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

So he did.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In Denver’s preseason opener at Atlanta, the Broncos head coach was on his way into the locker room when he stopped for a brief chat with 9News preseason sideline reporter Cynthia Frelund. He talked about the action for a minute, then was asked about being back in town to play the Falcons. He glanced around at a maybe-half-full Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“A lot of people dressed up as empty seats today,” Payton said with a smirk before jogging off.

The Broncos did not have the same issue in their two preseason home games.

Far from it, in fact.

The Broncos averaged 64,665 fans through the turnstiles — the actual raw data, not number of tickets sold that gets announced during games — over a loss to Green Bay and a win against Minnesota, marking the highest turnout for preseason games since 2016, when the club averaged 67,649. That summer, of course, Denver was coming off a Super Bowl 50 victory.

Since the NFL moved to a 17-game regular-season schedule, teams have either one or two preseason home games per summer.

Last year, Denver’s lone home preseason game had 60,009 through the turnstiles.

In 2024, the two preseason games averaged 57,684. That means this August saw an average of 6,981 more fans per home preseason game than two years ago.

For reference, the average announced attendance for the two home games this summer was 75,733.

That fan interest is the likely result of several factors. Naturally, going 14-3 in the regular season, coming within a game of the Super Bowl and entering 2026 with championship expectations drives interest. So, too, does playing a team with national appeal like Green Bay. Preseason games are also more affordable to get to than regular-season games, so for some fans, it����ap the easiest way to get to a game.

Ask Payton, though, and such robust attendance also comes with tangible benefits.

When his viral comments about the Falcons came up after that game, he mentioned that his mentor, Bill Parcells, liked playing preseason games in Green Bay, for example, because there was usually a mostly full house and a game-like environment in which to test his players.

Payton felt the same — albeit at home rather than in a more hostile road environment — over the two weeks late in August.

“It was great,” he said after the finale against Minnesota. “They played that little guess-the-attendance thing (on the scoreboard,). It doesn’t feel like a preseason game, so if I was an opponent, I’d want to kind of play here.

“You’re trying to get your players acclimated to what it would be like and I keep hearing about certain venues that are like that, but they were fantastic. It was good. Good environment.”

Here are the five highest turnstile numbers at Empower Field during the preseason over the past decade. Each of the years listed featured two home games.

2016 – 67,649

2026 – 64,665

2017 – 64,445

2018 – 61,388

2022 – 60,496

Jaleel McLaughlin lands in Cleveland

Former Bronco Jaleel McLaughlin has a new home.

The running back signed a practice squad deal with Cleveland on Tuesday, marking the first time he’s played for a franchise besides Denver in his professional career.

McLaughlin was waived Sunday and didn’t sign with Denver’s practice squad Monday, telegraphing the end of his tenure with the Broncos.

General manager George Paton on Sunday called waiving McLaughlin “really hard” because of the respect people in the building have for the back, who went undrafted in 2023 and played his college ball first in Division II and then FCS Youngstown State. Paton also said that choosing Tyler Badie as Denver’s fourth running back over McLaughlin was the last decision the Broncos made about their roster.

Marvin Mims still out with ‘bruise’ to foot

The Broncos practiced in full pads on Tuesday. Wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. (foot) remained out and was not spotted at practice. Payton said after Friday’s game that Mims just had “a bruise,” though he’s now not been seen at two practices since leaving that game in the first quarter.

Outside linebacker Que Robinson also remained limited to side field work, while inside linebacker Alex Singleton missed practice to attend to a personal matter. Tight end Adam Trautman was also absent.

Justin Simmons played as a rookie in 2016. Cornerback/nickel back/who-the-heck-knows back Jahdae Barron appeared in 30% of Denver’s snaps as a rookie last fall.

So, yeah, it’s safe to say that our old friend No. 31 has seen this movie before. It gets better. He promises.

“It’s very similar to me,” who retired earlier this year after nine seasons in the NFL (2016-2024), told me when I called to ask about Barron. “I’m not trying to compare myself (to him), but when I came into the NFL, I was playing behind the No Fly Zone …

“I had to sit and learn. Even my second year, I didn’t do that well. My third year is when I started to figure it out. The only way to know is to see him and watch him play. I know the coaching staff and (teammates) have confidence in him. And if you ask me as a fan, I would like to see more of him.”

