“Coach mentioned that as well, just how young of a team that we are,” Broncos punter Jeremy Crawshaw told me as we talked at his locker stall after the AFC championship. “So I think these guys, we kind of spoke about it, how (that learning is) going to fuel our off-season to be better for next year. I think everyone’s kind of on-board with that.”

Even the smartest guy in the room has to realize it ain’t rocket science. The last two NFL champions had at least three things in common: 1.) An amazing defense; 2.) a decently mobile quarterback who won’t make game-killing mistakes; 3.) a reliable No. 1 tailback who can soften up the opposition.

Sean Payton‘s already ticked the first two boxes. Why let your ego get in the way of the third?

Seattle QB Sam Darnold’s postseason completion percentage was a Bo Nix-like 61.5% this winter. His touchdown-to-interception radio was five-to-zip. Running back Kenneth Walker III did the heavy lifting in the Divisional rout of San Francisco (116 yards rushing) and in that Super Bowl stomping of New England (135 yards rushing).

Eagles QB Jalen Hurts (5-to-1 TD/pick ratio in the ’24-25 playoffs) could lean on Saquon Barkley, who had at least 18 touches and at least 97 yards from scrimmage in each of Philly’s four playoff wins a year ago.

While the Seahawks were pounding New England, 29-13,

“Hope I get to experience football on this stage. Everything on the line. I’ll get there one day. I know it…”

Oh, my goodness. Ease his pain, George Paton. Free the man. The Broncos need a 1A back to pair with RJ Harvey’s 1B. A 1A who’ll actually be healthy in December and January. A bell cow to lean on when the next snow squall hits.

The Seahawks are just the Broncos with a better RB room, a better WR room, and no self-delusions as to who they really are offensively.

Seattle sacked Pats QB Drake Maye six times. Seahawks kicker Jason Myers drained a Super Bowl-record five field goals. The teams combined for 15 punts. Super Bowl 60 even felt like a Broncos game, other than the fact Seattle led 12-0 at the end of the third quarter instead of trailing. And that Seahawks coach Mike MacDonald elected to kick a field goal on fourth and short at the New England 23 to go up 9-0 just before halftime. When your defense can turn any pocket into a box of Kleenex, why get cute?

An offense led by Jarrett Stidham would’ve been a disaster against that Seattle front. But one led by a healthy Nix would’ve made for a fair fight. Would Bo have been running for his life? Sure. But not the way Maye had to. . Pro Football Network said New England’s hogmolies were 12th-best. PFF ranked the Broncos’ OL No. 1. PFN had them at No. 4. Per SumerSports.com,

Nix basically practiced against the Seahawks’ pass rush for months at a time. Part of No. 10’s superpower isn’t just avoiding outside linebackers. It’s his ability to keep the Broncos out of second-downs- or third-downs-and-forevers.

I mean, yeah, the Patriots earned the right to be there. They beat Houston in the snow at home. They beat the Broncos in a blizzard at Empower, becoming the first New England bunch to ever win a postseason game here. The Pats made some of their own luck. Some. But I’ll go to my grave assured that if Nix plays two weeks ago, and Stiddy doesn’t, the Broncos would’ve found a way. The way they almost always found a way.

Sunday reminded us that runs to the outside zone never get old in the Big Game. Especially if you’ve got the kind of offensive line that can pull it off. Payton’s already got the latter in-house. He just needs a healthy hammer to hand off to.

J.K. Dobbins, the Broncos’ offensive MVP for the season’s opening two months, is part workhorse, part tax auditor. His peak season only lasts about 11 or 12 weeks a year.

“What does this running back room need?” I asked Dobbins during clean-out day last month.

“What do we need …” Dobbins mused. “I mean, you tell me what you think we need.”

“A healthy you would be good,” I replied.

“I think so, too.”

“A big back would be good,” I continued.

“Big back?” Dobbins countered, musing again. “I think I could do both, though. Don’t you think that?”

“Well, I don’t know …”

“You can doubt me a little bit,” he laughed. “You can tell me, ‘Nah, I don’t think so.’ You’d be like, ‘Ah, you’d get hurt.'”

Nah. Don’t think so.

You might get hurt, dude.

Barkley hasn’t played in fewer than 14 regular-season games since 2021. Walker has appeared in at least 12 regular-season games in every season since 2022. Hall has averaged 16.3 games over the last three seasons. Dobbins has averaged eight games per season since 2022. He’s played in more than 13 regular-season games just once — all the way back in 2020, his rookie year.

If it’s about finishing drives as well as finishing seasons, Hall holds his own there, too. Since 2023, he’s averaged 3.0 yards per touch inside the opponents’ 19-yard line while accounting for 12 touchdowns either running or receiving. Dobbins over the last three seasons averaged 3.25 yards per inside-the-red-zone touch with 12 scores.

The last two NFL champs have led with incredible defenses, suffocated elite AFC passers, then ran out the clock. The Broncos are on the right track. They just need more beef in the boxcar.

In theory, Strnad is a reserve linebacker in Denver. In theory, he is a special-teams contributor and fill-in on defense. In practice, however, Strnad’s been preparing like a starter — as he told The Denver Post in early October — since the start of the season.

“People throw the backup or special-teams title a lot,” Strnad said. “But it����ap like, ‘Dude, I’ve basically been starting for over a year now.’”

Do you view yourself as the starter at this point? 

“Yeah, I do,” Strnad affirmed. “I absolutely view myself as a starter in this league.

“And yeah, go out there each and every week, and try to execute, play at the highest level, and help this team win.”

One of Sean Payton’s first rules of thumb that he expressed when he arrived in Denver back in 2023 was to “come in with a blank slate.” Another Payton rule of thumb is for staff to go by what they see. That’s made for an interesting evaluation on Strnad — a 2020 Broncos fifth-round pick who played zero defensive snaps in 2022 and 2023.

Strnad was thrust into action in 2024 after a rash of injuries at ILB and started eight games. Still, the Broncos viewed him as an LB3. He could’ve explored opportunities to start elsewhere last offseason. Still, he returned to Denver on a one-year deal at the start of free agency. The Broncos promptly shelled out $35 million across three years for Dre Greenlaw, and Strnad faded back into the background.

“You’re competing every day,” Strnad told The Post after Week 1. “Your job’s never safe in this league. You have a good game, like, that����ap what my DC in college, Mike Elko, used to always be like — ‘This game will humble you. The moment you play good, the next play, it’ll humble you just like that.’ And that����ap what this game is.

“So I never get too high these days.”

Through six games in 2025, Strnad has become a key contributor at the heart of a fearsome Vance Joseph defense. The 6-foot-3, 235-pound inside linebacker has assumed a unique role as a weak-side blitzer. On multiple plays against the Jets, Joseph disguised a standard four-man rush by dropping an edge rusher into coverage as Strnad came flying from the weak side. After racking up a sack and a half against the Jets, Strnad ranks third on the Broncos in sacks (3.5) — and first in the NFL among inside linebackers.

ILB Justin Strnad's success as a blitzer is giving Vance Joseph more lanes to be creative w pressure.

Watch Nik Bonitto show and then drop into coverage here as Strnad rushes, ends up getting a split sack. Joseph deployed this same look a couple times vs. Jets

— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans)

As Denver returns from London to face the New York Giants in Week 7, the Broncos are now eligible to activate Greenlaw off injured reserve if he’s healthy enough to return from an offseason quad tear. Denver has plotted Greenlaw’s recovery for the long haul, and Strnad’s contributions have given the franchise the breathing room to do so.

The Broncos’ biggest weakness on defense early on this season has been covering opposing running backs and tight ends, with Joseph’s match-coverage-heavy scheme prone to miscommunication picking up versatile pass-catchers. Eagles running back Saquon Barkley torched starting ILB Alex Singleton on a wheel route for a TD as recently as Week 5 in Philadelphia. But Jets rookie TE Mason Taylor and the team’s running backs combined for just two catches and a single receiving yard on Sunday in London, as Denver had few coverage breakdowns.

allowed just two catches for one yard to Jets RB/TEs yesterday. Justin Strnad has explained that's been issue b/c of miscommunications in match coverage.

