As it appears right now, a couple of the Denver Broncos' late-season opponents do not seem nearly as good this year as many thought coming into the season. The Broncos are now 4-3 and have a legitimate shot to get to 5-3 after their Week 8 game against the Carolina Panthers.
The Broncos are currently in a playoff position, but that could change when the bulk of Week 7 gets underway. If this team does want to make the postseason this year, and this is something I guarantee Sean Payton believes he can do, the team is going to have to "steal" a game or two against a team that appears better than Denver at this point.
The Broncos play at Baltimore in Week 9 and at Kansas City in Week 10, and the team may have to win one of those games to get into the postseason when it's all said and done, but two teams that they haven't yet played, the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals, just don't feel as good in 2024 as some thought they would be coming into the season.
Both teams have urgent, dire issues that are just more devastating than any issue Denver may have at this time. The Browns may have the worst QB of this century in Deshaun Watson, and it doesn't seem like they plan on benching him anytime soon. The Browns-Deshaun Watson era may end up going down as the worst trade in NFL history and maybe even the worst contract in sports' history.
The Browns did make the postseason in 2023 and were going to be an elite team if Watson would have been able to return to his old ways, but that isn't going to happen. The Cincinnati Bengals started off 1-4 and got a huge win against the New York Giants, but the Bengals' defense is just putrid, and Cincy just does not feel like an elite team or even a very good team in 2024.
Frankly, Denver is better, and it shows in their record. On paper, coming into the 2024 NFL Season, these two games could have presented some challenge for the Denver Broncos, but at this point in 2024, both opponents feel very beatable and could be two more wins on the Broncos' slate that they didn't really have in mind when the season began. Could these two clubs help propel the Broncos into the postseason?
