Robinson? Au revoir!

Christian Kirk? Adios!

The Broncos coach has what’s left of his heart in the right place. But he might want to get his eyes checked. Better yet, Payton might want to have the receivers they’re running it back with have their peepers looked at.

Only the Titans (who featured a rookie QB) and Browns (bad QBs, then Shedeur Sanders) elected to punt more times during the 2025 regular season than the Broncos did (75).

And only Jacksonville (8.0%) had a higher team drop rate than the Broncos’ 7.0%.

Don’t know about you, but if I’m sitting on a franchise quarterback on a rookie contract, I’d be sorely tempted to overpay in the short term now for a more sure-handed WR 2 or borderline WR 1. Alas.

“My brother’s the worst at this,” Payton had told reporters just before the 2024 trade deadline. “He’s the worst at free agency, and he’s the worst at the trade deadline. He just wants to see action. Then right after the action takes place, he never goes back and reflects and says, ‘Well, that was a bad signing,’ or, ‘That was a bad trade.’

“I say that, I kid him, but I think that there’s so much more that goes into it relative to whether you’re trading a player (or) acquiring a player. Contracts go into it, vision goes into it, and locker room goes into it. There are a lot of details that go into that.”

True. Fit matters, especially in a place as cold and cynical as an NFL locker room.

But culture can’t catch touchdown passes. Chemistry alone won’t move the chains.

And young, top-shelf quarterbacks on cost-friendly deals don’t last forever.

From 2020-2023, during Joe Burrows’ initial contract in Cincinnati, the Bengals reportedly spent $287 million on free-agent deals — an average of $71.78 million per year.

According to OverTheCap.com, the Chiefs in 2018, the second season of Patrick Mahomes’ rookie contract, spent $57.3 million on 26 players from outside their roster.

After the second year of Bo Nix’s current deal, the Broncos had, as of Monday afternoon, spent zippo on nada.

“Hope what we’ve got will get better” is a strategy, granted, although former Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt has seen how well that one usually works out. Payton’s putting a lot of faith in a good group of coaches to squeeze more out of the status quo. It’s putting a lot of faith in new offensive coordinator Davis Webb. It’s also putting a lot of faith in another first-year wideout, which is a risk in and of itself.

The Broncos have picks No. 30 (first round), No. 62 (second round) and No. 94 (third round) to lead off their 2026 NFL Draft haul. Seven wideouts were taken among picks 25-75 last spring, including Pat Bryant III to Denver at No. 74.

Their average stat line in 2025: 28 catches, 364 receiving yards, three touchdowns, two drops. Bryant has all kinds of size (6-foot-2, 204 pounds), catch radius, and upside, but his production last year (31 catches, 378 receiving yards, one receiving touchdown, three drops), along with all the ups and downs that came along with it, proved fairly typical of rookies drafted around his salary slot.

You may not get more cap value in 2026 from, say, a Doubs, who grabbed 75 balls and six scores last fall and just inked a four-year, $68-millon deal with the Patriots. But you’ll almost certainly get more production, historically, when compared to a low-first-round-to-early-third-round rookie wideout.

“When you have a dominant O-line and a dominant defensive line, people want to come here,” left tackle Garett Bolles told us in January.

“We’ve got a great running back room, we’ve got great receivers. Obviously, we need some key players to come in and do what they need to do by getting points on the scoreboard. We got a phenomenal defense. We have everything we need. We just need a couple more playmakers, and sky’s the limit for this team.”

The sky here, sadly, remains only so high, so long as the Broncos value continuity over, well, math. Take Adam Trautman. Super dude. He was tied for 46th among NFL tight ends last season in receiving first downs with 11. Old friends Greg Dulchich and Noah Fant collected 14 and 13, respectively.

According to Spotrac.com, after his latest Broncos extension, That trio averaged 28.3 catches and 2.3 receiving scores last fall, if you’re curious. Trautman collected 20 and (checks notes) one, respectively.