Here's Talanoa Hufanga communicating perfectly on a third-down checkdown and blowing up Isaiah Davis.

— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans)

The Broncos still need Greenlaw. Communication busts aside, teams have attacked the middle of the field in the passing game against Denver, and Singleton has surrendered the second-most receiving yards in coverage of any linebacker in the league, according to Next Gen Stats.

For now, though, it’s time to officially dub Strnad the Broncos’ LB2.

�³���:��7:30 a.m. MDT Sunday

�³�����:��Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London

�ճ�/�����徱��:��NFL Network, 850 AM/94.1 FM

Broncos-Jets series: Denver’s 10-9 win over the Jets last year brought the Broncos’ series record to 22-18-1 all-time against the Jets. Interestingly, the Broncos have shut New York out three of those 41 matchups, including a 26-0 win in September 2021.

In the spotlight: It’s officially ‘Don’t Bite the Cheese’ week for Sean Payton and the Broncos.

Saints linebacker Scott Shanle remembers walking into the Saints’ facility in the early days of Sean Payton’s reign, and finding mousetraps dangling from the ceiling.

This visual aid came, of course, from mentor Bill Parcells.��Don’t bite the cheese. One translation: don’t overlook an opponent. Aaron Glenn would likely recognize the metaphor, a former NFL Pro Bowler who walked the halls with Parcells in Dallas and who Payton later brought to New Orleans.

Now, all these years later, Glenn and the 0-5 New York Jets are a hefty piece of cheese for Payton’s Broncos on Sunday.

“He’s taught me a lot about being a coach,” Glenn, a first-year head coach, said Wednesday. “And listen, he’s one of the guys that – I love everything about what he is and what he’s about.

“I’m looking forward to competing against him, because I know how he is. And this’ll be a competitive battle between the both of us.”

Payton, for one, scoffed this week at the notion that trap games exist in the NFL. But every aspect of this Jets matchup should sound alarm bells around the Broncos’ hotel in the sleepy English countryside. The Broncos are coming off one of the highest possible regular-season highs, proving they can close in the Payton Era with a comeback win over last year’s Super Bowl champions in Philadelphia. They now face the only winless team remaining in the NFL — at a neutral venue, a nine-hour flight away in London, without any upcoming bye week.

And three of the Jets’ losses have come in one-score games.

“We know exactly where we’re at,” Glenn said. “We’re not hiding from that fact. Yes – we are 0-5. We understand that. And we understand we have a lot of work to do. And we’re not running from that at all.”

Cue up the in “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.”

New York has both folded against high-quality competition — getting their “(expletive) whooped” by Buffalo 30-10 in Week 2, as Glenn put it — and battled hard against winning teams like the Steelers and Buccaneers. Either version is possible across the pond on Sunday.

On paper, the Jets’ offense profiles similarly to the Eagles: a dink-and-dunk passing attack from a mobile quarterback who avoids mistakes. The Eagles’ Jalen Hurts hadn’t thrown a pick this year entering Week 6; neither has the Jets’ Justin Fields. And New York hangs its hat on running the football, averaging the third-most yards on the ground in the NFL through five games. The Broncos executed perfectly in a Vance Joseph-designed game plan last Sunday to keep Hurts in the pocket and make him a thrower. That will be another emphasis this week against the twitchy Fields.

“What we asked him to do last week was rush together and not rush past the quarterback,” Joseph said of Broncos outside linebacker Nik Bonitto, who racked up 2.5 sacks against Philadelphia. “That is hard to do as an NFL rusher, when you have a 1-on-1 with a guy you can beat.”

Discipline from the Broncos’ front will again be incredibly important against a Jets team that can gash on the ground but can’t protect its quarterback. New York’s allowed the highest pressure rate in the NFL (over 50%) through five games. If Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Zach Allen and company don’t get overzealous, the Broncos could still sleepwalk into another five-sack performance.

The Jets are also plenty porous against the run, and blitz often — the fourth-highest rate in the NFL, according to Next Gen Stats — but rank in the bottom third of the league in pressure rate. If second-year quarterback Bo Nix carries forward the composure he showed in the fourth quarter against Philadelphia, he could light up the skies over Tottenham on Sunday.

“This is not a team to just toss around like they’re winless,” Nix said this week. “But I think we’ll be ready to go. It����ap just another game.”

Who has the edge?

When Broncos run: Currently, the numbers paint J.K. Dobbins as a top-five running back in the NFL. Several voices in the Broncos’ locker room have spoken up that this offense flows better when they run the ball well — and early — and Payton turned back to Dobbins again as an opener and closer last week in a 79-yard, 20-carry performance. The numbers also paint the Jets as a bad run defense (24th out of 32 teams in rushing yards per game allowed). But Quinnen Williams is an All-Pro monster in the middle of New York’s defensive line, and the Broncos could sorely miss left guard Ben Powers in this one. Slight edge: Broncos

When Broncos pass: Sauce Gardner is one of the only cornerbacks in the NFL who can hold a candle to Pat Surtain II. He’s forced a tight throwing window on 50% of his targets this year, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats. That’s second only to Surtain. Gardner will make life difficult on Courtland Sutton, who’s off to one of the best starts of his eight-year career. But Sutton handled Eagles stud Quinyon Mitchell just fine last week, and a fantastic Broncos pass-blocking line is going up against a weak Jets pass-rush. Edge: Broncos

When Jets run: The game might tilt here. Running back Breece Hall is averaging 5.3 yards a carry despite an inconsistent offensive start, and Fields is a threat to tuck and go at any moment. The Eagles, for some reason, decided to only give Saquon Barkley six carries last week, but teams have had success gashing Denver up the middle this year. It’s doubtful Glenn goes away from that in London. Edge: Even

When Jets pass: Less than a quarter of Justin Fields’ attempts this year have come more than 10 yards downfield. The Broncos need to figure out a way to not stick Alex Singleton in one-on-one coverage against Hall, though, after Barkley toasted him on a wheel route in Philadelphia. Hall’s a great receiver out of the backfield, and Garrett Wilson has dominated man coverage this season. Wilson, though, will have to take on the NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Edge: Broncos

Special teams: How about Jeremy Crawshaw? Reports of his preseason rookie demise were greatly exaggerated. Crawshaw ranks second among all NFL punters through five weeks in the percentage of punts downed inside the 20 (62.5%). Kicker Wil Lutz nailed a 55-yarder last week, too, and Darren Rizzi’s unit has temporarily stabilized itself. They’ll face a special-teams unit in New York’s that nearly beat Tampa Bay on a blocked-field-goal return for a touchdown. 41-year-old Nick Folk is 9-of-9 on field goals this year, too. Edge: Even

Coaching: Aaron Glenn was once Sean Payton’s secondary coach in New Orleans, and Payton called him a “tremendous coach” this week. He is a coach, however, who only has five games under his belt. Payton just passed Parcells with 173 career NFL victories. Edge: Broncos

Tale of the tape

By the numbers

7: Sacks the Jets’ defense has recorded through five games. Also, the number of sacks Broncos OLB Nik Bonitto has recorded this season.

7: Touchdowns that New York has given up in Cover 0 (no deep safety) this season, most in the NFL.

7.0: Average yards per passing play that New York has given up this season, fifth-highest in the NFL.

17: Rushing yards that Vance Joseph’s Broncos defense has given up on quarterback-scramble attempts, the lowest in the NFL.

6.6:��Jets quarterback Justin Fields’ average yards-per-attempt on carries this season.

90%: Jets receiver Garrett Wilson’s catch rate this year against man coverage.

