Denver Broncos: What makes team one of league’s 4 ‘most overrated’?

Now that we can almost taste actual football being played, predictions of how teams will do in the upcoming season start to run rampant.

There is also the usual talk of teams that are underrated and overrated and Tyler Sullivan of CBS Sports recently put together a list of four overrated teams, and the Denver Broncos are part of it.

Now, most of what is leading teams to be overrated on this list has to do with their odds of winning the Super Bowl, something completely out of their control. Currently, only 10 teams are being given better odds of winning the Super Bowl.

For a team that has missed the playoffs in five straight years, most would consider that to be a bit much.

But the odds the Broncos have been given are directly tied to the buzz that has surrounded the team since the opening of the NFL Draft surrounding Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

While Rodgers and the Packers still seem to be at odds, the Broncos remain the main team mentioned should a trade ever take place.

To call the Broncos “overrated” based on anything other than  Vegas Super Bowl odds wouldn’t be fair. The team seems ready to field one of its better rosters in years and there is plenty of reason to be optimistic.

As Sullivan points out, without Rodgers, the Broncos still have either Drew Lock or Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback and won’t be taken as a serious threat by anyone heading into the season.

That’s fine because it gives the guy who does win the quarterback competition even more fuel to step up and prove people around the league wrong. Something like that happens almost every year, where a team no one expected to one competitive comes out and has a great year.

Think of the Buffalo Bills. They were expected to be better last year, but few predicted an MVP-caliber season from Josh Allen and a trip to the AFC Championship Game. Last year at this time, many would have called the Bills overrated if the media was talking about them as a Super Bowl contender.

There is no reason why the Broncos can’t be that team this season, with or without Rodgers.

Other teams on Sullivan’s list include the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams, and New England Patriots.