Good Morning Football host Peter Schrager put out his own playoff predictions for the 2024 NFL Season, and you won't believe who he had making the playoffs. The Denver Broncos went 8-9 in the 2023 NFL Season, which was their highest win total since 2016.
They started 1-5 and somehow managed to finish 7-4 on the season. In fact, Denver found themselves firmly in the playoff mix at one point during the season.
Who has the @Broncos in the playoffs this season? @PSchrags does 👀 pic.twitter.com/DCANg0epfd
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) September 3, 2024
With a pretty awful defense and a bottom-10 QB, the Broncos scraped together eight wins. Now with another year under his belt, Sean Payton has been able to leave a bigger stamp on this roster, and widely-respected NFL analyst Peter Schrager is actually predicting Denver to make the playoffs in the 2024 NFL Season, earning the fifth Wild Card seed.
Schrager notes that Payton has done a lot with less talent during some of his days with the New Orleans Saints, and if this happens, the Broncos would break the second-longest playoff drought streak in the NFL. They only trail the Jets in this unfortunate statistic. If Denver were to make the postseason in 2024, they'd have to do so similarly to how the Houston Texans did in 2023.
The Texans fielded slightly above-average offenses and defenses and were able to win 10 games. Rookie QB CJ Stroud took care of the ball and just did not make a lot of silly decisions. Bo Nix, the Broncos rookie QB, is going to have to do something similar in 2024 that Stroud did in 2023, and Nix could be the perfect guy to do that.
The former Oregon QB does not throw many interceptions and just does not take many sacks, either. This gives the Broncos a ton of plays back, as Russell Wilson was constantly getting sacked and did put the ball in harm's way more than the stats indicate in 2023.
Can Bo Nix and the 2024 Denver Broncos shock the NFL and find their way into the postseason? Or is a more modest season more likely? Personally, I am not bought in on Denver making the playoffs, but them winning nine games seems likely to me.