X-factors

�����DzԳ��Dz�:��CB Pat Surtain II. Kind of dumb to call the Broncos’ best player an X-factor, but a lot will ride Sunday on his matchup with Garrett Wilson. New York has no other consistent option in the passing game: Their next-highest producing wideout is Tyler Johnson with 63 yards in four games. Surtain matches up frequently in man-to-man, and Wilson’s burned man-to-man so far this season. Grab your popcorn.

����ٲ�:��TE Mason Taylor. One highly-touted rookie tight end already burned Vance Joseph’s defense this year, as Tyler Warren showed out in the Colts’ Week 2 win over the Broncos. Taylor will likely be heavily involved Sunday, as he’s already racked up 20 catches in five games and could pose matchup issues for Denver over the middle of the field. Expect his number to get called often with Surtain checking Wilson, too.

Post predictions

Parker Gabriel, Broncos writer: Broncos 27, Jets 13.

If this game were in Denver or even New Jersey, it’d have the trappings of a trap game. Instead, Sean Payton’s had the distinct privilege of sequestering his team away at a castle-esque outpost in Ware — where?! — a town well north of London proper. The group has had nothing to do but football. They’ll have had no choice but to get the message loud and clear. Plus, one of Payton’s biggest strengths the past two years has been having Denver ready to beat opponents it should beat. This is one of those games. If the Broncos keep Breece Hall bottled up and run the football well themselves, this should be a nice stroll through St. James Park.

Luca Evans, Broncos writer: Broncos 34, Jets 17

After watching the tape back from Philadelphia, it seems Bo Nix has found something. It seems Sean Payton has found something, too, with his running game. The pieces are set to perfectly align in London against a Jets defense that blitzes all the time but struggles to properly pressure. This could shape up as one of the cleaner and better games of Nix’s young NFL tenure. Joseph’s pass-rush might experience a bit of fatigue after running the same containment game plan two weeks in a row, but this should still be a blowout. Thinking the Jets score a couple times early and once in garbage time.

Troy Renck, Broncos writer: Broncos 27, Jets 10

If the Broncos cannot beat the Jets after knocking off the undefeated Eagles, there is no reason to come back home. The Jets stink. Every fringe fan will be cheering for the Broncos. And they will have reason to get loud as J.K. Dobbins continues chewing up yards and spitting out defenders, freeing up Bo Nix for gash plays on bootlegs. Justin Fields will not be as lucky. Look for Broncos’ defense to produce five sacks, including two for Nik Bonitto, as Broncos continue a trend from last season of smashing the NFL’s dregs.

Sean Keeler, Broncos writer: Broncos 26, Jets 20.

Trap game in cloudy London? Nah. Losing Ben Powers dings Sean Payton’s new ground-and-pound mojo, but probably only a little. Meanwhile, Justin Fields is running for his life and hanging on to his NFL future by a pinkie finger. The Jets rank seventh in opponent sack rate allowed, which plays right into the hands of the NFL’s best pass rush like (British) beans on toast. The only opponent more dangerous than a defending Super Bowl champ is an NFL roster that hasn’t won a game after a month of trying. Unless, of course, that team is the Jets.

Here’s The Denver Post’s stock report from a milestone win in Philly.

Stock up

Sean Payton, as a concept: Sunday was Payton’s defining moment in Denver, as every facet of the Payton Experience was checked across 60 minutes in Philadelphia. He scrawled “RUN IT!” on his play-sheet again, began the game running it, and quickly abandoned it. Then he picked it up again, and kept firing off rollouts and crossing routes, and made a gutsy fourth-quarter two-point conversion call. The 61-year-old Payton earned a game ball from owner Greg Penner in the postgame locker room for surpassing mentor Bill Parcells with his 173rd career head-coaching win, and it couldn’t have come in a more perfect summation of his head-coaching identity.

Fullback love: Denver’s decision to promote fullback Adam Prentice to the active roster in late September — with TE/FB Nate Adkins already present — seemed strange. But even with erstwhile starter Michael Burton on injured reserve, the fullback position has been important in an increasingly run-centric Payton offense. Adkins continued to prove himself as a quietly invaluable piece against the Eagles, often sealing off weak-side edge rushers from running down J.K. Dobbins. And Prentice picked up a key first down on a fullback dive for the second straight game. Long live the FB!

George Paton: Too boring to just throw Nik Bonitto in here week after week, so let’s go bigger-picture. A large part of Bonitto’s current ability to win one-on-one battles with tackles — a league-leading seven sacks in five games now — is because Zach Allen is drawing bodies next to him. Broncos general manager Paton signed Allen to a four-year extension in August and signed Bonitto to a four-year extension in September.

As long as those two are together, Denver will have one of the better pass rushes in the league. And Denver’s currently getting Bonitto at a base value of $26.5 million a year, as the Steelers are shelling out $41 million a year to an older and less-productive T.J. Watt. Crazy stuff.

Jahdae Barron: Two realities are true. One: Denver could’ve gotten more immediate production out of its No. 20 pick in this year’s draft. Two: Barron appears to be developing and playing quite well. Even as defensive coordinator Vance Joseph continues to pretty much exclusively rely on him in dime looks, Barron made plays in his 10 snaps against the Eagles, with two stops and a key third-down pass breakup in the fourth quarter. He’s only allowed 18 receiving yards on nine targets thus far in his rookie year, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats.

Stock down

Hey, remember Marvin Mims? Every so often, it seems as if Payton remembers and forgets and then remembers again that he can actually use Mims on offense. He was a featured piece last Monday against the Bengals, and then faded from view against the Eagles with just two catches on five targets. He was wide-open on a potentially explosive grab late in the third quarter against Philadelphia, but — in a slightly growing trend — Bo Nix laid the ball just long and Mims didn’t lay out to grab it. His usage continues to spike all over the place.

RJ Harvey splitting series: Denver’s second-round pick looked ready for more opportunity after racking up 98 scrimmage yards and a touchdown against the Bengals last Monday night. Not so fast. Harvey is still working through his youth. He continued to flash pass-catching upside with three receptions against the Eagles, but faltered elsewhere. He bounced an early run outside for a loss of three when he could’ve cut back inside for a gain. He got torched by Philadelphia’s Cooper DeJean on a play that nearly ended in a sack-fumble for Bo Nix. There are still growing pains here.

Riley Moss: Denver’s CB2 has made a habit in 2025 of surrendering big plays and then making a few right back. The Eagles’ DeVonta Smith beat him on Sunday, though, from wire to wire. Moss was much too overzealous in trying to press Smith on a 3rd-and-long, and got torched for a 52-yard grab. Smith got him again, too, on a 30-yard grab in the fourth quarter that was called back for an illegal-shift penalty on Saquon Barkley.

The city of Philadelphia: One of the lasting images of the Broncos’ win Sunday came with safety Talanoa Hufanga staring directly into the Eagles’ end zone after the final zeroes, flapping his arms to mock the Eagles, .

Not a good weekend for Philadelphia. Penn State just got trounced by a UCLA team with no head coach and no real coordinator. The Phillies lost Game 1 of the NLDS to the Dodgers. And the reigning Super Bowl champions have a whole bunch of issues to sort out after running back Saquon Barkley got all of six carries in the loss to Denver.

1. Sean Payton failed the down-8 challenge early in the fourth quarter, then set the Broncos up for a win using his own brand of aggressiveness.

When Denver running back J.K. Dobbins plunged into the end zone with 13:16 remaining in regulation Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, Broncos coach Sean Payton faced one of the classic modern-day coaching decisions.

Trailing 17-9, Payton had to decide between kicking the extra point or going for two.

The traditional route, of course, is to take the extra point and get within seven. Modern analytics and decision-making, though, tend to lean toward going for two.

The idea is this: If you convert two-point conversions at anything higher than a 50/50 rate, then that����ap the play because you have to score two touchdowns anyway, and with two cracks at going for two, you’re likely to get at least one. If you get the two points on the first try, then a touchdown and an extra point can win you a game. But failing to get the two on the first try can’t lose you the game.