A Payton quote from last August has been doing the rounds lately. Remember when the Broncos coach likened free agency to garage sale finds? In hindsight, it was a harbinger.

“My parents loved garage sale-ing,” Payton told reporters that day. “That was their deal, one thing they enjoyed together. And I think I had 10 couches growing up …

“So, they come home with a new couch, and you’d remove the old one. And you were so excited — it was a sectional — until you sat in the left corner, and it wiggled. And then you realized why it was a free agent.”

Tell that to Talanoa Hufanga. Fit may catch on. Culture may catch on. But if nobody can catch the darn football, what’s the point?

You are welcome, Broncos. This is your free agent wish list. Your offseason orange and blueprint.

Enough with starter by committee.

Enough with sacrificing games to develop a prospect.

Enough with a screen game that should be a drinking scream game.

Enough with under 4 yards per carry.

The Broncos have sprung to life over the past three years under coach Sean Payton. But when it comes to their offense, enough is enough. Payton surrendered play-calling to Davis Webb — it is in name only until evidence arrives in games — but that cannot suffice.

For the Broncos to reach the Super Bowl and win it — the last two steps on this remarkable climb back to relevancy — they have to go for it. Sign free agent running back Travis Etienne Jr.

Take cues from the Avs. No team understands the urgency of operating in a championship window like the local hockey club. The Nazem Kadri trade is a sensational move by an organization that cares about one thing — winning a championship.

Payton deserves praise for his work. As does general manager George Paton for creating a sturdy foundation through the draft.

But there is no longer room for patience. Be proactive, not reactive.

The NFL roster narrative is simple to follow. Construction hinges on having a franchise quarterback, as the Broncos have in Bo Nix.

And when you have one on a rookie contract, it provides an opportunity to take big swings at other positions. The Broncos are good at the most important: edge rusher, cornerback and left tackle.

They are not paying big money to a receiver or a tight end. And this is not the March to max out the credit card on those positions when reinforcements can be added in the draft.

That is not the case at running back. Once Jeremiyah Love comes off the board — possibly in the top five — the infatuation ends.

So pick up the phone and go big.

Etienne checks the boxes. He is dynamic. He is fast, capable of accelerating through the hole and shifting into third gear in the open field. He has soft hands and is better in space than an astronaut.

In many ways, he is a more available version of J.K. Dobbins. Dobbins was a terrific fit, but he played in only 10 games, unable to run away from his injury history.

Etienne, 27, has missed six games in four seasons. Durability is a skill. He has it. And he has also improved as a pass protector, meaning there should be no concern about leaving him in the game on third down.

It is a must to have a player like this. An obvious starter. And upgrade. R.J. Harvey boasts Joker traits in the passing game. He will not be forgotten. But context matters. The Broncos possess a championship-caliber defense. They are close.

This is not the platform to let a second-year player figure it out as he goes.

Enough.

The Broncos must address this position in a meaningful way. It feels like ����apountry would rather step in front of a moving bus than add someone like Rico Dowdle or Kenneth Gainwell.

Kenneth Walker III? Sure. He is coming off the best game of his career. In the biggest game of his life. That requires paying showroom floor prices.

It is not my money, so the $14.6 million annually he will command — using Breece Hall’s franchise tag as the floor — does not bother me.

The issue? It does not make as much sense since Walker is not an every-down back. Even after Zach Charbonnet tore up his knee, Walker still yielded snaps to the backup.

Let the Chiefs set the market. It is clear they will add a runner to take the pressure off Patrick Mahomes as he recovers from knee surgery.

His patience as a runner is the most appealing characteristic, a style that could finally marry the solid blocking metrics with results.

It has been an uncomfortable question after the past two seasons. The Broncos’ offensive line ranks near the top of the pack, and somehow the run game remains mediocre or, as in the case of a huge fourth down in the AFC Championship, unreliable.

Payton and Paton have earned the benefit of the doubt in the way they have built this team. But goodwill will get siphoned without a big splash.

The external and internal expectations should intersect this week.