I’ll second that, especially after the stink bomb the Broncos left on the porch last Friday night against the Packers. Sean Payton already knows what he’s got in Riley Moss, who was playing with his hair on fire this month before being removed from the Green Bay scrum with a rib injury. Same for Patrick Surtain II outside and Ja’Quan McMillian inside.

It’s too early in the film to call Barron, who was selected in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, an orange and blue bust. Simmons played on 92% of the Broncos’ snaps in his second season, 2017, and his comfort level only accelerated from there. The only way to truly smooth out No. 23’s rough edges is with game reps. And you’ve only got one game left that doesn’t count.

With Moss leaving on Green Bay’s first series last weekend, Barron logged 50 snaps during Week 2 of the preseason. Some were, to put it kindly, stronger than others. The former Longhorn made a nice ankle tackle, only to miss another on Pierre Strong Jr. There was a big hit on Packers QB Tyrod Taylor. Yet with 3:07 left in the first half, the game tied at 10-10, the Green Bay signal-caller got the last laugh.

Faced with a third-and-goal from the Denver 2, Taylor took a shotgun snap. From the left slot, Packers wideout Will Sheppard, the former CU Buff, gave Barron a shove with his right hand as he fired off the line, creating enough separation to gain inside position on a short “out” route toward the near left pylon.

Taylor dropped back three steps and arced a jump ball into the corner over Barron and into the mitts of Sheppard, who appeared to scrape both toes along the turf before the Broncos’ stopper shoved him out of bounds. In hindsight, it was a heck of a grab to finish off a near-perfect lob. And yet while Sheppard looked every bit his listed 6-foot-3, it also made Barron appear a little smaller than the 5-11 in your game program.

“(I can work on) just the tools and learning certain things and adjusting to certain things,” Barron told reporters after the Broncos’ 33-13 defeat. “Just, again, small things like tackling, leveraging, stuff like that.”

It’ll come. On the other hand, the Broncos are in a different place than Simmons found when he’d arrived in Dove Valley. The Super Bowl 50 champs were fading slowly in ’17 and ’18, a franchise in denial, drifting without an owner, direction or accountability. The Broncos of now, by contrast, are on the ascent, a Super Bowl contender trying to cash in on the tail end of a star quarterback’s rookie contract.

“It’s not like Jahdae has been playing bad,” noted Simmons, “He’s playing well. Like, really well.

“J-Mac is playing (like) one of the best nickel backs in the NFL. Riley is getting targeted because he’s got the best corner in the NFL (Surtain) alongside him — but that doesn’t mean Riley is playing bad; You do want to take away the P.I.s and holding penalties, though.”

Besides a pick-6 off a tip in Atlanta two weekends ago, Barron has yet to show in a game that he’s more reliable on the outside than Moss or Kris Abrams-Draine. Or that he can play as angrily and instinctively as McMillian, who’s becoming to nickel corners what Zach Allen is to defensive ends. PS2 is PS2. The only way to find room in this inn is to break down a steel door.

Simmons’ advice?

“Stick to what you know,” he replied. “You look at the guys in front of him — Moss didn’t start off just getting first-team (snaps) … even Pat, and Pat’s the best corner in the NFL, and Pat was splitting reps (with the first team) his first couple of games. J-Mac (McMillian), the same way.

“Just because you were drafted high and other people are going to put expectations on you, you don’t have to live up to anything. Jahdae, from what I saw (in 2025), is a really good player — super-athletic, and has made impactful plays. I would say, ‘Don’t feel like you need to (try) to reach for anything out of the ordinary, and X, Y, Z.’ I would tell him to keep staying the course, man. There’s nothing wrong with being in a loaded secondary.”

Amen. In the big picture? Barron’s got time. The Broncos don’t.

“I think (Stidham) had a tough go in there, but the elements (in the AFC Championship loss to New England) weren’t in his favor,” Ward, the Broncos’ legendary No Fly Zone enforcer who helped win Super Bowl 50, told me Monday by phone.

“You know, it was a tight game. The starting quarterback for the Patriots (Drake Maye), and didn’t play well. So I think (Stidham) gets a little pass for that, coming in for his first start.”