Payton said afterward that he was sitting on a stash of two-point plays that he loved and wanted the chance to run against Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, Payton’s long-time friend and on-field adversary.

It was interesting, then, that Payton first chose the conventional route, sending the kicking unit onto the field for the PAT to get within 17-10.

The Broncos defense went to work and got the offense the ball right back after Philadelphia started its ensuing offensive drive with a holding penalty and ended up punting on fourth-and-16 following a short completion, an incompletion and a third-down Ja’Quan McMillian sack of Jalen Hurts.

Nix, for really the only time on the night, kicked Denver’s passing game into high gear with completions to Evan Engram for 18 on a spear route, then Courtland Sutton for 14 more. After two runs for 5 yards and an offensive pass interference put the Broncos in third-and-15, Nix hit Sutton for 34 down to the Eagles 11 and went back to Engram — who was not the primary option on the play — for a touchdown to get within 17-16 with 7:36 remaining.

At this point, Denver was rolling, and Payton decided it was time to eschew the traditional route and try to take the lead.

“We came here to win a game, and I had two or three calls that I loved,” Payton said. “So, sometimes you use those calls inside the five, but we got to a call that I had a lot of confidence in and the guys executed.”

Indeed, they did.

Payton put two tight ends to the right of Denver’s offensive formation and had receiver Troy Franklin alone on that side, with Courtland Sutton to the left and J.K. Dobbins behind Nix under center.

Nate Adkins motioned hard across the formation to the left. On the snap, Franklin jabbed hard like was running a slant and then busted it back toward the sideline.

He created instant separation from cornerback Kelee Ringo, and Nix pinned an accurate, on-time throw on him.

It looks easy, but it����ap not. Franklin is the primary route the whole way, and Sutton’s running a crosser as the only other route. Both tight ends blocked. Dobbins cut-blocked a free rusher. Nix sprinted to his right and threw it on the run.

“Troy’s got a really, really good first step,” Payton explained. “So when you watch the route, it����ap one jab and it����ap quick and he was fantastic on it. It was a good throw, it����ap a throw you got to make on the run.”

Franklin spent much of the offseason working on getting more explosive. He said Payton wanted him to stop and start like a Tesla. That route in that moment is exactly why.

“I’ve been doing it all week, so I put my mindset in, ‘Just trust your technique and don’t do anything different than what you’ve done in practice,’” Franklin said. “It����ap just really selling that jab. I sold it enough and got open.”

Payton has likened two-point conversion plays to Christmas presents in the past. Sometimes, if you’ve got a first-and-goal or a critical situation in that area of the field, you’re going to use your best play. A touchdown, obviously, is worth more than a two-point conversion.

In this instance, though, Dobbins’ 2-yard touchdown run earlier in the fourth quarter was just a simple plow-ahead run.

Payton, then, had several options at his disposal for the two-point play.

He chose wisely.

“Sometimes you play a game and you’ve got four other calls that you would love to have gotten to, and we won’t play these guys or that defense for (a long time) and they just kind of float away,” he said almost wistfully after the game. “There were two others, but that was one of them.”

When Payton loves a play, his players know it during practice. He’ll stop a walk-through and explain exactly how and when it����ap going to hit, or he’ll revisit another time something similar worked.

This was one of those plays.

The Broncos had been working on it for weeks in practice, Nix said, waiting for the opportunity to use it.

“He’s got his ways of letting us know that he loves this play, for sure,” Franklin said. “We’ll get it done for him.”

So, Payton made an interesting decision not using the arrow on the first touchdown of the fourth quarter, but he felt supremely confident that he had it in the quiver with the lead in the balance later.

“It was perfect,” he said. “We felt …  let����ap do that. Let����ap keep being aggressive.”

2. Bo Nix and the offense got rolling in a major way in the fourth quarter after 45 minutes of pretty much nada.

When the third quarter actually ended, the Broncos were on the move, down to the Philadelphia 32-yard line on an eventual touchdown drive, but had only three points on the board for the game.

Through the first 45 minutes, Nix was 15 of 29 for 114 yards (3.9 per attempt). The Broncos had 199 yards to the Eagles’ 260, were just 3 of 12 on third down and had not yet put the ball in the red zone.

By the time Denver polished off its 21-17 win, all of those numbers looked considerably different.

Nix went 9 of 10 for 128 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter plus the two-point conversion throw to Franklin. The Broncos rang up nine first downs in the final 15 minutes after 12 in the opening three quarters. Denver out-gained the Eagles 159-42.

“To tell you the truth, it����ap not easy going out there down 17-3 and you haven’t had much success,” Nix said. “It����ap tough to get things going. You want to have juice, but you just know what����ap happened to you already.

“We have an experienced front. We have experience on the outside, and the younger guys, they just kind of hop in line and just do what the older guys are doing. We just kind of had this sense that we just needed one drive. … We stopped talking about points. We said, ‘Look, we’ve got to go get a touchdown, points are not just what we want. We want to go get six.’ We kind of spoke it into existence.”

Nix has played well in crunch time previously in his career. He led frenzied comebacks that ultimately came up short last year against the Los Angeles Chargers at home and Cincinnati on the road. He led a beauty of a drive at Kansas City that put the Broncos on the doorstep of a building-block win before Wil Lutz’s game-winning field goal was blocked.

But this was perhaps the best Nix has played late in a game. The fact that it came after long stretches of poor play from the offense — the Broncos had seven punts and a 55-yard field goal to show for their first eight drives — made it all the more impressive.

3. The Broncos are finally allowed to talk about London, and man, what a difference a win makes before the trip.

Sure, traveling home is better after a win every single time. The difference for Denver in this instance is massive.

Consider this: After the game, the Broncos weren’t headed straight to the airport. They instead boarded buses that took them back to their downtown Philadelphia hotel for dinner, treatment and a couple of hours of film work for the coaches.

Only after that did the Broncos head for the airport to board their charter flight bound for London.

Talk about a long day.

The win, however, set up a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

“Oh my god,” defensive tackle D.J. Jones said with a laugh when asked about how much better the trans-Atlantic travel would be after a win. “That����ap all I can say about that. I plead the fifth.”

They’ll arrive in England late Monday morning and make their way well north of the city to their hotel, where they’ll have something approaching a normal Monday schedule.

“We’ll run, lift, work out, watch the tape,” Payton said.

Then Tuesday is the player off-day like normal, and Wednesday they’re into the normal practice week at Tottenham’s training facility.

Payton spent all of last week demanding that nothing about London come up in conversation within the building. They didn’t talk about logistics outside of a quick meeting. They didn’t talk schedule or anything.

Most staff didn’t even get basic information about hotel arrangements or anything ahead of time.

“It wasn’t in the itineraries,” Payton said. “There was not one thing about the ‘L word’ — nothing. I said something about bringing an extra bag on Friday, and that����ap it.”

These are the types of situations when Payton’s tactics can seem overboard, but they seem to pay off their fair share.

Teams that play on the road before traveling to London typically don’t fare very well. Payton has now won twice under that very scenario — Sunday and in 2017 at Carolina. That win in Charlotte, by the way, put an 0-2 start to bed and kicked off a run of eight straight victories.

This is also the second straight year the Broncos have started a week-plus road trip with a victory. Last year, of course, Denver dominated Tampa Bay in Week 3 before spending a week at the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia. Then the club traveled to New Jersey to play the Jets.

Now again in 2025, the Jets represent the second leg of a long Broncos sojourn.

“Definitely with the flight and the week away from home, you want to have a win,” Allen said. “Similar to Tampa last year. Going to the Greenbrier with a win is definitely nicer than going with a loss. That����ap probably why everybody’s so excited. Now we can have a nice week in London.”

4. The nature of Denver’s comeback was incredibly rare — and aided by baffling play-calling from Philadelphia

The Broncos had almost never won a game like this. Literally.

In games Denver trailed by 14 or more in the fourth quarter, the club entered Sunday with one win and 112 losses.

Bartender: Make it a double. The Broncos are now 2-112 in those settings.

