Why the stars could finally be aligning for the 2020 Broncos

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Denver Broncos season appeared to be dead in the water shortly after it started.

They lost Von Miller and Phillip Lindsay. Then they lost their first game of the season.

They lost Drew Lock and Courtland Sutton. Then they lost their second game of the season.

With a backup quarterback, who later turned into their third-string quarterback, they were blown out in the third game of the season.

A second-straight 0-3 start in Denver.

After just three weeks, the Broncos lost three games and three Pro Bowl players for the season — Jurrell Casey, Sutton and Miller. Or did they?

“I’m feeling good. My ankle’s feeling good,” Von Miller said on Instagram Live on Monday night. “I’m feeling really good, man. Hopefully a couple of weeks. I’d say about three weeks to a month, I should be ready to go.”

Not so fast counting Von out for the season.

When Miller dislocated his perineal tendon in his ankle just six days before the Broncos’ season opener, the typical five-to-sixth month recovery all but had him out for the season. But there was a best-case scenario of a three-month recovery. However, Vic Fangio wasn’t planning on having his All-Pro pass rusher back in 2020.

Just days before Miller revealed his plans to be back in three to four weeks, Fangio was “surprised” that Von’s boot was already off — an encouraging sign in his recovery.

Since Von has been on the injured reserve for over the required three weeks, he is eligible to be activated and play at any point he and the team deem he’s healthy enough. A timetable of three to four weeks would bring No. 58 back for roughly the last quarter of the season.

That was the first star of hope for the 2020 Broncos season.

On Sunday, for the first two-and-a-half quarters against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Broncos’ offense was nonexistent, only dropping three points and barely showing any signs of life. That, coupled with only scoring 16 points against the Kansas City Chiefs the week before and failing to get in the end zone the week before that against the New England Patriots, had levels of concern understandably high surrounding the Broncos’ young offense.

But then the final 18 minutes of football showed the promise of the young group as they dropped a whopping 28 points.

“We’ve had three full games with this offense in normal personnel — we lost our guard again — maybe we’re just starting to click,” Lock said, minutes after Denver’s offense exploded for 31 points against the Chargers on Sunday. “Maybe people had opinions on us based on six games with three different quarterbacks, multiple O-lines, guys on defense getting knocked out. I just think people love to make opinions and jump to them quick and I hope that we can keep proving them wrong.”

Maybe the young offense is just starting to click, Drew. And if so, another major star is falling into place for the 2020 Broncos as that group is no doubt stacked with young talent.

While Denver’s season, record-wise, started as poorly as possible, the Broncos have quietly turned things around. After the dreadful 0-3 start, Fangio has guided Denver to a 3-1 record since. With a win against the 2-6 Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, the Broncos would be .500 midway through the season.

A third star for the 2020 Broncos falling right into place.

But the fourth and final star for the 2020 Broncos is out of their control. It’s a potential gift from the NFL.

On Monday, Chris Mortensen reported the competition committee was expected to present a resolution to owners to expand the playoffs to eight teams in each conference if games were lost due to COVID-19.

This would give the Broncos one more chance at making a run at the playoffs this year. Additionally, this would be on top of the playoffs already expanding this offseason from six teams in each conference to seven.

Entering Week 9, Denver is currently the 10th seed in the AFC playoff race, trailing the No. 7 Cleveland Browns by 1.5 games. However, if the NFL were to adopt an eighth playoff team per conference, the Broncos would only be one game out of the playoffs as it stands now. In the next three weeks, Denver would play the only two teams ahead of them for the final playoff spot — the 4-3 Las Vegas Raiders, currently the No. 8 seed, and the 4-3 Miami Dolphins, currently the No. 9 seed.

Needless to say, a potential playoff run would be entirely in the Broncos control.

Less than a month ago, the Broncos’ season looked so bleak there were many calling for them to tank for Trevor Lawrence.

But now, with the stars aligning, the Broncos can realistically be talkin’ about the playoffs. Yes, Jim Mora, playoffs.