The Denver Broncos field their most relevant team in a decade

Relevant – rel·​e·​vant (re-lə-vənt)
a: having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand
b: having social relevance

I’m always pretty crazy for anything the DNVR Broncos guys are putting out, but am not sure I’ve ever identified more as a Broncos fan with something Zac Stevens has said than this post…

Relevant. A blast indeed. As of that post, a relevant 2-2 Denver Broncos team heading into October. And that sentiment only grew by adding a long-overdue and convincing win last weekend against the Las Vegas Raiders. How convincing? The 34-18 victory was probably their most conclusive of the season thus far, even after having beaten Tampa Bay by 19 in Week 3. After falling behind to the Raiders 10-0 in the first quarter, Denver was up by 3 at the half, and after a dominant third quarter gave up the last eight points when they’d already put the game out of reach.

Quick, who had these Broncos at 3-2 and in second place in the AFC West in Week 5 after they started their season with a pair of losses? Yeah, me neither. While Denver has managed a couple of 3-2 starts in the last 10 seasons, both of those came at the point of the team sliding into irrelevance for the year, going 3-3, then 3-4, and finishing each of those years well below .500. While history could repeat itself this year, it feels like a different sort of a season for the team, with a very real crack at the playoffs should things play out a little more favorably for the team this year.

While Denver’s slate still includes some tough games in-division, they also have a very survivable run against the remainder of the NFC South and three of their other four AFC opponents sporting losing records coming into this week. While some of those squads will figure themselves out by the time they face Denver, the Broncos should only continue to improve with a wealth of youngsters just starting to find their rhythm together.

The most prominent of those Baby Broncos so clearly coming into his own is rookie quarterback Bo Nix. While Nix’s QBR has been inconsistent to start the year, his passer rating just keeps rising week over week, and many local and national pundits agreed last weekend probably displayed the rook’s best command over the offense yet. If Nix is that comfy five games in, it’s exciting to imagine what the last two thirds of the year might bring.

While Nix’s offense keeps finding its rhythm, the greatest need for constancy is the offensive line, already battling a full season’s worth of injuries, and still somehow finding creative ways to protect their QB. With a running game that is starting to find its stride, and reinforcements returning there soon, plus a receiver corps coming into form around Nix, it would seem as if that side of the ball should only be better by season’s end, an exciting prospect, especially for head coach Sean Payton.

On the other side of the ball, Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph has shaped the Broncos D into something fearsome, led by current Defensive Player of the Week Patrick Surtain II. While Joseph had shown his chops reshaping the defense coming into the year, the squad had previously been uneven week over week. After allowing 26 points in Week 1 to the Seahawks, Denver has held each of their opponents to 13, 7, 9, and 18 points, with the last eight of those 18 coming too late to matter. Should Denver’s stout D keep this form throughout the year, the Broncos might even steal a game or two from teams they weren’t favored to beat.

While the Chargers are favored over the Broncos this weekend, the line is currently only 1.5 points, a gap that has only been closing through the week. Even the oddsmakers are seeing something in these Broncos none of us have seen in a while. A reason to still be in the conversation. Hope. Possibility. Relevance.

Can Denver carry that relevance to season’s end? Only time will tell. But it’s a mighty glorious question to still be asking mid-October.