Actually, a few more little passes back in January would’ve gone a long way. Still, by all visual and whispered accounts, Nix and his ankle are good to go for the start of training camp next week. It’s just that “snow” and “Stiddy” still gives us night sweats. When last we saw Stidham leading a Broncos offense, he looked like a lifetime backup, an understudy corpsing on center stage — completing 17 of 31 throws for just 131 yards during a frustrating, frosty 10-7 defeat in front of a snowy, flustered Empower Field. If the worst would ever happen again …

“Is Stiddy still your guy?” I asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” Ward replied.

No. 43 in orange and blue is a NorCal dude based in SoCal these days. Ward still gets back to the Front Range four or five times a year, though. And, at age 39, he’s still got his finger on several pulses in the gridiron game, from preps to the pros.

In addition to hosting , the three-time Pro Bowler and former Broncos Super Bowl 50 champion safety is hosting . It’s the second camp in consecutive weekends for Ward, who on July 18 held a youth camp for players 8-15 last weekend at his old high school, De La Salle, in Concord, Calif., as part of the nonprofit founded by the ex-Broncos star and his brother Terron a few years back.

Saturday’s event, presented by Exos Sports and the Ward’s new management agency, kicks off with almost 300 prep prospects from Colorado and surrounding states at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs campus’ Campers will undergo official combine-style tests; position-specific drills and instruction; performance evaluations by Exos; and coaching on leadership and mentorship from Ward himself.

“That way they can take these measurements home, just like they would do at something like a combine,” Ward explained, “(and can) share with colleges and GMs and coaches to say, ‘Hey, these were my numbers. This is comparable to this player. And this is why you should give me a scholarship. (And) a salary.’ Now they’re giving (those players) a salary.”

Everybody gets a little something out of the moment. It’s a chance for Ward and his partners to be in front of local high-schoolers who want Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) guidance. And a window, in turn, for prospective college players to soak up advice from sage veterans such as Ward and polish skills in scenarios that replicate an NFL combine experience.

“I just love being around the kids,” Ward said. “I love being around and working with athletes, inquisitive athletes who want to learn and get better and understand the process …

“I tell them all the time, ‘Just because you’re here right now, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to stay in this position.’ And that goes negatively and positively. You could be playing terribly right now and in a few years, not be so good. You could be hurt right now and never get hurt again, right? You could never be hurt and then get hurt later.”

In a perfect world, that ‘hurt later’ part never comes for Nix, who boasts a 24-10 regular-season record in two seasons as the Broncos’ QB1 and was just voted as the No. 59 player in the league by his NFL peers.

“I think this year we’re going to see a free, an uncaged Bo,” Ward said.

“A lot of people talk about, ‘Oh, Bo had the most passing chances, but they were mostly check-downs or whatnot.’ And I think we’re going to see a lot more down-the-field passes, obviously, with (Jaylen) Waddle in there now. It’s going to clear the way for (Courtland) Sutton, and now we have a deep-ball threat. Really, two deep-ball threats.”

The only question is whether there’s a Plan B in the QB room, if pressed into duty again, who can get them the rock consistently. Unlike the tight margins the Avalanche are navigating, or the uncomfortable conversations in the Nuggets front office at the moment, the Broncos have some wiggle room to spend on improvement around the margins.

, the Broncos had $29.487 million in cap space to play with as of Monday — and after handing out a boatload of extensions to core pieces of AFC’s best regular-season team last fall.

If you’re curious about the market rate, Justin Fields is slated to get $11 million from the Chiefs this fall. Davis Mills is on track to make $7 million with the Texans, with geriatric Joe Flacco getting $6 million with the Bengals.

Stidham will make $6 million in 2026 while the camp’s presumed No. 3 QB, Sam Ehlinger, is slated to make $2 million. And he does things with his feet, even Bo-esque things, that Stiddy can’t.

“Well, it’s always a competition,” Ward mused. “No one’s job is safe, even the backup. I guess we’ll see this preseason, right?”

Speaking of the preseason, Ward’s trying to get back this way soon to check out the Broncos’ swanky new training digs in Dove Valley. Not that he’s jealous.

