We get it — people think the Denver Broncos are going to be bad this coming season. Pro Football Focus ranked the Broncos’ roster the absolute worst in the NFL right now. You’ve got a viral post on Twitter/X making predictions for this season including the Broncos being the first team to go winless in the 17-game era. Countless pundits out there have the Broncos picking near the top of their early 2025 NFL mock draft predictions.
Again, we get it. People don’t like this team after they released Russell Wilson, Justin Simmons, and traded Jerry Jeudy. A lot of people out there don’t like Bo Nix and felt like the Broncos vastly over-drafted him.
As many lists and rankings as are out there, I don’t know that we’ve seen anything quite as disrespectful as this from Bleacher Report. Writer Alex Ballentine suggests that the Broncos are one of a handful of teams that should seriously consider tanking for the 2024 season.
And not even for a quarterback.
“Not every team that should be looking ahead to the 2025 NFL draft is looking for quarterback talent. The Broncos have already staked the future of the franchise on Bo Nix after the 2024 NFL draft.
They shouldn’t go back on that regardless of what 2024 looks like…
…The Russell Wilson trade has undoubtedly set back the franchise a few years. A bit of patience is going to be required and playing for the 2025 draft could put the Broncos in a position to make a bigger leap next season.”
– Bleacher Report
Keep in mind — the Broncos won eight games last year. This is a team that hit rock bottom as of the 2022 season with Nathaniel Hackett as its head coach and Sean Payton showed last year his ability to maximize the talent on the roster and have the Broncos in contention late into the season. We were still talking about potential playoff scenarios last December, let’s not forget.
What B/R said is true — the Russell Wilson trade set the franchise back. The question is, did cutting Russell Wilson set the Broncos back? We’re going to have to wait to find out, but there are a lot of people who believe the Broncos actually got better at quarterback this offseason with the subtraction of Wilson and the addition of Bo Nix.
Again, that remains to be seen, but this team tanking is not happening. Sean Payton stated while he was working with FOX as a member of the media that he felt Caleb Williams was the type of prospect the NFL would have to implement a lottery for. If Payton liked Williams that much and didn’t “tank” to get him, then why would he tank in 2024 when there’s nobody in the 2025 NFL Draft class even worth tanking for?
It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. If the Broncos are bad in 2024, it is going to have to happen organically, not by force.