Last year was different. Objectively, the Broncos were a year ahead of schedule. So they can be forgiven for trying to get by without explosive weapons. Their one stab at it did not work as Evan Engram morphed into a platoon player.

The Broncos cannot afford to try to live on that margin again. The Rams are going for it, acquiring star cornerback Trent McDuffie. The Bills are making a strong push, acquiring receiver D.J. Moore. The Ravens are shipping off two first-round picks for edge rusher Maxx Crosby. And the Seahawks, even if Walker signs somewhere else, are not going anywhere.

This is the type of approach required in Denver. It is easy to argue that this is the most important offseason since the Broncos added DeMarcus Ware, Aqib Talib, T.J. Ward and Emmanuel Sanders in 2014. That was back when John Elway was acting like George Steinbrenner.

This time around, the Broncos are only a fraction of that daring. A dash of that bold.

The Broncos have a problem. Their offense is not good enough for a championship. So, fix it.

Go to the ATM and sign Etienne.

It will be money well spent.

Denver and New England’s whiteout matchup in the AFC Championship in 2025, though, brought back several degrees of recent history. Back to the days of Brady, and Peyton Manning, and the last time the stands at Empower Field rocked as loudly as they did this winter. Back to a Broncos group that knew quite well, as ex-Denver running back C.J. Anderson recalled, who they’d have to go through in the AFC to get to a Lombardi Trophy.

“It����ap interesting to see like — it����ap them two at the top of the apex,” Anderson told The Denver Post this week. “I think for us, it was like, we knew that we were going to run into Ben (Roethlisberger). Or we were going to run into Brady.”

History has repeated itself, a decade later. These Broncos have thrust their Super Bowl window wide open after a 2025 season where they came three points and a blizzard away from a trip to the Super Bowl last Sunday. They built a team to climb over the Chiefs and the Patrick Mahomes hump. They built a team to climb over the Bills and the Josh Allen hump.

Now, though, they’ll have to build for a future where they can topple the Patriots, a similarly young team that also employs a culture-changing head coach and a second-year quarterback still on his rookie deal.

“Denver’s a great team,” Patriots receiver Trent Sherfield said, sitting at his locker Sunday after New England’s loss to Seattle in the Super Bowl. “This team’s a great team. Like, you’re in the first year of a rebuild, and you get to the Super Bowl.”

“So,” Sherfield continued, “it’s gon’ be real competitive.”

Sherfield, of course, saw both franchises’ ascent firsthand in 2025, after spending half the year as the Broncos’ fifth wide receiver and the end of the season on New England’s practice squad. He sees a future where Denver and New England — who both went 14-3 in 2025 — will have to go through each other, once again. And where quarterbacks Bo Nix and Drake Maye go head-to-head across the future playoff runs.

“I think Bo’s arm talent, being able to run the ball, extend plays, turn a bad play into a good one — I think they have a lot in common,” Sherfield said. “I feel like that����ap gonna be, probably, an AFC Championship for a couple of years. Kinda like how Patrick Mahomes is always in it.I think that those two will be going at each other for a long time.”

Of course, the two quarterbacks have yet to actually face off in their NFL careers, after Nix’s fractured ankle heard ’round the world. And several Broncos made it quite publicly known that they believed they should’ve been in the Bay Area if a couple of factors had broken differently, as the Seahawks  dominated the Patriots from kickoff to triple zeroes in a 29-13 win.

“This game is making me even more sick to my stomach that we lost,” safety P.J. Locke . “‘Cry me a river?’ Yes I am! Lol.”

Maye struggled mightily throughout the Patriots’ playoff run after an MVP runner-up regular season, posting an expected-points-added mark of -41.2 in the postseason — worst of any playoff quarterback, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Still, New England enters the offseason with just six players set to hit unrestricted free agency and an enviable $41 million in cap space, according to Over The Cap. Several key pieces beyond Maye, like left tackle Will Campbell and cornerback Christian Gonzalez, are also still on rookie deals.

