The NFL’s 2026-27 season is now underway. In 2025-26, the Denver Broncos made it to the cusp of the Super Bowl. With all that success, you would think that their odds are pretty decent to make a run at the championship in 2026. The sportsbooks already have odds ready for fans who believe the Broncos are worth betting money on.

FanDuel has released their way-too-early Super Bowl 61 odds, and it sure feels like the Denver Broncos are getting disrespected here after winning the AFC West and having the league’s best record last season.

A quick look at the AFC West

Every offseason, the Los Angeles Chargers are the media darlings. 2027 will be no different, with the books saying they are the favorite to win the AFC West. Look for this story to have teeth until about week 10 when the wheels inevitably start falling off the Charger’s bus.

The question for Kansas City is whether or not Patrick Mahomes has enough of a fire lit under him to get back to work on being the best quarterback in the league, or if he’s instead going to keep whining to the refs about how they are getting it wrong when he’s throwing bad passes and his team lacks talent because of his ridiculous contract.

I’m not really sure how the Las Vegas Raiders got bumped up so many spots. Their franchise is an absolute dumpster fire that is literally going to lose one of the league’s best defenders in Maxx Crosby. Hopefully, they make that #1 draft pick count, and maybe they will end up the season better than six other NFL teams.

Why the Broncos look like a longer shot

Denver Broncos fans are looking forward to next season with good reason. The Broncos have one of the league’s best young starting quarterbacks. They have a stellar defense with Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph returning for another run. Given that the team will finally have cap room now that they are out from under that horrendous Russel Wilson contract, they will look to be movers and shakers in free agency. They also hold their full slate of draft picks this year with an extra 7th rounder to boot.

I honestly feel like the odds here for the Broncos feel pretty accurate for such an early prognosis. They will be playing a pretty tough first-place schedule next season. I don’t think the Chiefs will be nearly as big of pushovers as they were in 2026. I also do believe the Chargers got better by adding Mike McDaniel as the Offensive Coordinator.

I would have a hard time if I were a betting man laying money that the Broncos are going to the Super Bowl in 2027. At +2000, would you take that Super Bowl bet on the Broncos next season?

Sean Payton has already made his thoughts on the Broncos’ 2025 offense clear.

His overall discontent showed through days after Denver’s AFC Championship Game loss to New England when Payton fired coordinator Joe Lombardi and receivers coach Keary Colbert. Then he lost senior offensive assistant Pete Carmichael to Buffalo, too.

Payton promoted quarterbacks coach Davis Webb to offensive coordinator and quality control coach Logan Kilgore to quarterbacks coach. It’s a changing of the guard in Payton’s offensive meeting room — but regardless of whether Payton or Webb is the primary play-caller in 2026, it’s still Payton’s offense.

Here’s a look back at the unit’s 2025 performance and an early look at questions going into what is shaping up to be a fascinating offseason.

Five key offensive numbers

25: Points per game (No. 10 in the NFL)

5.3: Yards per play (T-15 and up slightly from 5.2 in 2024 and 5.0 in 2023)

334: First downs (T-14)

25%: Three-and-out rate (No. 29)

37.8: Percentage of drives ending in an offensive score (No. 20)

High Point

In terms of the regular season, there’s no more emotional high point offensively than scoring 33 fourth-quarter points in a comeback for the ages. There was no more thorough throttling than pouring 44 points on Dallas the very next week. Still, the real high point of the season for Bo Nix and company was a 34-26 win over Green Bay in mid-December. The Broncos entered as home underdogs, but Nix played perhaps the best game of his career to date. He traded blows with Packers quarterback Jordan Love in the first half, then took over in the second. He completed 23 of 34 passes for 302 yards and four touchdowns and helped bring the Broncos back from a 9-point, third-quarter deficit. It was a magnificent performance and at the time looked like it might provide a blueprint for how Denver could operate efficiently without much in the way of a running game after J.K. Dobbins’ injury a month earlier.