“Not at all,” Ward laughed. “Those guys (now) are going to be jealous of somebody else. What I’ve learned coming up in football (is), ‘The class behind you always gets more.’ We got more than the guys before us. And the guys after us are going to get more than us. And the guys after them are going to get more than them.

“When I went to Oregon, we had the best in the world. Three years later, they built on top of it. And now they’re building another one. Just when you think it can’t get any better, it keeps getting better. As long as I get to come back and do a few workouts, I’ll be all right.”

Pretty sure they can make that work, yeah. In the meantime, Stiddy as you go, man. Stiddy as you go.

“But I definitely think that (Jarrett) is a great backup for us,” Ward continued. “He knows the system. He’s been there. And he’s playing well. We’ve seen him play well. Yeah, give him another opportunity.”

With that, 43 laughed.

“Hopefully,” he chuckled softly, “he doesn’t get one.”

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Cooper, the Broncos’ outside linebacker, was arrested Thursday night for the second time in about a week. The 28-year-old defender, according to online records, was booked at the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office detention facility on a charge of domestic violence and misdemeanor charges of harassment and violation of a protection order.

The details paint an even scarier picture. Cooper and his girlfriend were arrested last Thursday night and given a court order to stay away from one another. Only records indicate that Cooper’s girlfriend called police this Thursday, a few hours after the Broncos completed organized team activities, to say that the Broncos edge-rusher had shown up at her apartment and knocked on the door for “five to 10 minutes.”

According to an affidavit, Cooper sent her at least 20 messages. Both were under court protection orders that forbid them from interacting, stemming from a June 4 incident in which the woman endured “strangulation with hypoxia and traumatic brain injury,” the affidavit reads.

“I started to cry and he pressed, like, further — (because) he had me held up against the wall — he just pressed further and then dropped me and just started screaming at me that it was my fault and that I, like, caused this, and that I was like, a (expletive),” she told police, according to the affidavit.

Cut him. Now.

This isn’t just about football. It’s about trust. It’s about accountability. It’s about decency. What was becoming a distraction for a franchise riding high during a championship window has taken a more awful, serious turn.

The Broncos have to ask themselves a simple question today: Which cost is greater? I Or the stain on a franchise from a story that gets worse by the day?

For Carrie Walton-Penner and Greg Penner, this shouldn’t even be a discussion.

You move on.

Cooper isn’t just a danger to a team’s image anymore. He’s become a danger to another human being. A second arrest, and every unseemly anecdote that’s emerged since, removes any benefit of the doubt. All Cooper had to do to keep his career on track and his team out of the headlines was … nothing.  He couldn’t.

If the Broncos do nothing in response, then what does that say about them?

“We had a long visit with Coop,” Payton, the Broncos’ coach, said Thursday afternoon as voluntary organized team activities (OTAs) wrapped up with Cooper in attendance, “and now the process plays out.”

And Coop did what he did anyway.

“I haven’t (talked about it with the team), and yeah, my instincts told me not to right away,” Payton continued. “(At) this time next week, we have three days of mini-camp. We’ll have a number of speakers. I think there’ll be a time, though, to talk about it.”

That time is right here. Right now. As a best-case scenario, NFL precedent suggests a hefty suspension for Cooper is coming — most likely for six games, regardless of what the courts decide.

The Post’s Luca Evans reported late Thursday night that officials added felony second-degree strangulation charges to the Broncos defender’s case. The veteran linebacker pleaded not guilty in court last week and was seen practicing this past Thursday at OTAs — the last voluntary team session before mandatory mini-camp begins Tuesday. Cooper is slated for a motions hearing on July 6, and a potential jury trial in late July.

Last year, the NFL suspended Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice six games after the wideout pled guilty to two third-degree felony charges stemming from a road-racing incident in Dallas. In 2024, the league suspended then-Arizona wideout Zay Jones for the first five games of the regular season after Jones was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery in Florida. Those charges were later dropped. The suspension wasn’t.

And when it comes to replacements — no, Von Miller isn’t necessarily the logical answer here, either.

For one, the 58 you knew and loved is Von gone. Miller hasn’t played on more than 37% of his team’s defensive snaps since 2022. Pro Football Focus hasn’t given him a grade better than 85.8 (out of 100) since 2021. PFF says The Vonster missed 20% of the tackles he attempted last fall with Washington.