As laid out above, Denver did a whole lot right to put itself in that position.

The Eagles, too, did a whole lot wrong.

First-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo will rightfully get questioned for only getting running back Saquon Barkley the ball nine times total — the fewest in a game he’s finished for his career — but his late-game playcalling was also hard to rationalize.

Here are the three drives Philadelphia had with the lead in the second half:

• Five plays (one first down), 23 yards, punt, 2:01 time of possession

• Three plays (0), minus-16, punt, 1:05 TOP

• Three plays (0), minus-6, 2:03 TOP

In that stretch, the Eagles did not call a designed run. Well, actually, they handed the ball off to Barkley one time, but it didn’t count because they got called for holding.

Otherwise, Hurts dropped back on all 11 plays. The first two were completed for a total of 19 yards. After that: Five incompletions, two sacks, a 4-yard scramble and a 7-yard completion.

That is offensive malpractice when leading a game in the second half.

That����ap in part what allowed Payton to stick with his own run game, which kept chugging and chugging and finally hit its stride to the tune of 94 second-half yards.

5. Payton did something he’s rarely done in his Broncos tenure, which makes a Sunday night injury all the more unfortunate.

The Broncos head coach has been impatient with his run game in the past. Particularly so when his team has fallen behind early in games.

There have been numerous occasions when he’s stood at the podium after a game and explained big run-pass discrepancies by saying that you can’t really keep running the ball once you’re behind.

Except on Sunday, he did. And it worked.

That����ap not going to be a recipe every time the Broncos are trailing by two scores in the second half, but Payton deserves substantial credit for feeling the game could swing if the Broncos kept pounding away on the ground.

And boy, did they ever.

The Broncos ran 19 times for 94 yards in the second half despite trailing by 14 by the time they touched the ball for the first time in the third quarter.

That����ap an endorsement of not only running back J.K. Dobbins, but even more Denver’s big veteran offensive line.

“A lot of people ask me, how are you so patient?” Dobbins said after the game. “Well, I’ve got some big guys protecting me. Some very good o-linemen protecting me. So I get to play cat-and-mouse. That����ap what I’m out there playing. I’m playing tag like a little kid. I’ve got the big boys protecting me.”

It also makes the Sunday night news of a biceps injury to left guard Ben Powers all the more unfortunate.

Powers is traveling back to Denver for further evaluation rather than on to London with the team. The Broncos have options to replace him. Matt Peart served as Denver’s primary backup at left tackle and left guard during camp, while Alex Palczewski was the next man in at right guard and right tackle. Both have also played as Payton’s jumbo tight end, so if Palczewski steps in for Powers, then Peart might become the new jumbo TE.

All the same, it will be a tough loss for Denver if Powers has to miss a substantial amount of time. Powers has rounded into form as the season has gotten going and was playing well in both the run game and in pass protection. The last two weeks, the Broncos offensive line finally, consistently looked like one of the best in the business.

“The thing we did was when you play someone like that, you’re going to get punched and it����ap not going to be easy,” Payton said. “But we kept fighting, and that����ap what I was most encouraged about — just the fight, the grit. And then you felt that — this is a funny thing, but that momentum shifted, and when that happened, it was pretty powerful.”

Denver has run for at least 118 yards in every game this season and is averaging 140.6 per game and 5.0 per carry.

Now they’ll likely have to fill a hole for at least this weekend and perhaps much longer.

6. One more hard-to-believe stat that would have loomed large without the comeback.

The Broncos committed 12 penalties for 121 yards. And they still beat a team that hadn’t lost a home game since Week 2 in 2024.

That����ap a trend that will continue to be a concerning one for Payton and company, however.

Here are their accepted penalty totals this season:

• Week 1: 6 for 45 yards

• Week 2: 8 for 83 yards

• Week 3: 10 for 70 yards

• Week 4: 7 for 72 yards

• Week 5: 12 for 121 yards

Penalties have already bit the Broncos this year, and they will continue to if those numbers don’t return to some semblance of normal.

The Broncos never had more than nine penalties (three times) last year and only had more than 74 yards once (a 124-yard calamity Week 2 in a 13-6 home loss to Pittsburgh) They’ve exceeded both of those numbers already through five weeks this season.

7a. Courtland Sutton had an afternoon to remember after a forgettable first half.

The Broncos top receiver dropped a ball right on his hands to squander the team’s opening drive Sunday in Philadelphia. He saw four targets in the first half as Denver fell behind and had just two catches and 11 yards to show for it.

In the second half, though, Sutton took off.

He shrugged off consistently tight coverage from terrific young corner Quinyon Mitchell and got to work. Sutton caught his final six targets in the second half, including a pair of critical third-down conversions, and finished the day with eight catches for 99.

Sutton converted a third-down on the penultimate play of the third quarter, then kept a key field goal march in the fourth alive with a 16-yard grab on a fade ball thrown by Bo Nix.

The veteran receiver was held to just one catch for 6 yards against Indianapolis in Week 2 and since then has been on a heater. His past three games now total 19 catches for 299 yards and two TDs and he continues to be one of the best third-down weapons in the league.

Here’s an underrated play that Sutton made which will only go into the box score as a modest gain: On the final play of the third quarter, Sutton hauled in a wayward throw from Nix. It was just a short gain, but the ball looked like it was headed into the arms of cornerback Quinyon Mitchell. Instead of a turnover or an incompletion, Denver moved the chains and scored a touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

7b. How’s this for a head-scratching stat for Philadelphia: Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley had only carried the ball six times or fewer on three occasions over 94 career games. Two of those came in outings during which he was injured and did not finish. The other was a blowout loss to Tampa Bay in November 2021.

And yet, in a game Philadelphia mostly controlled early on and led by two touchdowns after Barkley’s 47-yard touchdown reception early in the third quarter, the All-Pro back finished with just a half-dozen carries Sunday.

The Broncos did a good job tackling him and not letting him get going, but to hand the ball to a guy who had 2,005 yards last year that few times in a game is mind-boggling. Denver will take it, of course. The Denver defense held the Eagles to 45 rushing yards overall and Barkley to his lowest rushing total since a 14-yard outing against the Giants in December 2023.

7c. Denver vs. Philadelphia was best-on-best in the red zone. The Eagles offense entered having scored touchdowns on all 11 red zone trips. Denver’s defense had allowed just three touchdowns in 13 red zone trips defended.

Perhaps it����ap apropos, then, that the teams split the Eagles’ two trips into the red zone.

7d. The Broncos ran into a two-week spell of trouble defending third downs, but have righted the ship in a big way now.

Indianapolis and the Chargers combined to convert 14 of 30 over the Broncos’ back-to-back walk-off losses in Weeks 2 and 3. Then Cincinnati converted just 2 of 13, and on Sunday the Eagles went 2 of 11.

That makes three games, including the season-opener against Tennessee, in which the Broncos defense has only allowed two third-down conversions in a game.

7e. Wil Lutz’s 55-yard field goal in the first quarter tied his longest with the Broncos so far. His career best of 60 came in 2022 with New Orleans.

They jabbed early with the run game, before straying away from it for almost too long.

They absorbed a punch that might have knocked others out early in the third quarter when All-Pro running back Saquon Barkley raced past Alex Singleton for a 47-yard touchdown catch.

Then they set about working their way back into the fight against the defending Super Bowl champions, winners of every game their quarterback started and finished over the past calendar year.

Renck: In signature win for Sean Payton, Broncos prove they’re afraid of nobody with remarkable comeback vs. Eagles

Bo Nix played spectacular football in the fourth quarter.

Courtland Sutton picked up huge third downs.

Troy Franklin converted a go-ahead two-point conversion midway through the fourth quarter.

J.K. Dobbins continued to be the most impactful addition of the offseason.

Sean Payton delivered a rousing halftime address and pushed the right buttons down the stretch.

Make no mistake, though, the Broncos erased a two-touchdown deficit and notched the signature win of Payton’s tenure to date, a 21-17 season-changer against the Eagles, because of their heavies.

