As the first week of free agency wraps up, the Denver Broncos are now the only team in the NFL to not have signed at least one external free agent, and it's something that is truly unbelievable. This team is absolutely embracing the run-it-back approach, and while that isn't a bad idea, it's gone a bit overboard.
The Broncos have taken the side of familiarity and continuity over embracing unknowns who could end up being potential upgrades. Being familiar is fine, and people as a whole tend to gravitate toward things they are most comfortable with, but to not only not seek out upgrades and watch the roster get worse is a whole new level of madness.
As of now, the team is trending toward an unfortunate regression that many could see coming in the 2026 season.
The Denver Broncos are trending toward regressing in 2026
The 2025 Broncos quickly attained a reputation of somehow finding a way to win. The fourth-quarter comebacks and last-second game-winning field goals became regular, and while it showed that the team knew how to close out games, it also showed that Denver wasn't able to consistently put teams away.
To be fair, though, the more sustainable way to win in the NFL is not by blowouts, but by being better than your opponent in the highest leverage spots of the game. The Broncos got things started back in Week 1 with a one-score victory over the Tennessee Titans.
But in Weeks 2 and 3, they lost on last-second field goals to the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Chargers. After that, things got a bit freaky. Denver then won 11 games in a row, and in those 11 games, nine of them were by one score, and six of them were by three points or less, including a plethora of comebacks in the fourth quarter.
And as fans, Broncos Country surely enjoyed all of these wins, but it definitely got a bit old - why weren't the Broncos putting teams away, especially the bad ones? Games against the New York Jets and New York Giants come to mind, as those were two of the worst teams in the NFL, but Denver needed all 60 minutes to win those games.
Some have argued that these razor-thin margins don't translate year over year, and we did see this with the Kansas City Chiefs, as they were in a similar boat as the Broncos back in 2024. Kansas City won all of their one-score games that year and finished with a losing record the following season.
Denver won't finish with a losing record in 2026, but the roster has gotten worse, the schedule is getting a bit tougher, and the NFL is the toughest league to win in among all professional sports. With talent walking out the door and no upgrades in sight, the momentum is trending toward this team regressing in 2026.