The popular scouting site’s wonks pegged Miller in 2025 as a 64.4-rated defender. Which, we’ll grant you, is solid for a then-36-year-old edge guy. It’s also a drop of 21.1 points from the 85.5 overall grade Vonster collected as a member of the Buffalo Bills in 2024.

Meanwhile, Broncos linebacker Jonah Elliss is 23. PFF graded him out with a 75.8 score overall during the regular season. Elliss recorded three sacks and 18 hurries on 370 snaps, per the site’s advanced metrics, and … didn’t miss a tackle.

Dondrea Tillman is 28. PFF gave him a 68.5 overall grade, with a run-stopping grade of 72.3, which ranked 19th in the league among edge-rushers. Missed-tackle rate: 15.4%.

Que Robinson is 25. He landed a 65.4 overall PFF grade on just 163 snaps as a rookie last fall. Missed-tackle rate: 16.7%.

It’s easy to put 2 and 2 together and come up with a 58 reunion. Only that’s fuzzy math.

The Broncos don’t just have cheaper, younger options than Miller. They have better ones, already on hand.

Per Spotrac.com, the Broncos, as of Friday morning, at $30.36 million. The site said Vonster was worth a 1-year, $5.8-million deal , which would certainly fit the budget.

But does he fit the building? Payton’s built a culture in Dove Valley around his image, his standard. Von takes up a lot of oxygen in any locker room he joins. But especially the one here, where 58 is already revered.

To general manager George Paton’s credit, the roster is already buffered in case of a long-term Cooper absence. We haven’t even mentioned Drew Sanders yet. And defensive coordinator Vance Joseph slathered Robinson with all kinds of love Thursday when asked about the second-year defender’s upside for 2026.

“After the season, watching the cut-ups (of game tape) … when Que played, he played really well,” Joseph said. “He looked like a guy who could be a future starter for us … so it’s our job to keep improving with Que, and get him more reps.”

If Payton is serious about accountability and trust, a window on the Broncos’ defense is about to open. A Super Bowl flag is on the ground, now, waiting for the next man to pick it up and run to daylight.

He’s been putting pictures and other office items in boxes over recent days, preparing for the Broncos’ move across their practice fields to a gleaming new team headquarters, and wondering how long it will take to get used to the new digs.

That, though, is the only professional move Payton has to ponder any time soon after he and the Broncos agreed to a new five-year deal on Thursday.

“Sean Payton has led an impressive turnaround over the past three seasons, instilling a winning culture with high expectations,” Broncos owner and CEO Greg Penner said in a statement announcing the deal. “I appreciate the close partnership he shares with George Paton along with the alignment and stability across our football operations.

“We’re thrilled for Sean to continue leading our team as head coach, building on our progress during such an exciting time for the Broncos.”

The contract runs through 2030, aligning the contract terms for Payton and general manager George Paton, who signed a new extension earlier this spring. Payton was believed to be one of the highest-paid head coaches in the NFL on his initial contract in Denver at around $20 million per year and almost certainly will continue to be, though his exact salary on the new deal was not immediately known.

“I’m super appreciative of that opportunity,” Payton said Thursday after Denver’s OTA practice. “I said this earlier, that triangle of ownership — the Walton-Penner group, Carrie and Greg — and then George and working with him, I’ve been spoiled. I had a real good experience in New Orleans with ownership and (general manager) Mickey (Loomis). And to go two-for-two in this league is hard.

“I’m thankful they want me back and we’re going to do everything we can to keep winning.

The Broncos have done little else since Payton took over following a disastrous 2022 season that finished 5-12 and saw Nathaniel Hackett fired 15 games into his tenure.

Beyond just one calamitous year, Payton took over a team that had lost its way for nearly a decade since Peyton Manning retired after Super Bowl 50.

Denver went 8-9 in his first season but made the decision to take on a record $85 million in dead cap to cut quarterback Russell Wilson afterward.

Then Payton and Paton drafted Bo Nix at No. 12 overall in the 2024 draft and Payton engineered a 10-7 season that resulted in a wild-card playoff berth in Nix’s rookie year.