If this team takes off from here and makes the kind of deep run they think they’re capable of, it will be because of the guys on its offensive and defensive fronts.

“In the end, I think we got the better of them in the trenches,” Payton said after his team improved to 3-2 on the year and he passed mentor Bill Parcells with his 173rd regular-season win. “And we finished.”

This is the blueprint the Broncos have been trying to turn from theory into practice since Payton was hired. Since he and general manager George Paton went on a free-agent bonanza in March 2023 to land offensive linemen Mike McGlinchey and Ben Powers, plus defensive lineman Zach Allen.

Payton has made it clear for quite some time that Denver needs to win the line of scrimmage to win consistently.

They not only did it Sunday, but they did it against the team that����ap carried the trench title belt in the NFL and won a Super Bowl because of it eight months ago.

“That����ap a great group we just played, and I think that just sets us up for an October run, a November run, a December run, and on in,” defensive tackle D.J. Jones said.

Denver’s defense sacked Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts six times, including a blast of a pass-rush from Nik Bonitto to open Philadelphia’s last-chance drive with 1:11 to play.

Bonitto racked up 2.5 more sacks on the day and now has an NFL-best seven on the season through five games. He went up against a terrific left tackle in Jordan Mailata and built on his budding reputation as one of the most dynamic rushers in the game.

“He’s been incredible,” said Allen, another stalwart on a defense that����ap already up to 22 sacks. “If you leave him one-on-one, he’s going to win.”

The Eagles run game has struggled to get into gear this year, but last year was the talk of the NFL. On Sunday, Nick Sirianni’s team only rushed 11 times for 45 yards.

"We felt like we could do that," Payton said. "And the turnover battle had to be at least even. We did that."

The Broncos offense, meanwhile, got out of whack early in the game and in one stretch threw the ball 22 times in 28 snaps.

When Payton returned to the run game, even down two scores in the second half, good things immediately followed. Denver had 10 first downs total over its first eight drives and then 10 alone on back-to-back grinding touchdown marches.

They ran 10 times for 36 yards in the first half, but then 19 for 94 in the second despite trailing 17-3 before touching the ball in the third quarter and trailing until midway through the fourth.

“That's what I was brought here for,” said Dobbins, who finished with 20 carries, 79 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown plunge. “I know a lot of people doubted me. A lot of people didn't think I was that good. A lot of people think a lot of things about me. 'Oh, he's been hurt.' Go look at the numbers.

“I’ve got the best o-line in the NFL now. They’re going to deliver every time.”

They largely kept Nix upright, allowing just one sack in the pocket before Nix took a second scrambling around on a fourth-quarter third-and-8 call that Payton said he immediately regretted after the game.

Payton often says that confidence is born of demonstrated ability. Most of the time, he’s talking about a young player figuring out how to make it in the NFL.
But it also applies to this team as a whole.

They made the playoffs last year but beat just one team that finished the season with a winning record.

They scored a bunch of points and ran for a bunch of yards against bad teams, but hadn’t closed against good ones.

They led every second of the fourth quarter at Indianapolis and at the Chargers last month, and yet lost both.

They hadn’t won a game like this one. Now they have.

“Being able to play a team like this so well proves that we can keep playing in bigger games,” right guard Quinn Meinerz said.

They took a formula that worked a week ago against a beleaguered Cincinnati team, put it in place on the road against the defending Super Bowl champions, and rode it to a hard-earned, far-from-perfect victory.

That doesn’t just make for a happy flight to London late Sunday night and a 3-2 start after two brutal road losses to open the season.

That����ap an identity. A real one. For perhaps the first time in a decade for this franchise.

In the smoke-filled visiting locker room after the game, music thumped and Payton asked his team, “Who are you afraid of?”

They all yelled in unison, “Nobody.”

When you can control the line of scrimmage, there’s no need for fear.

Shocking the Super Bowl champs

The Broncos have rallied to win from deficits of 14 points or more 32 times in franchise history, but those comebacks have been few and far between since their Super Bowl season in 2015. That campaign, of course, was defined by improbable rallies, including the team's last win in Arrowhead Stadium. Here's a look at each of Denver's rallies from 14-plus down during that period, including Sunday's win in the City of Brotherly Love.

Source: .

The Broncos’ back nearly broke Sunday on a second-quarter longball from Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts — and a brutal mental mistake from Moss. The cornerback was giving Philadelphia’s explosive receiver DeVonta Smith a cushion, naturally, on third-and-17. Except just before the snap, he took a few steps toward the line of scrimmage, suddenly deciding to press.

Broncos Analysis: In dominating trenches vs. Philly, Sean Payton’s team finally has road map to loftier goals

Smith burst off the line, got Moss on his hip and left him in the dust en route to a 52-yard completion that set up a Philadelphia touchdown two plays later.

"That����ap me being overly confident, instead of playing smart football," Moss told The Denver Post postgame. "I should’ve played off. I should’ve played with more eyes. That����ap on me. So, coaches coached me up on the sideline. I already knew right when it happened — like, 'Dude, that����ap just dumb football.'

"And, that����ap one of the things that I need to correct."

The Broncos' pass defense was burned early as a whole Sunday. Surtain picked up a pass-interference call on Eagles wideout A.J. Brown the next play after Smith's big grab. Moss was also dinged for a PI call on the next possession. Linebacker Alex Singleton got torched on a wheel route by Saquon Barkley early in the third quarter for a 17-3 Eagles lead, as season-long strengths and flaws both failed the Broncos early on.

Smith finished with eight catches for 114 yards on the day. But, as was the tenor in all three phases Sunday, Vance Joseph's defense locked up in suffocating fashion, with Surtain notching a key third-down pass breakup in the third quarter on Brown. And in sheer end-of-game poetry, a final-play heave from Hurts to Smith was broken up not by a Broncos defender ... but by Brown himself. Ballgame.

"Being able to win that game (while) giving up two big, long, the touchdown to Saquon and then that big pass, being able to come through with the W is huge," Moss said.

Injury updates: The Broncos were banged up throughout Sunday's game, as a variety of key names exited and re-entered. Defensive end John Franklin-Myers wound up on the turf in the third quarter with an injury to a "lower extremity," a source told The Post, before appearing to test out his leg on the sidelines and finishing the rest of the game. Right tackle Mike McGlinchey, too, limped off in the fourth quarter with an unknown injury, but returned after just under three minutes of clock. Neither player was in the locker room postgame.

The team announced in the fourth quarter, too, that third-down RB Tyler Badie was questionable to return with an undisclosed injury. Badie finished with one catch for 16 yards.

Jackson over Jones: The Broncos activated veteran defensive lineman Jordan Jackson for more experience on the defensive front Sunday, after going with third-round rookie Sai'Vion Jones in Monday night's game against the Bengals. Jackson played a handful of rotational snaps against the Eagles, but didn't finish with any raw stats.

OFFENSE — B+

What a tale of two halves. And what a tale of two quarterbacks.

Bo Nix, through five games, has looked night-and-day as a thrower when he’s simply gone through his progressions with decisiveness. For much of the first half Sunday, he looked completely helpless against defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s swarm. And for much of the second half, he looked like the ascending star that Sean Payton promised for much of this offseason. In one star-making fourth-quarter drive, Nix went 5-for-5 passing for 85 yards and a touchdown, fitting in advanced-timing strikes to Courtland Sutton and Evan Engram to put the Broncos ahead.

After a lackluster start, too, Sean Payton turned back to trusty J.K. Dobbins as a bell-cow, who finished with 79 yards on 20 carries. Sutton’s impact was immeasurable, with eight catches for 99 yards. And the Broncos, somehow, rolled to 358 yards of offense in upsetting the champs.