For years, in general manager George Paton’s five-year Broncos tenure, Denver has structured its rebuild in part around toppling the Chiefs and Mahomes in the AFC West. The Broncos’ wild-card loss to the Bills and Allen in 2024, meanwhile, served as a direct wake-up call for areas of roster need.

Count New England and Maye, now, as the next conference foe that Denver will have to account for across the next few months.

“I would say that the league is in good hands,” Sherfield said.

Head coach Sean Payton officially hired Webb as Denver’s next offensive coordinator, the team announced Monday afternoon. The move comes less than a week after Payton fired offensive coordinator and longtime loyalist Joe Lombardi, setting in motion an offseason of offensive staff changes.

Denver also promoted offensive quality control coach Logan Kilgore to quarterbacks coach.

For weeks, it seemed Webb could have been heading for new pastures. The fast-rising Broncos quarterbacks coach was connected to the Las Vegas Raiders’ head-coaching job since Denver’s playoff bye week in early January, and emerged as a finalist this past week after meeting with them in person Jan. 26. Broncos second-year quarterback Bo Nix even acknowledged as much in an end-of-season conference call with reporters Wednesday.

“I think highly of him,” Nix said on Wednesday. “I know he’s a really good football coach. And I know he’s got a lot in store for him in the future — don’t know what it looks like, a lot of speculation. You never know until it happens.

“But for him, say he was a head coach in the division, I’d enjoy beating his butt two times a year.”

That’s no longer a concern, as the 31-year-old Webb will continue to work hand-in-hand with Nix in Denver. And Webb’s promotion hints he could take over play-calling duties, which would stand as an unprecedented move in Payton’s 18-year career since being named the head coach of the New Orleans Saints in 2006.

A source with knowledge of the situation told The Denver Post that there’s nothing in Webb’s OC deal that stipulates he’ll take over play-calling duties from Payton, and staff haven’t made a concrete decision if he’ll actually assume that role. But Webb had standing interest from the New York Giants, Baltimore and Philadelphia for their respective offensive-coordinator positions and play-calling duties, leaving little reason he’d stay on the Broncos’ staff for a simple title change.

When asked about Las Vegas’s interest in Webb last week, too, Nix discussed Denver having a “play-caller” — but didn’t specifically mention Payton.

“I know everything is all going to work out,” Nix said on Wednesday. “The season’s going to get here. We’re going to have an OC, we’re going to have a play-caller, we’re going to have our team. And we’re going to go out and try to beat our opponents.

“But just me speaking on him, he’s an awesome coach, going to be an awesome — in whatever role he’s in, he’s going to do great things.”

In October, Payton was asked on a conference call if he’d considered transferring play-calling duties — even for a brief period — to another member of his staff.

“I think we’re comfortable as an offensive staff of how we’re operating,” Payton said.

But after a season of inconsistent offense in Denver (14th in the NFL in points in the regular season), Payton has been particularly introspective in recent weeks. He cautioned himself against getting too conservative as a play-caller before Denver’s divisional win against Buffalo. He immediately allowed for self-second-guessing after a failed fourth-down call in the Broncos’ AFC title-game loss to the Patriots. Payton said Tuesday that “those are the moments you wish you had back,” although he deflected any notion he felt pressure for the call.

“I don’t pay attention to all the criticism,” Payton said. “I think if I paid attention to that, I don’t know that we’d ever be in this position.”

Hours later, though, the first domino fell in an early offseason of rapid staff changes for the Broncos. Payton fired Lombardi on Tuesday, after Lombardi had served for three years as Denver’s offensive coordinator and served under Payton as an assistant for 11 previous years in New Orleans. Payton also fired receivers coach Keary Colbert. Then, on Friday, Pete Carmichael — a senior offensive assistant in Denver who’d been Payton’s offensive coordinator for 12 years in New Orleans — left the Broncos for the Bills’ offensive-coordinator job.

With the Raiders closing in on Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, Webb pulled himself out of the running for the Raiders’ head coach job. Denver interviewed Buffalo quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry and Commanders passing-game coordinator Brian Johnson in compliance with the NFL’s Rooney Rule, but were always centered on Webb as a top candidate.

