The Denver Broncos are coming off of one of the worst seasons in franchise history. How will they fight back in 2018? We make our bold predictions.
The 2017 season was certainly one to forget for the Denver Broncos.
The Broncos finished 2017 with a record of 5-11, seemingly needing the best performance of their quarterback’s career week in and week out to grind out a win.
Even in some of the Broncos’ five victories, it felt like if the ball had bounced one way or the other on just a play or two, they might have lost even more than 11 games.
With that being said, the Broncos also had three of their 11 losses with a margin of seven points or fewer. They were blown out plenty, but this was a team that was a couple of lucky bounces away from being 8-8 last year.
They were 9-7 the year before, and once again a couple of lucky bounces away from being at least 10-6 and making the playoffs with Trevor Siemian at quarterback.
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This Broncos team in 2018 looks a lot different than the 2016-17 versions, especially offensively. For the first time since 2014, the Broncos might actually have an offense in the upper half of the league to go along with their stout defense.
For the first time since 2016, the Broncos appear poised to eclipse the 40-sack mark in a season with the talent they’ve assembled on the defensive front.
This team’s journey starts on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks, and no one is under any illusion that things will be easy. The Broncos — like every other team in the league — are unlikely to be the first undefeated team in the history of the modern NFL (the 1972 Dolphins may be the only team to ever do that), so there will be adversity.
That’s expected.
But the Broncos can still have a big year and bounce back and be competitive in 2018. It only takes getting into the playoffs to see what your team is capable of doing in crunch time, and the Broncos have a good enough quarterback to get them there and a defense that can seal the deal.
But what storylines will be part of that journey? Which players will break through as the next stars of this team? The Predominantly Orange staff took some time to think up some bold predictions for the Broncos in 2018.
Here’s what we came up with.