Broncos Analysis: In dominating trenches vs. Philly, Sean Payton’s team finally has road map to loftier goals

DEFENSE -- A-

The Eagles went right after Vance Joseph's pass defense from the jump Sunday, in a clear effort to . It worked, for a time. Philadelphia got going in the second quarter with a 52-yard ball to DeVonta Smith, who absolutely torched Broncos cornerback Riley Moss. Brown slanted Surtain for a few first downs, and got him on a big pass-interference call after the Smith bomb. Denver turned Hurts into a thrower -- and it backfired, as running back Saquon Barkley torched linebacker Alex Singleton on an all-too-predictable wheel route for a 47-yard touchdown.

In the second half, though, Denver's pass-rush started to generate pressure from the interior and off the edge, and continually shut any spark of Eagles momentum down. Surtain adjusted wonderfully to Brown's slant game on a third-down stop. Nik Bonitto continued to bull-rush anyone in sight, finishing with 2.5 sacks. And the Broncos held Philadelphia to a grueling 2 of 10 on third down.

Broncos’ Riley Moss: Played ‘dumb football’ on long grab by Eagles’ DeVonta Smith

SPECIAL TEAMS -- C-

Well, there weren't any ����������������mistakes here. But special-teams coordinator Darren Rizzi's unit continues to struggle with dumb penalties. Both JL Skinner and Trent Sherfield set Denver's offense back with 10-yard holding penalties on kick returns Sunday, mistakes that simply can't happen in a game where Sean Payton's offense already struggled enough to gain momentum on drives. Punter Jeremy Crawshaw was the Broncos' bright spot of the day, pinning the Eagles inside the 20-yard line on five of his seven punts, and Marvin Mims Jr. had a couple of nice returns. But Denver's special teams play continues to be -- as with the rest of their three phases — undisciplined, as Philadelphia's Will Shipley sped for a 37-yard kick return in the fourth quarter.

COACHING -- A

Same movie. Sean Payton turns to run to start. Sean Payton goes away from run. Broncos offense struggles. Sean Payton turns back to run. Just put it on repeat, at this point.

After Bo Nix and the Broncos' offense looked completely out of sync for most of the first half, though, give Payton credit for turning back to J.K. Dobbins in the second half. A third-quarter touchdown drive suddenly opened the floodgates for Bo Nix, and Vance Joseph's defense tightened up after an uneven start. The Broncos had eight penalties midway through the third quarter, but suddenly flipped Philadelphia — a team that had won 20 of its last 21 games — on its head in the fourth quarter, as the Eagles fell apart under an avalanche of self-induced fourth-quarter penalties. Payton and Joseph's aggressiveness set up Jalen Hurts' right arm to carry Philadelphia, and it fell flat Sunday.

By this point, it’s no national secret that the Broncos’ current linebacker corps has produced less-than-stellar results in coverage. In two losses this season, Colts running back Jonathan Taylor and the Chargers’ Omarion Hampton left Denver’s defense dizzy on wheel routes. And the public’s assumption on such plays, Strnad acknowledges, is that it’s automatically the fault of him or fellow starting ILB Alex Singleton. Sometimes it is.

“But then there’s also times,” Strnad told The Denver Post in the locker room Thursday, “where it’s like, I don’t really know what they’re talking about a lot of the time.”

Remember when Taylor ? Remember when Hampton got free on a fourth-quarter screen and sped for 22 yards in the Chargers’ win in Week 3? Both plays, specifically, were “100% miscommunication,” as Strnad told The Post.

Would free-agent add Dre Greenlaw — stuck on injured reserve until at least Week 7 — be great to have right now, heading into this matchup with the Eagles and reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley? Of course. But Denver’s dropped coverages on running backs are more a matter of overall defensive communication, Strnad believes, than a lack of ability in current ILB personnel.

“You get people get wrapped in like, ‘Oh, he’s this in coverage, he’s that in coverage,'” Strnad told The Post. “Like you said, I think Dre was great — has been great in his career all-around, as a player. But I think all our ‘backers can cover, to be honest with you.

“A lot of the stuff that you see on TV where a guy’s wide open, that might be more communication (than) it is to someone’s coverage ability.”

Regardless of the reason, the fact remains: There were back-to-back losses where head coach Sean Payton pointed to coverage breakdowns against running backs. The result was a combined 109 receiving yards for Taylor and Hampton across two weeks.��Denver can’t afford such mistakes against Barkley, who didn’t feature heavily as a pass-catcher in his first season in Philadelphia but has caught 14 balls through four weeks in 2025.

The Broncos cleaned up their underneath coverages against a thoroughly inept Bengals offense in Week 4. Still, Bengals back Chase Brown had three catches for 31 yards. Sunday’s matchup against Philadelphia could be a major precedent-setter for the Broncos’ ability to shadow a mismatch back, one of a specific few phases that’s vital to Denver’s improvement.

“I don’t even think it����ap anything about ability of the DBs, linebackers,” outside linebacker Nik Bonitto told The Post in late September. “I feel like it����ap more of just mental errors of them being open, more than us having to actually guard them.

“So I feel like that����ap just something we gotta look at the film room and see, and just being able to correct those type of things. Because obviously, more and more teams are going to start doing it if we don’t have an answer for it.”

The answer, as Strnad broke down, is simple in concept and complicated in execution. Some defenses rely heavily on spot drop coverages, a type of zone where defenders backtrack to a specific area and read the quarterback’s eyes. Vance Joseph’s defense in Denver, though, contains heavy doses of match coverage — a blend of zone and man-to-man — where defenders �����ٳ�����to specific skill players in their areas. It’s key for defenders to communicate motion by opposing offenses, Strnad explained, and to tag over mid-play on receivers.

“Because if you don’t — the Jonathan Taylors, those plays can happen where you get dropped or you don’t pass it off,” Strnad said, “and it looks like a wide-open play. And it can hurt you.”

Indeed, in Week 2, Taylor’s 43-yard pop came because Singleton got caught on one of his own defenders trying to sprint and pick up the Colts back — and cornerback Pat Surtain II didn’t tag over to Taylor in the flat. In Week 3, Hampton’s 22-yard pop came because Joseph sent Singleton and rookie corner Jahdae Barron in on a six-man rush, leaving nickel Ja’Quan McMillian stuck between a receiver over the middle and Hampton in the flat.

This is the NFL, Singleton said in late September. Players will make plays. But the Broncos will need to adjust over the course of 60 minutes Sunday to whatever kitchen sink Barkley and the Eagles throw at them.

“We’re going to have to finish in the fourth quarter,” Strnad said. “It����ap going to take everything to win this game.”

�³���:��11 a.m. Sunday

�³�����:��Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, Pa.

�ճ�/�����徱��:��CBS, 850 AM/94.1 FM

Broncos-Eagles series: Denver’s only won once in seven tries at Lincoln Financial Field, as the Broncos face an incredibly tough test on Sunday. The Broncos are 5-9 all-time in 14 matchups against the Eagles, last dropping a game 30-13 in November 2021, when now-Eagles DC Vic Fangio was the head coach.

In the spotlight: Bo Nix faces Vic Fangio defense in massive early test

If you ask Vic Fangio, the Broncos’ second-year quarterback is a heck of a lot like the one the Eagles just played: Baker Mayfield.

“I think he might be Baker’s younger brother,” Fangio, now the Eagles’ defensive coordinator, said Monday. “Really good. Really, really good.”

It’s a fairly apt comparison. Mayfield, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ fiery 30-year-old Pro Bowler, stands 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds. Bo Nix, the Broncos’ fiery 25-year-old QB, stands 6-foot-2 and 217 pounds. Both fall somewhere in the vague realm between on-time game manager and creative shot-taker.

It’s unclear if such a comparison will end up being a compliment, though, after the Eagles just held Mayfield to a 55.0 completion percentage and an 84.3 quarterback rating in a Philadelphia win last Sunday.

“He’s a scrambler,” Fangio said of Nix. “He’s a competitor. He’ll throw the ball in tight places. He runs their offense really well. I think Sean’s done a great job bringing him along. And they got their quarterback for the future.