Webb, who has never before called plays in an NFL regular-season game, was hired in 2023 as Payton’s quarterbacks coach immediately after a six-year NFL career as a backup QB. In August, though, he sparked buzz in assuming play-calling duties for the Broncos’ 27-7 preseason win over the Cardinals.

“I had thrown a couple of call sheets or stat sheets from my first time and highlighted a few things and said, ‘See if you can beat this,’” Payton said after that game.

“And he did.”

Webb drew such rave reviews for his work in the Denver quarterbacks room that No. 3 quarterback Sam Ehlinger turned down multiple other contract offers throughout the season in part to continue developing under Webb.

Webb has spent time around a series of terrific quarterbacks and unique offensive minds, from backing up Patrick Mahomes in college at Texas Tech to backing up Eli Manning and Josh Allen in the NFL. He’s learned from Air Raid evangelist Kliff Kingsbury to a West Coast-rooted, old-school program in Payton.

Asked about Webb’s ability to lead a locker room as a head coach, Ehlinger said he recognizes Webb has never coached a bigger group than a quarterback room, but didn’t think leading a larger organization would be an issue.

“Any time you’re the quarterback of a large college program and you also get meaningful snaps with an NFL organization, you’re in a position of leadership whether you like it or not,” Ehlinger said. “So he definitely has experience from a leadership standpoint in a locker room with football players and organizations. As a coach, he’s been leading our room. So he’s developed skills there, too.”

He’ll now experience a dosage of it in Denver as Payton’s OC, Webb’s latest endorsement in a rapid ascent.

Ehlinger said he, like many around the league, is interested to see what Webb’s style as a play-caller looks like in regular season games, whenever that time arrives.

“You kind of have to be in that situation when the pressure is on and the bullets are flying to really develop that signature,” Ehlinger said. “I think he’ll have a unique mix of kind of new-school, Air Raid, attacking style. But also be able to balance the run game with all that he’s learned here from Sean and his experience in Buffalo. I’m curious to see what that becomes.”

Kilgore spent the past three seasons with the Broncos in an offensive quality control role, but Payton and the Broncos have been bullish on his talent. The 35-year-old worked primarily with tight ends and returners in his previous role, but played quarterback in college at Middle Tennessee State. Then he spent an offseason with Payton in New Orleans as an undrafted free agent before getting into coaching. Kilgore was coaching tight ends at Arkansas State when Payton was hired as Denver’s coach in early 2023 and called him to join the staff.

Moving him up from a QC job to being the day-to-day man in front of Nix is a big affirmation from Payton and a major step up for Kilgore.

Kilgore and Webb together are central parts of a revamped, substantially younger offensive meeting room around Payton.

Josh Bulla has known Stidham since elementary school in Stephensville, Texas, when a young Bulla first noticed the kid who was a foot taller than everyone else. From that point, Bulla said, Stidham always knew he was headed for some greater destiny. Milestones came and went: he played college football at Baylor and Auburn, where he was a two-year starter , and got drafted by the Patriots in the fourth round in 2019. The final goal — become an NFL starting quarterback — came again on the night of Jan. 18, 2026.

Just not like this, Stidham told Bulla.

He’d gotten his chances before. Two starts in 2022, when the Raiders benched Derek Carr. Two starts in 2023, when the Broncos benched Russell Wilson. Those were exciting. But Bo Nix breaking his ankle Saturday night, as Stidham told Bulla, was “gutting.”

“The first thing that came to mind,” Stidham said, as Bulla recalled, “was, ‘No.'”

“Like, this is Bo’s show.”

Over the past two years, Bo and Izzy Nix have become “like family” to Stidham and his wife, Kennedy, Bulla said. Nix’s second-year run ended shockingly after a divisional-round win over the Bills, and the emotions Stidham felt extend much deeper than his mentorship in Denver. In Stidham’s two years starting at Auburn, from 2017-18, .