Last fall, the Broncos broke through with a 14-3 regular-season record, powered by an 11-game winning streak. They won in the postseason for the first time since their last Super Bowl year, beating Buffalo in overtime in the AFC Divisional round. Then Denver lost at home to New England in the AFC Championship Game without Nix, who fractured his ankle against Buffalo.

Now the Broncos are firmly back on the map. They believe they have a championship-caliber team, they have an ascending power in their ownership group, they have a new stadium in the works and they have Payton and Paton in place long-term atop the football operation.

“There’s always pressure and that����ap kind of the unique thing of sport,” Payton said, “especially at the professional level where you’re graded on each game and each performance and that����ap OK,. That����ap kind of how you prefer it. A place here with such traditions and expectations, that����ap a good thing.

“It����ap a lot better than hoping you can fill a stadium with fans or any of that other stuff.”

Payton is 32-19 in the regular season in Denver and 1-2 in the postseason. His 184 overall regular-season wins are No. 13 all time and second among active coaches behind only Kansas City’s Andy Reid (279). If the Broncos return to the postseason this fall, Payton will find himself in the top 10 in regular-season coaching wins.

Along the way, the Broncos have built one of the deepest and most talented rosters in football thanks in large part to Payton’s conviction on the types of players he wants and Paton’s ability to identify and acquire them. Payton called “aligning with George” on his contract term a critical component to the equation.

“We enjoy the process and coming to work together and going through this together,” Payton said. “I think we think a lot alike.”

Payton had two years remaining on his original deal, which ran through the 2027 season. The new pact, then, runs through 2030 and would take the veteran head coach through his 67th birthday.

Payton said he hasn’t given much thought to how much longer he wants to coach, but recounted a story from last season when Nix asked him that very question.

“Bo had asked me how long and I was like, shoot, plenty of time. Eight years, nine years, whatever,” Payton said. “And then we had one of those gameday moments (in Las Vegas) and I said, ‘well right now it feels like one year.’

“I’ve not really given any thought to the end game. I think I’ve got a lot of juice left and I enjoy what we’re doing.”

Von Miller is a Denver icon, a Mile High legend, the engine of the defense, the life of the party, the Mick Jagger of ����apountry.

One problem: The Broncos already have a lead singer.

They’re looking for bass players, keyboardists, percussionists and backup dancers. It’s the Sean & Bo Show now,

“I would love to assist and be a vice president to Bo Nix and Courtland Sutton,” Miller told The Post’s Parker Gabriel a few days earlier at a Von’s Vision function in Commerce City. “I’ve been the guy and also I’ve been the vice president as well.

“I’d love to contribute to us getting back to the glory land, holding up that trophy and confetti falling again. For me, my whole entire life, I’ve helped guys be the best version of themselves and I’d love to do that back here with the Denver Broncos back home.”

Having No. 58 in the fold would be a hit for fans who’ve still got Miller jerseys hanging in their closets and a boon for media looking for a sound bite from one of the best to ever play in orange and blue.

And Von — who racked up nine sacks as a situational pass-rusher in Washington last fall — knows a good thing when he sees it, having faced the Broncos with the Bills and with the Commanders over the last three seasons.

Assuming Nix is healthy (crosses fingers), the Broncos are on the Super Bowl train, and Miller would love nothing more than to close out a Hall-of-Fame career with another ring in his favorite NFL town.

Von Miller playing for Sean Payton — D

Never say never, right? The kids up in the Grading The Week department would love to dust off their replica jerseys and party like it’s 2015 all over again.

“I think there’s no question the type of environment I bring to a locker room,” Miller told Gabriel. “I think there’s no question to the type of environment I bring to a team.”

Yet the bean-counters over the corner office keep reminding us of the same thing whenever the subject of No. 58 returning to the Broncos gets brought up:

Ain’t nowhere for The Vonster to play.

The law firm of (Nik) Bonitto & (Jonathon) Cooper are in their respective primes coming off the edge, combining for 22 sacks a season ago.

Behind them, Dondrea Tillman (four sacks in ’25) has been a revelation who hasn’t slowed down, while second-year rusher Que Robinson recorded a sack in the AFC Championship Game. Drew Sanders is looking for a home, and all Jonah Elliss does is make plays.

Whose snaps would you give to Miller, who’s still spry at age 37 but is creeping in the winter of his playing days?

