One of the most common words heard surrounding the Denver Broncos since they won Super Bowl 50 has been “rebuild.”
Are the Broncos rebuilding? Will the Broncos rebuild? The Broncos won’t have success until they rebuild.
These are all questions and statements that have been made about the Broncos as they’ve missed the playoffs for eight straight years.
While John Elway oversaw the team, he struck gold with Peyton Manning in free agency and knew he had a window to win immediately. Elway never rebuilt while Manning was throwing touchdowns in the orange and blue. He reloaded each season under Manning.
Once Manning rode off into the sunset, however, Elway tried to keep the same formula that he had to win Super Bowl 50. The formula was to play great defense and find a quarterback that was just good enough to win. Unfortunately, that never worked under Elway’s watch once Manning retired.
Denver searched high and low for quarterbacks and went down every avenue, but never found their guy. The carousel is well documented.
But it wasn’t just at QB. The Broncos never found the right head coach once Gary Kubiak left after the 2016 season.
From 2016 through 2020, the Broncos refused to rebuild under Elway.
In 2021, the Broncos hired George Paton as their general manager, but he refused to start the rebuild right away too. Paton decided to keep head coach Vic Fangio and patch the quarterback position by trading for Teddy Bridgewater instead of rebuilding.
In 2022, Fangio was fired. Once again, Paton tried to take the short cut and reboot by trading for quarterback Russell Wilson.
There’s no doubt that nearly every general manager in the NFL would have made the same trade if they were in Paton’s shoes at the time. Unfortunately, that didn’t work either and were forced to fire their latest head coach, Nathaniel Hackett, before his first season was even completed.
In 2023, Paton and the new Broncos ownership group knew they couldn’t keep losing and continue to be a laughingstock around the NFL. The Broncos searched under every rock to make sure they were going to land the right head coach to turn this franchise around and they did.
The Broncos traded for Sean Payton.
Let’s be real, Payton wants to win right now and doesn’t want to wait around to build a Super Bowl contending roster. Luckily, Payton knows how to get to the promised land and hasn’t wasted any time.
Just like Kubiak in 2015, Payton went out and put together his coaching staff with people he knew and trusted. Payton didn’t want to mess around and bring in coaches he didn’t know or was hopeful about. He hired guys that knew what it takes to have success in the NFL and have done it with him.
To win a Super Bowl in the NFL, you have to have build a team like a house. You must have the building blocks at the bottom that are going to impact the team and keep things upright. Everything above it is a bonus. Payton took over a Broncos roster that had some great building blocks, but knew how he wanted to build his championship house.
The Broncos already had one of the best cornerbacks in the game in Patrick Surtain. Denver also had another building block in left tackle in Garett Bolles that had played well in recent years and rated as one of the best left tackles in the NFL. Payton also saw that he had a wide receiver in Courtland Sutton that has shown some potential and could be even better under Payton’s offense.
There were still more building blocks that needed to be added to this roster, however.
In the offseason, Payton knew he had to find players that could win at the line of scrimmage. This meant Payton and Paton went out and added right tackle Mike McGlinchey to help protect Denver’s quarterback and play next to Quinn Meinerz who was on the rise. Denver also went out and upgraded the left guard position by signing Ben Powers to help in the running game.
On the defensive side, the Broncos added D.J. Jones to help clog up the middle on the defensive line. Denver also signed defensive lineman, Zach Allen after he had success playing under defensive coordinator Vance Joseph in Arizona the previous year.
During the NFL Draft, the Broncos didn’t own a first-round pick because it was used to trade for Payton, but that didn’t stop them from hitting on picks in the draft.
Payton’s first pick as the head coach of the Broncos was wide receiver Marvin Mims in the second-round. This gave the Broncos the ability to be more creative in the passing game with a speedy wide receiver and it put some pressure or Jerry Jeudy to see if he could make the leap forward that the team was hoping for.
The Broncos also added a dual-threat linebacker in Drew Sanders, who could play inside or outside. In the third-round, the Broncos added another cornerback to play opposite of Surtain in Riley Moss and it has worked tremendous for Payton this year.
Heading into the 2023 season, it was clear that Payton filled a lot of needs to prove that this team can be successful in his first season, but there were still questions about the quarterback position with Russell Wilson. The former Seahawks quarterback looked bad playing for Hackett and proved to not look good under Payton either.
Now, the Broncos could’ve done what they had done for the previous years and try one more time with a below average quarterback in Wilson or they could bite the bullet and move on from him despite his large dead cap hit. The Broncos did the right thing and moved on from a quarterback that wasn’t performing well and knew they had to find the right gun-slinger and fit for Payton.
Denver battled salary cap issues, so they were not going to be able to land a high-priced quarterback in free agency. Instead, the Broncos did something they haven’t done since 2012. They identified a quarterback and went all in to land him.
Payton fell in love with Bo Nix out of Oregon and knew that he found his quarterback.
Denver didn’t do much spending in free agency after they spent a lot of money in the previous offseason, but they moved on from players like Jeudy, Justin Simmons and Kareem Jackson. These were players that had been part of the organization for years and failed to make the playoffs. It was time for the culture to be changed to what Payton wanted.
In the draft, Payton landed his quarterback, but also landed another pass rusher to add depth to the position by adding Jonah Elliss. Payton and Paton also drafted another speedy wide receiver in Troy Franklin and another wide receiver, Devaughn Vele, in the seventh-round. Despite having Javonte Williams and Jaleel McLaughlin in the running back room, Payton drafted another running back in Audric Estime to bring more thunder to the run game.
With all the moves that Payton and Paton have made, they rebuilt a team within two offseasons and have shown how quickly it is to turn a franchise around. Currently the Broncos are sitting with an 8-5 record and own the final playoff spot in the AFC.
Just because the Broncos are on their way to making the playoffs, it doesn’t mean that the rebuild is over. Once you become Super Bowl contenders, that’s when you know the rebuild is over and you can reboot each offseason like Elway did in the Manning years.
Heading into the upcoming offseason, the Broncos can go ahead and make another big splash or two and add extra pieces in the draft to get them over the hump and become contenders for the first time since 2015.
It’s fair to say that the rebuild is close to being over. And it’s a great feeling in Broncos Country.
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