Low Point

Low points are relative during a 14-3 season that featured an 11-game winning streak, but the Broncos offense really did find itself in a funk for the better part of a month in that streak. The epic comeback against the Giants came only after New York shut Denver out for three quarters. The week before that, Denver had 246 yards against the New York Jets in London. After a one-week reprieve against the Cowboys, the Broncos mustered 18 points and 271 yards against a really good Houston defense, but then 10 points and 220 at home in Week 10 against Las Vegas in a 10-7 win. Nix turned the ball over twice. J.K. Dobbins was lost to a Lisfranc injury. Denver scored 20–plus in each of its three regular-season losses. Its three lowest-scoring games came between Weeks 6-10. That’s when it became clear that, for as good as the team results looked, the Broncos’ offense was a mostly middle-of-the-pack outfit and was capable of playing much worse than that.

Late-game magic

MVP: QB Bo Nix. There’s a compelling argument to be made for first-team All-Pro Garett Bolles and for RB J.K. Dobbins, both for his 10-game production and his impact in absentia. Nix, though, gets the nod for his play but also for his leadership. He isn’t a perfect player and he’s got a lot of work to do to become a clear top-tier quarterback, but he’s a proven clutch performer and engineered countless big moments over the course of the season. It’s his team and his team was really good in 2025.

Tough Season: TE Evan Engram. It started with a ‘Joker’ meme this spring and high hopes. The end result wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t exactly what anybody really expected, either. Engram, signed with the idea he might finally give the Broncos a dynamic, matchup-exploiting tight end, instead never quite seemed to find a groove. His numbers still ended up better than what Denver’s got from the position in recent years, but 50 catches for 461 and a touchdown also represent basically the worst production in a full season of his nine-year career.

Under the radar: WR Pat Bryant. Denver was roundly questioned for taking Bryant in the third round of the draft, but quickly showed himself to be a player head coach Sean Payton trusts. Bryant played 29 snaps (16.7%) over the first three games, then averaged 55% for the rest of the season. He was part of the reason Denver traded Devaughn Vele in training camp and then released Trent Sherfied during the season. He finished with 31 catches and 378 yards, more rookie-year production than either Troy Franklin in 2024 or Marvin Mims Jr. in 2023, and is Denver’s best perimeter blocker, too.

Broncos conversion rates — Sean Payton era

Run Offense

Five Key Numbers

31.6. Drop in rushing yards per game after J.K. Dobbins was lost for the season to a Lisfranc injury

3.8. Yards per carry after Dobbins’ injury compared to 5.0 before

3.2. Yards per carry for the Broncos in two postseason games

74%. The Broncos’ run block win rate, according to ESPN (No. 4 in the NFL)

62.9%. Percentage of QB Bo Nix’s runs (non-kneeldown and sneak) that were categorized as scrambles. Down considerably from 81.2% in 2024.

The Good

For the first half of the season, the Broncos looked like one of the best in the business at rushing the football. They leaned on their big, veteran offensive line and Dobbins’ steady work. The veteran back was signed for just $2 million in June and turned out to be perhaps the most important single player on the unit over the first 10 games. As Denver slugged it out against the lowly Raiders in Week 10, Dobbins was on pace for 1,300-plus yards. Then he sustained a Lisfranc injury on what he believed to be an illegal hip-drop tackle and the going got tough from there. At their best, the Broncos have a highly paid and talented offensive line that can do everything. They can move people at the point, they can get out in space and they can crease runs between the tackles. They identified a couple of willing perimeter blockers, too. The ingredients were there and it showed… for half a season.

The Bad

The rest of the group just didn’t provide much punch once Dobbins was hurt. RJ Harvey racked up 12 touchdowns in his rookie season and the talent is obvious. He’s terrific with the ball in space and he’s got the potential to be a really good back in his career. The down-in and down-out work in his rookie year, though, was inconsistent. He ripped off a 50-yarder in the Broncos’ opener and touchdowns of 40 and 38 against Dallas and Jacksonville, respectively. Those certainly count. Harvey’s other 143 carries averaged 2.9 yards. In all, Dobbins had 21 rushes of 10-plus yards over 153 carries. The other three — Harvey, Jaleel McLaughlin and Tyler Badie — had 13 runs of 10-plus over 191 carries. Denver rushed for less than 100 yards once in its first nine games with Dobbins and then six times, including the postseason in 10 games he didn’t finish or play in.