“Obviously, I wouldn’t start. Obviously, I wouldn’t play special teams,” Miller continued. “But I will say, the type of room that we would have, the outside linebackers with me, Nik Bonitto, we’d be a force. Whatever (the) coach (has) going on, I would just contribute to that. The defense that we’d have. I’d love to bring back those Super Bowl 50 vibes.”

Yeah, but here’s the thing: This defense kind of already has those vibes — just with a different generation under defensive coordinator Vance Joseph. The Broncos also need their second-and third-wave of linebackers to play on special teams, my friend.

Von was the face of the Broncos seven years ago, and a good one. But that face is Payton’s now. That voice is Payton’s now.

Miller will retire a Bronco. But Team GTW wagers it’ll be the same way Justin Simmons just retired as a Bronco — with a ceremony, a 1-day contract, a news conference, some tears and a hearty thanks for services rendered and memories we’ll never let go.

It����ap made him a Super Bowl champion. It����ap made him generational wealth. It����ap made him a potential Pro Football Hall of Famer someday.

The 37-year-old is holding out hope these days that his latest pressure campaign lands him back where his career started: Playing for the Broncos.

That Miller wants to return to Denver is hardly a surprise. He’s expressed a desire to do so over several recent offseasons.

Still, every time Miller returns to the Denver area, as he did this week to help more than 60 kids get free eye exams and a pair of glasses through his charity, Von’s Vision, that pull back to the orange and blue feels a little bit stronger.

“Last year I played 37% of the defensive snaps,” said Miller, who had 9 sacks for the Washington Commanders after six the year before in Buffalo. “Thirty (percent) with the Denver Broncos and I feel like I can do the same exact thing I did with the Washington Commanders.”

Miller has talked with Denver general manager George Paton extensively over recent months and years about Miller’s desire to end up working in — and running his own — front office after he’s done playing. Broncos head coach Sean Payton coached Miller’s flag football team this spring against the U.S. national team.

Miller said his offseason has been “quiet” so far in terms of interest from teams and a week ago a league source told The Post that the Broncos hadn’t expressed interest in signing Miller, but the veteran is working Paton and Payton hard.

“I lobby. I do lobby,” Miller said with a smile. “I lobby publicly, I lobby privately. I do lobby. I think there’s no question the type of environment I bring to a locker room and to a team. I don’t like to pat myself on the back, but at 37 years old I can still roll out of bed and rush the quarterback. I’m still a great guy in the locker room, I bring great energy and I’m going to make sure everybody is ready to go.”

Miller is particularly interested, he said, in working with Broncos star edge rusher Nik Bonitto and running mate Jonathon Cooper.

Bonitto is a big Miller fan and said earlier this month that, “Just to kinda be able to share a room with him would be amazing.”

Miller feels the same way about Bonitto and said he can’t shake the feeling that it would be akin to when DeMarcus Ware arrived in Denver and helped Miller channel his talent into a Super Bowl 50 victory and a long and prosperous career.

“I know (Bonitto) well,” Miller said. “Obviously, we’re not roommates or nothing like that. But we have an open line of communication and we talk about everything. To be in the locker room and to be able to pay forward what DeMarcus did for me to Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper and the rest of the young guys, I’d love to be able to do that in my twilight on the way out.”

Miller knows if the Broncos did re-sign him, there’d be massive hullabaloo. He insists that’s not what this is about. He thinks about “Von’s Vision Days” and locker room vibes and causing terror on third-and-long.

“Obviously, I wouldn’t start. Obviously, I wouldn’t play special teams,” Miller said. “But I will say, the type of room that we would have, the outside linebackers with me, Nik Bonitto, we’d be a force. Whatever coach we have going on, I would just contribute to that. The defense that we’d have. I’d love to bring back those Super Bowl 50 vibes.

“I would love to assist and be a vice president to Bo Nix and Courtland Sutton. I’ve been the guy and also I’ve been the vice president as well. I’d love to contribute to us getting back to the glory land, holding up that trophy and confetti falling again. For me, my whole entire life, I’ve helped guys be the best version of themselves and I’d love to do that back here with the Denver Broncos back home.”

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

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

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

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

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

The heartbeat of the Broncos’ defense

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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