Broncos Pick ‘Em: How many more wins will Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos have the rest of the season season?

The Sean Payton era wasn’t supposed to start like this for the Denver Broncos.

At 1-4, Denver’s off to their worst start through five games since 2019.

However, if they lose to the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday Night Football this week—where they are 10.5-point underdogs—it will be the team’s first 1-5 start to a season since 1994. Even after finishing that season 7-9, head coach Wade Phillips was fired after the season.

Will Payton be able to turn the Broncos’ season around and finish with at least seven wins? Or are only a few wins left for Denver this year?

The DNVR Broncos Crew breaks it down.

All odds below are courtesy of bet365.

How many more wins will the Broncos have this year?

Zac: Three? — Maybe? The Broncos are bound to win at least one game the rest of this year that they should have no business winning. That’s just the NFL.

Outside of a fluky upset, wins will be very tough to come by for the Broncos.

What’s so incredibly disappointing about Denver’s already disappointing 1-4 start to the season is the first five games was the Broncos’ easiest stretch of the season. And they blew the opportunity to get off to a hot start.

The Raiders, Commanders and Aaron Rodgers-less Jets games were arguably Denver’s three easiest games of the season. They went 0-3 in those.

Looking at the rest of the schedule, the Broncos will have a fighting chance against the Green Bay Packers at home (Week 7), the Minnesota Vikings at home (Week 11), the Houston Texans (Week 13), the New England Patriots (Week 16) and the Raiders to close out the season in Week 18.

However, I only see the Broncos beating the Patriots, who, like the Broncos, are a total mess. Then Denver will pull off one more win in that stretch and then win a game they shouldn’t somewhere else on the schedule. Here comes a 4-13 season.

RK: Four — We’ve all seen this story before, just when you think the Broncos are bad enough to bottom out, they scrape together enough wins to be just regular bad, not top-pick bad.

Sean Payton and this hapless team will probably look under the couch cushion and find wins against the Packers, Browns, Chargers and Raiders just to end up with somewhere around the fifth-overall pick, just low enough to miss out on the top QB prospects.

Denver has enough good players to not be terrible. It’s a curse they have been dealing with for years now.

But there is one sliver of hope. The Broncos’ game plan against the Jets was so inexplicably bad that it made me wonder if Sean Payton really is trying to tank for Caleb Williams. It really was that bad.

In that case, the answer to this question may just be zero, because only the Bears are bad enough to lose to a team that is trying to lose.

Hank: Three — It’s tough to say exactly how the Broncos’ season will play out.

The big question is who will still be on the team at the end of the season. If the Broncos decide to tear down the current roster—they could trade Justin Simmons, Jerry Jeudy and a number of other veterans—they might not find another win this season.

I’ll bet against Sean Payton taking a wrecking ball to the team, and guess that the Broncos only make one or more moves.

Here’s how I got three wins:

Out of the home games against the Patriots, Packers and Texans, the Broncos will find a win.

Out of the divisional games at the Chargers, versus the Charges and at the Raiders, the Broncos will find another.

In the other six games, the Broncos will find a third win. The most like options are versus the Browns or the Vikings.

Maybe the Broncos defense will figure something out and play closer to league average over the course of the season. Maybe the Broncos’ offense can solidify itself as a top-10 group in the NFL.

But I’m expecting a 4-12 record that will give the Broncos the fourth pick in the draft.

Picks Picks Picks

Russell Wilson passing yards over/under 227.5

Zac: Over.

RK: Over.

Hank: Over.

Patrick Mahomes passing yards over/under 275.5

Zac: Over.

RK: Over.

Hank: Under.

Javonte Williams rushing yards over/under 38.5

Zac: Over.

RK: Over.

Hank: Over.

Isaiah Pacheco rushing yards over/under 75.5

Zac: Over.

RK: Under.

Hank: Under.

Jerry Jeudy receiving yards over/under 54.5

Zac: Over.

RK: Over.

Hank: Under.

Marvin Mims receiving yards over/under 18.5

Zac: Over.

RK: Over.

Hank: Over.

Travis Kelce receiving yards over/under 67.5

Zac: Over.

RK: Under.

Hank: Over.

Justin Watson receiving yards over/under 23.5

Zac: Over.

RK: Over.

Hank: Over.

Will Nik Bonitto record a sack? (Yes +130)

Zac: No.

RK: No.

Hank: Yes.

Broncos-Chiefs total points over/under 47.5

Zac: Over.

RK: Over.

Hank: Over.

Broncos @ Chiefs (-10.5)

Zac: Chiefs.

RK: Chiefs.

Hank: Chiefs.

Patriots @ Raiders (-3)

Zac: Raiders.

RK: Pats.

Hank: Patriots.

Cowboys (-2) @ Chargers

Zac: Chargers.

RK: Cowboys.

Hank: Cowboys.

Leaderboard

Last week

Hank: 8-4

Zac: 7-5

RK: 5-7

Overall

Zac: 33-29-1

Hank: 32-30-1

RK: 29-33-1