PFF Doesn't Like Broncos' Odds of Winning AFC West in 2023
Hindsight is 20/20. After an offseason full of hype, hopes, and dreams in 2022 following the Denver Broncos’ trade for renowned franchise quarterback Russell Wilson from the Seattle Seahawks, fans celebrated as the team’s purgatory prayers were seemingly answered at long last.
With Wilson at quarterback, the Broncos would again take their rightful place as a perennial powerhouse in the NFL. Or so most folks thought.
After one of the most disappointing seasons in the franchise’s history against the team’s sky-high expectations, reality showed quickly that although the Broncos appeared to be a quality team in 2022, they turned out to be nothing more than paper tigers.
Entering last year with the same odds to win the AFC West as the eventual Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs, Denver will likely enter the 2023 season with exceedingly low expectations.
Currently tied with the 16th-best odds to win the Super Bowl next year at +4000, media and fans alike will be guarded this time around against believing in the Broncos. It would be hard for the 2023 version of this team to be worse than last year, but don’t go looking around this offseason for Broncos hype, either.
In a recent article by Zoltán Buday of Pro Football Focus, out of the eight teams that finished last in their division last season, the Broncos are the second least-likely team to win their division next season.
While expectations were, in hindsight, too big for the Broncos in 2022, it might just be the opposite of that in 2023 as people write them down. Despite the fact that Denver has a new coaching staff, the biggest question mark still remains whether quarterback Russell Wilson can bounce back from a disappointing 2022 campaign and save his career. There were reasons beyond Wilson’s arrival to expect big things from the Broncos in 2022, and there is still a lot of talent on that team on both sides of the ball, which could lead to better results with a proven head coach like Sean Payton.
However, being in the same division as the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and playoff participant Los Angeles Chargers makes it hard to imagine the Broncos beating out both for the division championship as long as Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert remain healthy.
Some in Broncos Country will tout that things in 2023 will be dramatically different, thanks mainly to Denver bringing an adult and a known commodity into the coaching staff in Payton. However, as Buday points out, Wilson's outlook will be the key to Payton turning the ship around immediately.
It’s a quarterback-driven league, and while the article mentions how much talent Denver has on both sides of the ball, with Payton now in town, the team still has an arduous path to regaining relevance in the division and league.
The most significant hurdle for Denver is that Mahomes and the Chiefs aren't going away in-division anytime soon. Not only does Denver have to square off against the Chiefs twice a year, but Herbert is also considered one of the brightest young quarterbacks in the NFL (despite the Chargers’ up-and-down performances during his young career).
The Broncos entered last season with high expectations, only to fall on their face quickly and emphatically. Not many believe in the Broncos this season, even with the addition of Payton as the team’s new head coach.
Coming off of a season with poor and inexperienced coaching, a myriad of injuries, and misfortune in one-score game outcomes, the Broncos should be one of the better bounce-back candidates in the entire league. However, in the AFC West landscape, the Broncos can still vastly improve and become playoff contenders while still being out of the realm of challenging for the division in 2023.
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