The impetus of the Denver Broncos’ drastic turnaround is that they finally got the head coach/quarterback combination right, after eight years of one miss after another. Sean Payton arrived in 2023 as head coach, but the Broncos won only eight games because the quarterback situation with Russell Wilson wasn’t the right fit.
Enter Bo Nix in 2024, and Payton finally got his guy to build around. The Broncos took off like a rocket, winning 24 games over the ensuing two years, an AFC West Crown, and came one tough Nix injury away from a Super Bowl berth.
The Broncos are more than happy with their head coach/quarterback combo. But where do Payton/Nix rank among the NFL’s head coach/quarterback duos?
It’s an interesting question. Sports Illustrated‘s Matt Verderame ranked Denver’s tandem at No. 11 overall entering the 2026 season, which was an improvement of three spots from his 2025 rankings.
“It’s fair to argue that if Nix doesn’t fracture his ankle during Denver’s overtime win against the Bills in the divisional round, we’re talking about the AFC champs. That’s a credit to Payton, who hired defensive coordinator Vance Joseph to lead the league’s second-ranked unit while finishing first with 68 sacks,” Verderame wrote.
“Of course, Payton has also coaxed enough offense from a limited group. Nix has been solid, helping Denver reach the playoffs in each of his first two seasons. That said, he paced the NFL with 612 attempts and failed to throw for 4,000 yards, something only Sam Howell can match over the past 15 years. With the offseason trade for star receiver Jaylen Waddle, Nix has a chance to improve his numbers.”
Solid, Indeed
Another example of an underhanded compliment of the Broncos. They’re great and all, came real close to the Super Bowl, but [insert Nix critique here]. Is it a fair critique, though? Examine, we shall.
Let’s not forget that there was a reason why the Broncos went out and acquired Waddle via trade. Aside from Courtland Sutton, the Broncos lacked reliable playmakers in the passing game.
When defenses would scheme to double Sutton and take him away, the likes of Troy Franklin and Pat Bryant didn’t do enough to make them pay. Some of that is on Nix, obviously, as the quarterback, but it’s hard to point to a situation around the NFL last year where a signal-caller did more with less than Bo.
The Broncos have a first-place schedule this year, but you’ll see Nix’s numbers grow. He’s had some tremendous experience and a lot of reps against high-level competition, and that will come to bear in his Year-3 development.
Plus, the Broncos added Waddle and rebuilt the running back room by bringing back J.K. Dobbins and drafting Jonah Coleman. Throw RJ Harvey into that backfield, and Evan Engram as the big slot tight end, and the Broncos are going to be loaded for bear on this hunt.
Payton’s Impact
What Payton has done to turn the Broncos around has been nothing short of monumental. Even in Year 1 with Wilson, the eight games Payton won were a three-game improvement over the preceding regime from 2022, and he stanched the bleeding of the Broncos’ heretofore snake-bitten state of existence.
The biggest move Payton made to turn the ship around was also the most controversial: releasing Wilson. Doing so incurred an $85 million dead-money charge to the Broncos’ salary cap, spread out over the 2024 and 2025 seasons, but it opened the door to drafting Nix.
It’s one thing to win 24 games over two years. It’s another thing entirely to do so with a rookie quarterback in 2024, and with all that dead money on the salary cap, which amounted to $85 million that Denver’s opponents could spend on players, but not the Broncos.
I might be a little biased, but putting Cincinnati’s Zac Taylor and Joe Burrow, Chicago’s Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams, Jacksonville’s Liam Coen and Trevor Lawrence, and San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy over Payton and Nix is a bit puzzling. That’s not how I would have ranked it, but beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.
It seems the Broncos are still being dismissed in the national media, to a certain degree, but that’s not a bad thing. Payton reads the press clippings and keeps an eye on X, and he knows what to pick and choose for bulletin-board material in the locker room.
Let them sleep.
The Broncos operate best from the underdog position. They’ll continue to find ways to make themselves the “overdogs” when it’s all said and done.
Overdogs. 🐶😤 pic.twitter.com/EsDMRTrP3F
— Mile High Huddle (@MileHighHuddle) December 17, 2025
The Takeaway
In closing, again, the Broncos are in great shape with Payton as head coach and Nix at quarterback. Payton is a Super Bowl-winning head coach whose vision and philosophies have already paid dividends for the Broncos, while Nix has achieved things through his first two years that no other quarterback in NFL history has.
It’s kind of strange how that reality is continually glossed over by the national perspective. Oh well.
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