Sean Payton Doubles Down on Bold Offseason Talk During Playoff Bye

Sean Payton explained why he feels the same way that he did last summer when he floated "Super Bowl" and "Broncos" in the same sentence publicly.

Dec 14, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton talks with quarterback Bo Nix (10) during the second quarter against the Green Bay Packers at Empower Field at Mile High. | Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

After drafting Bo Nix in the first round, it's fair to assume that Sean Payton probably didn't initially foresee the Denver Broncos earning the No. 1 seed in the playoffs just two years in.

Payton arrived in Denver as head coach in 2023, and tried to make the most of it with Russell Wilson as his quarterback. Despite improving the Broncos' win total by three games, Payton pulled the plug on the Wilson experiment, which triggered an NFL-record $85 million dead-money hit to the salary cap.

One month after officially releasing Wilson and moving on from several other key players for cap reasons, Payton drafted Nix at No. 12 overall. The Broncos would go on to win 10 games with their rookie quarterback and young roster, snapping their eight-year playoff drought.

Few people, including Payton, could have foreseen that the Broncos would go on to win the No. 1 playoff seed in the AFC in Year 2 with Nix. But we know that winning the AFC West crown, as the Broncos did this year, was Payton's first goal in 2025.

Predicting how the playoff seeding dominoes are going to fall, though, is very difficult, especially relative to the football arithmetic that goes into clinching the No. 1 seed.

“It’s hard to ever anticipate the [No.] 1 seed. There’s a lot that goes into that," Payton said on Friday. "Last year was a year that said, ‘Hey, we belong here and we can win.’ There was a lot of confidence gained in the season. So then after last season, I think the expectations rose internally as well as externally."

Payton could say that again. After all, he's the one who started floating the Super Bowl in connection with the Broncos' 2025 outlook.

Every journey begins with that first step, and the Broncos ended the first quarter of the 2025 season at 2-2. What followed was a wild 11-game winning streak that set the Broncos up as the AFC West champs for the first time since 2015, which included a hard-fought win over the desperate Kansas City Chiefs in Week 11.

"You’ve heard me say, ‘The first goal is to win the division.’ Well, that’s pretty defined. That means you come in first," Payton said. "And then, ‘Secure the best seed,’ because that’s a little bit less defined. The best seed that you can, and then, ‘Try to win a championship.’ So it’s much harder to predict how many wins, what seed."

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Unseating the Chiefs

Dec 25, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix (10) gestures on the line of scrimmage during the first quarter at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. | Denny Medley-Imagn Images

Just getting to the NFL playoffs is an achievement. It gives each and every qualifying team a shot at running the table and winning it all.

However, the Broncos' 14 wins qualified them for the No. 1 seed, which means that the AFC road to the Super Bowl goes through Mile High, thanks to a tiebreaker over the New England Patriots. Still, the emotional weight of finally knocking the Chiefs off the AFC West pedestal can't be overstated for Denver.

It's one thing to beat the Chiefs; it's another to sweep them and contribute greatly to Andy Reid's squad missing the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

"You just want to be in the tournament and find a way to, with all due respect, to beat a team like Kansas City that sat atop the division for quite a while here," Payton said.

Double-Down on the SB

Nov 2, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; Denver Broncos safety Talanoa Hufanga (9) and Denver Broncos linebacker Dre Greenlaw (57) celebrate after a play during the first half against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium. | Sean Thomas-Imagn Images

With the 2025 free-agency period and draft in the books, Payton started to get a feel for how his team was shaping up. That's what gave him the confidence to utter 'Super Bowl' publicly by the summer.

"So, after the period of free agency, when we signed a few guys and we got into OTAs, I made the comment to a few of you that I thought this team had a chance to be unique," Payton said. "Some of it was based on the experience of some of the guys we signed, and I feel the same way now.”

Payton doubled down on his 'Super Bowl' expectations by emphasizing that he feels the same with 17 games in the books. And justifiably so; the Broncos have put themselves in the coveted position of not only getting a first-round bye, but having home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Time will tell just how "unique" the 2025 Broncos end up being, but they've already tied the franchise record for single-season wins. We'll begin to get our answers next week in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, once we know which opponent emerges from Wildcard Weekend to face the Broncos.

Payton's bold comments last summer will only be viewed as hubris if the Broncos fail to make it to the big dance. But if they do manage to go all the way, Payton will enter football sage status. Speaking such an enormous prediction into existence would go down in history.

No pressure, though, Broncos.