“They looked long and hard for many years, and they’ve got one.”

Fangio, of course, knows as well as anyone. In Fangio’s three years as the Broncos’ head coach from 2019-2021, Denver cycled through six starting quarterbacks. Those were the days of a not-yet-reborn Joe Flacco, and the weirdness of Drew Lock, Brandon Allen and Jeff Driskel. Payton found his offensive leader in the first round in 2024, after Fangio found the Broncos’ current defensive leader, Pat Surtain II, in the first round in 2021.

Now, after an inconclusive four-game start to 2025, Nix steps into one of the most important moments of his early Broncos career. Head-to-head with the Super Bowl champions. Head-to-head with a Fangio defense that tormented Patrick Mahomes himself last February. Head-to-head with 65,000-plus roaring Philadelphians.

Here’s the thing: The Eagles’ defense has looked considerably more vulnerable through four games this season, despite a 4-0 start. They stiffen in the red zone — tied for the fewest red-zone TDs allowed (4) of any NFL team thus far — when the field tightens and their playmakers shine. Inside linebacker Zack Baun has been worth every penny of a $51 million March extension, racking up nine pressures as a blitzer and allowing just 73 yards on 16 targets in coverage. Quinyon Mitchell is rounding into one of the best young cornerbacks in the game not named Pat Surtain II, surrendering a 44% catch rate early in 2025.

When the field lengths, though, the Eagles are vulnerable. Philadelphia’s allowed the second-most average yards on deep balls thus far this season, according to Next Gen Stats. And they haven’t been able to consistently pressure quarterbacks on such looks: Fangio’s defense sits in the middle of the league in pressure rate, and near the bottom of the league in total sacks.

“I don’t think our rush has been bad,” Fangio said Monday. “The ball’s been coming out pretty quick at times. I haven’t felt an epidemic during the games, when I’m calling them, that our rush isn’t good enough.”

Nix ripped a 28-yard shot to Marvin Mims Jr. against the Bengals in Week 4, one of his most impressive throws of the year. Still, his deep-ball accuracy has been an early talking point. If Payton’s play-calling opens up opportunities against Philadelphia, Nix can’t afford to miss them.

“It����ap going to be a challenge to find explosive plays, but at the same time, it����ap not getting bored, continuing to do the same stuff over and over throughout the game,” Nix said Thursday. “When it����ap there, you also have to be able to hit it. They’ll give us our opportunities; we’ve got to hit it. But at the same time, we’re going to have to work for them.”

Who has the edge?

When Broncos run: Sean Payton unlocked a two-back effectiveness against the Bengals that he’d never quite found in his two previous seasons in Denver, and the Broncos’ ground attack is suddenly rolling. They’re fifth in the NFL in average rushing yards per game. Veteran back J.K. Dobbins has answered the bell at every call, and rookie RJ Harvey added 58 yards on 14 carries Monday night. The Eagles defense has allowed the seventh-highest yards per carry in the league thus far, but this area gets interesting if .��Slight edge: Broncos

When Broncos pass: Vic Fangio made the joke this week that every rookie you start equates to one loss. The Eagles, though, are rolling with second-round pick Andrew Mukuba at safety. He’s largely been solid to start his NFL career, but he got torched for a 77-yard touchdown last week. Philadelphia has solid cornerback play in Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, but sits right in the middle of the league in pass defense thus far. Edge: Even

When Eagles run: The follow-up to a league-altering Super Bowl rushing attack has been … fine. All-world back Saquon Barkley has averaged 3.1 yards a carry thus far, and is going for just 2.5 a pop on between-the-tackles runs. But the Eagles have still run for seven touchdowns on the ground, and the Jalen Hurts Tush Push remains as lethal as ever. Edge: Eagles

When Eagles pass: You’re in a tough early-season spot when your WR1 is . A.J. Brown has been fully neutralized in all but one of the Eagles’ four contests this season, currently averaging fewer than 40 yards a game. Hurts has been remarkably efficient as a thrower, but the Broncos just shut down arguably the best receiving tandem in the league last week in the Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. ���岵��:��Broncos

Special teams: Fangio went on a diatribe this week about how the NFL’s new kicking rules — teams being allowed unlimited time to break in balls — have “drastically changed” field goals around the league. Eagles kicker Jake Elliott probably won’t complain, though, as he’s 3 of 3 on kicks longer than 50 yards this year. Philadelphia, meanwhile, has blocked three combined field goals or punts in just the last two games. This could be a bloodbath. Edge: Eagles

Coaching: Sean Payton’s play-calling popped in Week 4 against the Bengals, and the shift to full series for Dobbins and Harvey showed clear self-evaluation. Vance Joseph’s defense, meanwhile, was allergic to letting the Bengals across midfield for most of the game. For all the combined years of experience there, though, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni is currently piloting a football team that is 20-1 in its last 21 games and has overachieved in 2025 relative to yardage ranks.��Edge: Eagles

Tale of the tape

By the numbers

217:��Passing attempts since Jalen Hurts last threw an interception.

3.5:��Eagles running back Saquon Barkley’s average yards-per-carry in 2025 when facing a light box (less than seven defenders).

92.3%:��Philadelphia tight end Dallas Goedert’s catch rate in 2025.

50%:��A.J. Brown’s catch rate in 2025.

40.9%: Eagles’ pressure rate against Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers last Sunday, their highest since the start of 2024.

158.3: Bo Nix’s quarterback rating when pressured by the Bengals on Monday night.

X-factors

�����DzԳ��Dz�:��DL Zach Allen. Denver needs its interior defensive linemen to step up massively against the Eagles’ ground game, and Allen has yet to record a true breakout game in 2025 despite doing the dirty work for edges Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper to shine. Philadelphia guard Landon Dickerson has allowed 13 pressures in four games this year. There’s an opportunity for Allen to do some damage.

�����������:��LB Nakobe Dean.��The Eagles opened Dean’s practice window to return from the PUP list after a torn patellar tendon in last year’s playoffs, and his presence could massively shift Sunday’s outcome. If Dean’s healthy, Philadelphia could stick him next to rookie Jihaad Campbell at ILB and shift Baun to the edge to try to generate more pressure on Nix.

Post predictions

Parker Gabriel, beat writer: Eagles 26, Broncos 23

The Eagles haven’t really hit their stride yet this season and yet are 4-0. The Broncos haven’t really hit their stride yet — though perhaps Monday night was the start — and are 2-2, with a pair of brutal road losses. Those games matter Sunday in this context: Sean Payton’s team hasn’t learned to close away from home yet. Philly, on the other hand, has won 20 of the past 21 games it’s played over the past calendar year-plus. That and special teams could be the difference.

Luca Evans, beat writer: Broncos 24, Eagles 21

Let’s get a little crazy. Philadelphia has way overachieved its underlying offensive and defensive numbers this year, winning games with fantastic special-teams and red-zone play. The Broncos have one of the best red-zone defenses in the league, and their run game is rolling. Darren Rizzi’s special teams will face its test of the season, but if they play a clean game and don’t spring themselves off any linemen, the Broncos have a real shot here.

Troy Renck, columnist: Eagles 24, Broncos 20

This screams upset … if Denver were at home. The Eagles are vulnerable. Their wings are clipped in the passing game. They have an A.J. Brown problem. They had zero yards through the air in the second half last week. The Broncos could run the ball, take care of the ball, and shock the Eagles. But not in Philadelphia. The Eagles have won 11 straight home games, and haven’t lost there in 13 months. A special teams play will prove the difference.

Sean Keeler, columnist: Eagles 24, Broncos 21

With apologies to the great Reggie Jackson, Sean Payton is the new Mr. October. Since 2016, the Broncos head coach sports a 13-2 record, straight-up, in October road games. Like Tampa and the Meadowlands last year, nobody outside the Front Range gives the orange and blue much of a chance. Bo Nix and the Broncos found something on Monday night. Unfortunately, I think what they mostly found is that the Bengals stink.