Looking at every Broncos team that has started 0-2, and how those seasons have finished
- The Broncos went nearly 30 years between 0-2 starts
- None of the 0-2 teams have ever made the postseason
Broncos Country has been through some hard times in recent years, but as history shows, the Denver Broncos have been an extremely successful organization. That is what makes the recent string of failures so hard to digest.
The Broncos are 0-2 and the Sean Payton era has not kicked off in the way many thought that it would. With a showdown against the Miami Dolphins hanging over their heads in Week 3, things could get even worse.
Earlier, I pointed out that only one other coach in team history has started their tenure with the team at 0-2, but here, I will look at each of the teams that have started with that record and how those seasons turned out.
You will learn two things: One, the Broncos have had a tremendous record to begin seasons. This is year No. 64 of the Broncos and only the 10th time that a team has started 0-2. When you consider that five of those seasons came during the AFL days, and two were under the watch of Vic Fangio, it's even more impressive.
The second thing you will see is that an 0-2 start is quite difficult to overcome. Not only have none of these nine other Broncos teams made the playoffs, but it's tough for any team to do it. Dating back to 1990, only 11.5 percent of the teams that have started 0-2 (31 of 270) have made it to the postseason.
The AFL days
The AFL version of the Broncos was a really bad team. The Broncos never made it to the playoffs in the old AFL and the team's best finish was a 7-7 record in 1962. The team started 0-2 five times during the AFL era. Here's how they finished in each of those seasons.
1963: 2-11-1
1964: 2-11-1
1965: 4-10
1966: 4-10
1968: 5-9
The Broncos fired two different head coaches during that stretch and never got it right during their AFL days. The team started 0-4 in four straight seasons, something that has never happened since.
However, the Broncos have started 0-2 in three of the last five seasons, another indication of how badly the foundation of this franchise has been cracked.