It began as simple program ambassadorship, then-Auburn OC Chip Lindsay remembered. Stidham would talk to Nix and host him on visits. Eventually, though, Stidham started asking Lindsay how Nix did in his high school games. He knew that Nix was his successor, former Auburn wideout Ryan Davis recalled.

“Jarrett was basically, like, giving him the keys,” Davis said.

Seven years later, Nix is giving them back. — Nix’s first public statement since breaking his ankle — the Broncos’ starting QB offered a hat-tip, saying he “couldn’t be more confident in Jarrett.” Denver’s season now lies in the hands of Stidham, a career backup who has started four career games in six NFL seasons and hasn’t thrown a regular-season pass in two years.

Across this week’s preparation for the Patriots in Sunday’s AFC championship, Denver’s locker room has heaped praise on Stidham to anyone with a microphone. They have no other choice.

“He’s going to rip it,” head coach Sean Payton said Wednesday. “And that will be our approach.”

In Year 2 in Denver, Nix and Payton found synergy as the second-year quarterback praised Payton for letting him be his “authentic self.” These Broncos formed an identity around Nix, a fiery 25-year-old whose white-hot competitiveness fueled a season of second-half comebacks. They are now rallying around Stidham, a cool 29-year-old whose serenity masks his own fire.

Stidham has kept the same routine for three years in Denver, left tackle Garett Bolles said. He eats the same food. He drinks the same water. He hits the steam room at the same time. He listens to the same music, on a Turtlebox waterproof speaker that he affectionately refers to as “Mr. Turtle.”

Nothing has changed in this week of madness. Stidham is who he is because he knows who he is. That is comfort, as these Broncos head into a war.

“He got some swag,” Bolles said Thursday. “He got some swag to him. So, that fuels us all.”

…
In 2023, 6-foot-4 safety JL Skinner arrived in Denver as a raw sixth-round pick out of Boise State. He took plenty of flak from Stidham, who’d just signed as a free agent and who had no more experience in Denver than Skinner.

Stidham wanted Skinner to be better. And he let him know about it. The QB chirped at him in practice.

“JL, what are you doing? What are you doing?”

“I’m like, ‘Man, (expletive) this guy,'” Skinner said Thursday.

“And then in my head,I’m like, (expletive), he’s actually throwing that ball right over my head, too. I gotta do something about it.”

He was born with that. The now 6-foot-3 Stidham played offensive line in Pee Wee football in Weatherford, Texas, because he was tall. Future high school coach Joe Gillespie introduced him to former SMU quarterback Kelan Luker for some training in middle school. The first time Luker worked with Stidham, he walked out to a field, saw him throw a few balls, and noticed the kid never missed.

Stidham had never played quarterback before. To this day, Luker maintains he never really taught him anything over the course of a few years.

“I think what really happened – he was so talented, he could just watch what I did,” Luker said, “and he could imitate.”

In Denver, QB3-turned-QB2 Sam Ehlinger notes that Stidham’s ball “spins really pretty.” The RPMs came naturally. So did unassuming athleticism, a trait that most every teammate or coach notes about Stidham.  Underneath six years of backup life in the NFL is years of life as a five-star gem, the No. 1-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the class of 2015 (above Kyler Murray, Sam Bradford and Joe Burrow).

“He’s just one of those West Texas boys who grew up spinnin’ it,” said Jordan Palmer, a former NFL quarterback who’s long worked with Stidham and .

After two years at Auburn, Stidham arrived in New England in 2019. It was Tom Brady’s last year; the Patriots were treating Stidham as “the next guy,” as Davis said, a former Auburn receiver who spent six months in New England’s training camp in 2019. Stidham picked Brady’s brain, and Brady once left three of his custom hoodies as a gift in Stidham’s locker. But the Patriots brought in former MVP Cam Newton two weeks before training camp the next year in 2020, and drafted Mac Jones in the first round in 2021, and shipped Stidham to Las Vegas in 2022 without ever starting him in a game.