The Unknown

There are unknowns across the board. Will Dobbins be back? He’s said he’d like to be, but that will require the sides finding agreement on compensation for a back who is terrific when healthy and also has played more than 10 games once since his rookie year in 2020. How much of a leap can Harvey take in his second season? Will McLaughlin or Badie return or will the Broncos revamp the back part of their room? Just as pertinent, what will the Broncos’ schematic approach look like going forward? Payton nodded to this after the season when he said he’d already been talking with offensive line coach and run game coordinator Zach Strief about the research they had to do this offseason to diagnose a myriad of issues. The Broncos dabbled more in the outside zone world over the past year, but didn’t lean hard into it. Could that change? What influence will Davis Webb’s promotion to offensive coordinator — and potentially into a playcalling role — have?

Broncos RB Production

Pass Offense

Five Key Numbers

613: Pass attempts in the regular season (No. 4 in the NFL)

0.02: Estimated points added per pass play (T-9)

3.6%: Sack percentage for the Broncos (Lowest in the NFL)

139: Yards after catch over expected (No. 23)

21.7%: Blitz rate against (Fourth-lowest in the NFL)

The Good

The Broncos were really, truly elite at exactly one thing offensively this year: Sack avoidance. Between their offensive line, Nix’s mobility and a mandate from Payton on down not to take sacks, Denver did it better than anybody in football. More than propel an offense into the NFL’s upper echelons, though, what the league-low 23 sacks did was mostly help offset too many penalties and too few big plays. Denver was good on third down (10th in the NFL), decent in the red zone (T-13), and pedestrian on a per-drive basis (T-18 in points per drive at 2.05). That’s partially because the Broncos went long swaths without throwing the ball consistently enough. Late in the season, when they strung together long, grinding drives, it happened because of a short passing game and the ability to stay on schedule. One other bright spot: Courtland Sutton checked in with top-15 marks in receiving yards (1,017; No. 13) and touchdowns (7; T-15).

CHICAGO — The Bulls have barely had time to go around in a circle and introduce themselves since they first assembled as a team. Yet they somehow gave the Nuggets a scare on Saturday.

Denver pulled away late for a 136-120 win at United Center to snap its first three-game losing streak of the season, but the performance wasn’t convincing against a roster that looks entirely different after last Thursday. The Bulls had the busiest trade deadline in the NBA, making seven moves and saying goodbye to several of their best players. Six players in their nine-man rotation Saturday were not on the team a week earlier.

The Nuggets (34-19) went into the fourth quarter trailing by seven. They finally put their foot down with a 20-2 run to begin that final frame, led by a relentless Nikola Jokic. Listed as questionable before the game with a mildly sprained ankle, he went for 22 points, 14 rebounds, 17 assists and four blocks, passing Oscar Robertson for second in NBA history with his 182nd career triple-double.

“It hits me, knowing my father played against Oscar Robertson,” coach David Adelman said.

Jokic says he has a space at home designated for “all those little moments, little memories,” where he’ll keep the game ball.

“I think it’s great for after the career,” he said. “I’m gonna look up and I’m gonna lie really good (about how good I was).”

Denver won Jokic’s minutes by 36 and lost the minutes without him by 20. Jamal Murray added 28 points and 11 assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 23 off the bench.

But the Nuggets got killed in the possession battle for most of the night, allowing their hosts to linger. They committed 13 turnovers, with seven of their 10 players responsible for at least one. Chicago also snatched 12 offensive rebounds. Those stats combined to result in a discrepancy of 13 field goal attempts through three quarters.

“DA got on us in the locker room,” Bruce Brown said.

“I have no idea what I was saying, but it wasn’t very instructive. It was very frustrated,” Adelman said. “Just, how many times can you play good defense and then allow them to have a second and third chance? Which is a skill, man. Coming up with the ball. … Getting the ball wins you games. So we did that better in the second half.”

Mostly just in the fourth quarter. Loose balls seemed to be scooped up by only one team for the first two hours of the night. Denver also got disorganized off Chicago’s offensive rebounds or over-helped out of the corners, allowing the Bulls to rain 3s — even new center Nick Richards, who had previously made only one 3-pointer in his career. The Bulls fired up 18 in the third frame alone, finishing the night with 51 as they threatened Denver with an upset that would’ve been mutually self-destructive.