Denver Broncos fans are frustrated with the team's inability to close the deal Thursday night and secure a playoff spot. The loss to the Los Angeles Chargers not only gives the AFC West rival a series sweep but means the Broncos, if they make the playoffs, will most likely be the seventh seed.
Some have pointed out that the Broncos have mostly beaten teams with losing records. Going into this weekend, among the teams the Broncos have beaten, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the only team with a record above .500. The Atlanta Falcons are at .500 (7-7) but everyone else has a losing record.
However, this does not mean the Broncos' winning season is a fluke or all smoke and mirrors. It means the Broncos entered the season as a rebuilding team and have shown they can be competitive and even win games.
The Broncos have only been blown out one time, against the Baltimore Ravens, who have one of the best offenses in the NFL. In some games, the Broncos did fall behind by double digits at halftime but came back in the second half. And then there's the loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, which came down to the AFC West rival blocking a chip-shot field goal.
The Broncos have shown they can be competitive, even if they are far from being where they want to be. That's not a bad thing when you consider the Broncos were expected to maybe win five games.
There are plenty of things the Broncos can do better, both from a coaching and a player standpoint. However, let's keep a few things about what's still true about this team, despite being in the playoff hunt.
A Lot of Inexperience
It's not just about rookies who are seeing the field, but players who are the primary starters for the first time in their NFL careers.
Bo Nix is an obvious such player, but the likes of Luke Wattenberg, Riley Moss, and Justin Strnad became starters for the first time at their respective positions (Wattenberg was a fill-in starter at guard but not at center). Other players are seeing more starts than before (P.J. Locke) or seeing their roles increase (Marvin Mims Jr.).
That's not to mention the multiple rookies who have seen the field, such as Audric Estime, Jonah Eliss, Troy Franklin, Devaughn Vele and, most recently, Kris Abrams-Draine. While it's nice to see rookies contribute, expecting them all to be world beaters as rookies is expecting too much.
The team was going to have some growing pains throughout the season. The key is how these players respond and improve in 2025.
Not Every Roster Hole is Filled (Yet)
It's easy to complain about the holes the Broncos didn't address in the offseason, but the truth is, there was no guarantee to fill them all. In some cases, there was hope certain players could develop to fill the roles.
It's unfortuante that Greg Dulcich didn't improve because he could have filled the need at tight end. However, the Broncos only had so many resources available, be it cash to spend or draft picks to use, and thus they held out hope Dulcich could turn it around.
In other cases, it turned out the Broncos had the players on the roster all along but they just had yet to emerge. Case in point is Nik Bonitto, who looked more like a rotational player in 2023, but is having his breakout season and just might be the long-term guy to be the No. 1 edge rusher.
The Broncos will be in a better position with cash to spend and draft picks to utilize, so they have the opportunity to address more needs. And in some cases, players on the roster are showing they can fill certain roles.
Thin Margin for Error
While the Broncos are a good team, they cannot afford to make too many mistakes and expect to beat better teams on the schedule. In some cases, they were fortunate those mistakes came against weaker teams.
The Cleveland Browns are not a good football team and their repeated mistakes on offense allowed the Broncos to stay in the game, even as the Browns got big plays on offense. The Indianapolis Colts are a league-average team but made too many mistakes, which kept the Broncos in the game and, ultimately, gave them a chance to come back.
Against the Chargers on Thursday night, Nix didn't throw an interception and the Broncos recovered their only fumble, but Justin Herbert took advantage of mistakes by the defense. And Tremon Smith, who has been great on special teams, had the wrong moment for a costly mistake with his fair-catch interference penalty that led to the Chargers' free-kick field goal before halftime.
With this Broncos team, even the best players on each unit have little room for error, lest the better teams they face capitalize on them.
The Takeaway
All these factors are the reason why the Broncos are still in a rebuilding year, despite remaining in control of their own playoff destiny. But the Broncos will need to avoid costly mistakes against the Cincinnati Bengals to ensure themselves of a playoff spot.
Even if they beat the Bengals and make the playoffs, the Broncos must still approach 2025 as the year they prove they can be a consistent playoff contender. Next year, the Broncos will face the NFC East (a better division than the NFC South) and the AFC South (not as strong as the AFC North but with teams that could improve) and will have to show they can make a playoff run against a different schedule.
The good news is that the Broncos will have more experience returning next season and that should make them a better team. The coaching staff should hopefully learn from this season and figure out how best to improve the team next season, finding players they can trust to do certain jobs.
In the meantime, Broncos fans should be happy the team has done better than expected, but keep in mind this team is still in a rebuild year. That doesn't mean the Broncos are a bad team or a lucky team — it only means the Broncos, despite being better than expected, are still not a finished product.