Old habits die hard, Bulla recalled. Stidham grew up as the guy. He never stopped believing he could be. After signing in Denver, he got a taste of it late in 2023, when the Broncos benched Wilson. He lost the starting job to rookie Nix in 2024. Bulla asked Stidham how he was feeling heading into training camp this past summer, wedged squarely behind a young franchise face.

“He’s like, ‘It����ap the NFL,'” Bulla said . “‘Everyone’s talented. Crazy things can happen. And I still have to act the way I always have, and that I want to be the starter.'”

…
In December 2017, Carson Wentz tore his ACL, and the 11-2 Philadelphia Eagles had to recalibrate around backup quarterback Nick Foles. Offensive coordinator Frank Reich set about watching the “Foles highlight reel,” as he dubbed it — cut-ups of every single Foles completion from five previous NFL seasons. He sat with Foles and had the quarterback walk him through some preferred concepts: a few post routes here, a deep ball there.

Outside the Xs and Os, though, Reich and the rest of the Eagles’ staff didn’t do much to try to control messaging to the team. They let Foles roam free as a personality. And Foles — whose confidence earned him a provocative — became legend across a Super Bowl run in the weeks to follow.

“If you’re trying to cover up what you perceive as some weakness, some leadership weakness of the backup quarterback, then you’re in trouble,” Reich said.

Reich, a former quarterback himself who once stepped in as a backup to Jim Kelly for multiple Buffalo Bills playoff runs in the 1990s, has taken an interest in Stidham’s particular situation in Denver. He’s watched clips of his interviews. He’s detected moxie.

“It seems like the kid’s a winner,” Reich said. “Like, he’s a winner. And everybody knows it.”

Emotion crested and fell in Denver in the span of a single hour after the Broncos’ 33-30 overtime win over Buffalo. Sean Payton went to a podium in street clothes, told reporters Nix was out for the season with a fractured ankle, and the Broncos’ locker room came away as stunned as the rest of the world. Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi found out from his son, driving home from the stadium. Receiver Courtland Sutton literally didn’t believe it was true.

Utter chaos has swirled around Stidham in the days since. The Copelands were deep in the woods of West Texas on a hunting trip, cracking open a few Coors Originals and playing cards, when they got the news he was starting. Friends have let Stidham know they’ll make it to Denver in any way possible for Sunday’s game. An entire fanbase has turned its social-media avatars to pictures of Stidham in a strange form of solidarity. This shot is “everything he’s ever dreamed for,” Bulla said.

Stidham has yet to flinch, in public or private.

“Is he getting sleep this week? I don’t know,” said Brian Hoyer, a longtime NFL backup who was with Stidham in New England in 2020 and 2021. “I talked to him (Tuesday). And either it hasn’t hit him yet and he doesn’t have any words, or he hid it really well.”

There is a “calmness” about Stidham, Payton said on Wednesday. There always has been. The most worked-up Bulla has ever seen Stidham — in a circumstance not involving family or football — was when Bulla pranked Stidham in high school by hotwiring his beat-up 1995 Chevy Silverado and hiding it in a different parking lot. On-field mistakes have always brought the same reaction, Palmer described: Aw, shucks, and move on.

These days, Stidham carries that “Mr. Turtle” speaker into the team shower on the daily, blasting an assortment of Kate Bush and Fleetwood Mac and country tunes. He has a rookie football card of cornerback Riley Moss pinned to the front of his locker, for some reason. He wore a full-body lion costume to the Broncos’ Halloween party in October.

“Every time I see him,” practice-squad receiver Elijah Moore said, “he’s playing music. I guess he’s just got the vibes on him. I love that.”

Stidham did not always present this way. Take it from Washington head coach Jedd Fisch, who coached New England’s quarterbacks in 2020.

“Really?” Fisch said, told the tale of Mr. Turtle. “He wasn’t like that. Yeah, I don’t remember. Maybe it����ap because we were in the middle of COVID … I would not have guessed that one.”

