Broncos Predicted to Finally Achieve Feat Missing for 12 Years

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Thomas Valentine | Last updated Jul 19, 2025 2:14 PM ET

The Denver Broncos got the monkey off their back in the 2024 NFL season. Despite muted expectations, the team finished with a 10-7 record and made the playoffs for the first time since 2015, the year the team last won the Super Bowl. The defense solidified itself as one of the best in the NFL, while the offense, with Bo Nix under center, showed huge potential in spells.

Nix was the Broncos’ first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and was the first quarterback the team had drafted since Drew Lock in 2019, and their first first-round rookie since Paxton Lynch in 2016, as the team looked to exorcise its recent quarterback demons.

The former Oregon quarterback struggled early on, but as the season progressed, Nix started to find his feet in Sean Payton’s offense, completing 66.6% of his passes for 3775 yards, 29 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. A second season in Payton’s offense will likely help Nix take the next step in his development, and it will also present some unfathomable history for the Broncos.

Per Travis Wakeman of The Sporting News, the 2025 NFL season will be the first time in 12 years that the Broncos will have a returning head coach and quarterback combination in back-to-back years. The last time the Broncos were able to field the combination in back-to-back seasons was with John Fox and Peyton Manning in the 2013 and 2014 NFL seasons.

“The answer may not be the first one that comes to mind, because it hasn't happened since 2014. This season, the Denver Broncos will have Sean Payton and Bo Nix back as the head coach and starting quarterback. Believe it or not, the last pair to do that for the Broncos was John Fox and Peyton Manning in 2014.“ Wakeman writes before listing off the head coach and quarterback partnerships since then.

The list features a litany of coaches and quarterbacks, none of whom found any continued success with the Broncos, aside from Manning and Fox, and Manning and Gary Kubiak, who won a Super Bowl together. Though, for the most part, the list stings and is a reminder of the lack of consistency that has plagued the franchise for over a decade.

With Nix and Payton returning together in 2025, the Broncos will have an excellent chance to contend in the AFC once again, as the two will look to add their pairing to the list of Broncos to have won a Super Bowl with the team.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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