Broncos risk again starting in a deep hole if they lose in Week 2

The Denver Broncos face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2 of the 2024 NFL Season. This feels like a must-win game for the team. In the 2023 NFL Season, Denver started just 1-5, and it felt like the season was totally over. However, the team managed to rip off five wins in a row, and through 13 games, sat at 7-6 after that 1-5 start.

It was a huge turnaround, but when you look back at the brutal stretch to begin the season, you just wonder how much farther this team could have gone in 2023 had they even gone 2-4 or 3-3 through their first six games. Had they even split their first six games, Denver may have been looking at a 10-win season.

The biggest issue to begin the season was the defense trying to play a mixture of a Fangio-style defense, which is what Sean Payton wanted, and Vance Joseph's own defensive scheme. Once Joseph go to pour more of his own scheme into the unit, the turnaround happened.

Well, the Broncos face the Steelers in Week 2, and will then face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 3 and New York Jets in Week 4. It really is not crazy to suggest that the Broncos start 0-4. The Buccaneers sport a good defense and a QB in Baker Mayfield who is all of a sudden playing some excellent football, and the Jets have one of the more talented rosters in the NFL.

Both games after Week 2 are away, so Denver figures to be heavy underdogs. Starting 0-4 would be a brutal start for the Broncos, and it would feel like the season would already be over. I am sure Sean Payton does not want to have to again pull his team out of the mud like he did in 2023.

Winning in Week 2 not only evens out the Broncos record, but it would likely give them a lot of positives to take in Weeks 3 and beyond. To me, momentum is real, so the Broncos could try and grab some heading into their Weeks 3 and 4 games. Ideally, Denver is able to split their first four contests.

This would set them up nicely after one quarter of the season. I can't lie; I am already nervous about the Week 2 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh doesn't feel like quite as good of a team as the Seahawks do, so maybe the Broncos can take advantage of Pittsburgh's bottom-10 QB play with Justin Fields.