The years have brought Stidham’s self-awareness outward, as he’s moved into a comfortable stage of life. Stidham and wife, Kennedy, welcomed their third child in October. When he and Bulla catch up these days, they spend roughly two minutes talking football and the rest figuring out “what the hell” to do in fatherhood, as Bulla put it.

“I see a direct correlation,” Palmer said. “When people have their personal lives figured out and then get put into the spotlight on a big stage, I see that go better for the guys that have their lives figured out …. I would say Jarrett’s about as stable as it gets, for a guy his age.

“There’s no reason to change,” Palmer continued. “There’s no reason to do it different. So I’m sure that Jarrett is going into this weekend with a lot of confidence that – he is enough.”

…
Sean Payton, Skinner said, does not keep “bums” on his roster. Backups. Practice squad. Doesn’t matter.

Stidham was one of Payton’s first signings upon arriving in Denver in 2023, even as the Broncos already had Wilson. The organization made it a priority to bring Stidham back this past free agency, on a two-year deal worth $12 million. The money signals trust around the league. Moore — a 25-year-old receiver who’s now been on four NFL teams — said he’s heard of Stidham’s reputation in the past, before signing with the Broncos a month ago.

“Stiddy got signed back-to-back-to-back for a long time now,” Skinner said at his locker Thursday. “And nobody knows why, from the outside. But we know why, from the inside. Because that mother(expletive) can throw that goddamn rock.”

Payton believes Stidham’s inside the 32 best quarterbacks in the NFL. So does Patriots defensive play-caller Zak Kuhr, that Stidham “could be a starter for a number of teams.” Stidham’s arm talent and sneaky mobility aren’t in question: quietly, he ran for a combined 84 yards in two starts for the Raiders in 2022.

Sean Payton called Jarrett Stidham a "real good foot athlete" today. Of note: Stidham ran for a combined 84 yards in the first two starts of his career with Las Vegas in '22.

Here's a first-down scramble against a top defense in the 49ers in '22. Plus a ball-flick celebration.

— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans)

The major issue, heading into Sunday’s conference championship, is whether Stidham has enough between the ears to handle the “kitchen sink” that the Patriots’ defense throws at opposing quarterbacks, as Hoyer described. Under Kuhr, a swarming New England attack stumped Los Angeles’s Justin Herbert in the wild-card round and picked off Houston’s C.J. Stroud four times in the divisional round.

“They’re going to bring a lot of (expletive), and that����ap where he has to rely on Sean Payton, and the preparation, and I’m sure there’s gonna be a lot of checks and – ‘When you see this look, you gotta get into this play or change the protection,’” Hoyer said.

The counter-move is that New England has no shred of Broncos tape on hand to prepare for Stidham. So, how does Denver design a gameplan around him in the span of a week?

Payton has made clear he sees Nix and Stidham as two different styles of quarterbacks. Others disagree. Stidham spent much of 2020 with Fisch studying tape of Jared Goff, and San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo, and quarterbacks in West Coast systems with plenty of under-center looks. This Denver offense has shifted more in that direction across the second half of 2025, and Palmer and Hoyer don’t see Payton’s established system needing to change much from Nix to Stidham.

“When they can run the ball and throw the play-action game, he can reach anywhere on the field with the ball,” former Auburn OC Lindsey said. “And try to create some explosives off play-action – that would be the first thing that would come to my mind.”

On one hand, Stidham’s in a position where three weeks and a Super Bowl ring would forever change his life, Bulla said. On the other hand, friends and confidants don’t see Stidham stretching himself much for Sunday. Quarterbacks who finally receive their shot, as Palmer said, generally fall into one of two mental buckets. Some hope it’ll go well. Some think it should go well.

Stidham feels, Palmer said, that he should play well.

“When we win that game,” Skinner said, “what they gon’ say now? What they’ gon say now, you know what I mean. They gon’ say — ‘Stiddy this. Stiddy that.’

“Stiddy gon’ get a brand-new contract off this, bro,” he continued. “That����ap how I’m looking at it, man. We riding out with Stiddy.”