At 1-1, the Broncos are off to a perfectly mediocre start to their season. The Broncos entered the 2025 season with legitimate hopes and well-founded playoff aspirations for the first time in almost a decade. However, the team suffered arguably their most heartbreaking loss in several years with their inexcusable 29-28 defeat to the Colts on Sunday, which could put a coordinator's job in jeopardy already.
Despite their brutal loss, the Broncos still have plenty of reasons for hope in the future. Denver remains one of the favorites to make the playoffs in the AFC, and still deploys one of football's deepest defensive units.
Ultimately, time will tell if the Broncos make the playoffs or not in 2025. A missed playoff would be a major disappointment in Denver and would very likely mean something went horribly wrong for the Broncos. Before writing off the season and proclaiming all hope lost, let's look at why there are still plenty of reasons for optimism with the Broncos.
Thankfully for Denver, good teams still lose tough games, and the AFC is a mess
The Broncos, even after last week's loss, should still make the playoffs. Sometimes, good teams lose games. Not to compare the two teams, but no one proclaimed the Ravens' season over after their historic loss to the Bills to open the season. Similarly, putting the Broncos away after two games would be incredibly premature.
Denver's playoff odds will be heavily dependent on the rest of the AFC, and thankfully for Denver, the conference seems fairly mediocre to this point. The 2-0 Bills and Chargers are legitimate contenders, but a Joe Burrow-less Bengals team is probably not going to hang in at the top of the conference. Next comes Daniel Jones and his Colts team, for whom the verdict is still more than out.
At the bottom of the conference are a pair of 0-2 contenders: The Chiefs and the Texans. Kansas City seems to have a brutal offense led by a lack of receivers and an aging Travis Kelce, while the Texans have fallen short on two-straight close games to NFC teams. If either tails off and sinks early on, Denver's chances rise significantly.
The Broncos sit in the middle of the conference with some interesting teams, such as the Jaguars and Patriots. The verdict is still out on them, but they both are young teams with several solid pieces that, if things break correctly, can finish over .500.
Ultimately, the AFC is wide open, and the Broncos are one of the few teams that have the mix of young talent, a strong coaching staff, and elite players at important positions. Much will be made of their next few games at the Chargers and then at the Eagles, but Denver's hope is far from out.