The Denver Broncos have steamrolled their way through the first two contests of the preseason as the start of the regular season draws closer. While the starters haven’t played a whole lot and the backups have done most of the heavy lifting through two weeks, that hasn’t changed the opinion that the majority of the NFL world has about the orange and blue heading into the season.
The general consensus around the league is that people think the Broncos will be better than last season, which was the franchise’s first year making the postseason in nine years. With a more experienced Bo Nix, an offensive line that’s returning all five starters from last year, a few new weapons on offense and a defense that fixed its problems with a handful of key additions, the team has what it takes — on paper — to compete with the top dogs in the AFC.
ESPN released the final edition of its offseason power rankings on Monday morning, as we are officially in the final week of the preseason, and nine days away from when each team has to finalize its inaugural 53-man roster for the regular season. In the previous edition (after the 2025 NFL Draft), the Broncos slotted in at No. 14 on the list, but jumped all the way up to No. 11 on Monday morning.
Denver jumped the Chargers, Buccaneers and Texans in these rankings. The Chargers lost their star offensive tackle in Rashawn Slater for the season, but the Texans and the Bucs haven’t exactly had anything negative to them in camp. People just think that the Broncos are better than those two squads heading into the season, but having those teams all on the same tier makes sense. They have talented teams and good coaching, and will likely make the playoffs, but when the weather gets colder and the stakes get higher, do they have what it takes to beat the league’s top teams?
As of right now, the answer is no, even for the Broncos. No hypothetical scenario is going to change that. The only way for Denver and these other three teams to jump up from that tier is to actually go out and beat one of those top teams in the playoffs.
ESPN’s rankings also highlighted one person in each organization who is under the most pressure heading into the season, and the Broncos’ candidate was an interesting one, Sean Payton.
The World Wide Leader cited the fact that Payton has been more vocal than anyone about the team’s ability to contend for a Super Bowl this season, and this essentially is just telling him to put his money where his mouth is. He’s not going to get fired if they have an underwhelming season, as his job security is very good at the moment. It’s just the start of the Bo Nix era, and with an ownership group that has some of the deepest pockets in the league behind him, it should only be a recipe for success for the Broncos in the future.
For the rest of the AFC West, the Chiefs found themselves at No. 2 on the list and the Raiders were down at No. 25. The Broncos are the fifth-highest ranked AFC team behind the Chiefs, Bills, Ravens and Bengals.