The Denver Broncos drop to 9-6 on the season with their latest loss against the LA Chargers, but it's important to still have some perspective here. Denver is still three games over the .500 mark and will still clinch their first winning season since going 9-7 in the 2016 campaign. The Broncos did have a chance to clinch a playoff spot with a win in this game, but that may have to wait.
According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Denver is still given a 85% chance to make the postseason this year. That is the lowest mark over the two other Wild Card teams in the Balitmore Ravens and LA Chargers, but the three teams right below them all have playoff chances of less than 10%. The Indianapolis Colts, Miami Dolphins, and Cincinnati Bengals are all 6-8.
The Broncos can still clinch a playoff spot in Week 16; it would take these three teams to lose. And as long as all three teams lose one more game each and finish the year with at least nine losses, Denver gets in even if they lose-out. Overall, it's still very likely that the Broncos make the postseason in 2024, and it's important to have some perspective here.
The Broncos are way ahead of schedule...
Many, MANY people across the NFL landscape projected the Denver Broncos to be among the worst teams in football this year. You can find a plethora of season predictions where Denver was projected to win three, four, or five games. The Bo Nix selection in the 2024 NFL Draft also seemed wildly unpopular among a large swath of the NFL world.
And folks also thought that the Broncos had a bottom-5 roster. Heck, I bet some Broncos fans are evnen guilty of thinking this team was not going to be any good this year. And if you are lumped into those who were lower on the Broncos, well, you were wrong.
This team is 9-6, and among the plethora of awful teams in the NFL this year, the Broncos are far from that. They have gone 9-4 over their last 13 games, and are seeing their hand-picked rookie QB develop almost weekly. Nix has now thrown 22 touchdown passes on the year and looks the part of a franchise QB.
The Broncos are, frankly, playing with house money at this point - the team doesn't have any high-profile weapons on offense nor do they have a consistent rushing attack. Denver is a flawed team, and they have still managed to win nine of their first 15 games and are still likely to make the playoffs this year.
I think it would benefit the entire fanbase if we all kind of took a deep breath and recognized how far this team has come this year.