The Broncos winning streak rambles on.
Denver punched a ticket to the postseason Sunday in a heavyweight, 34-26 victory over Green Bay. It’s the Broncos’ 11th straight win and it planted them alone atop the AFC with three weeks remaining in the regular season.
That it came on the same day Kansas City was officially eliminated from playoff contention — to make matters worse, quarterback Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL — made it feel all the more like a changing-of-the-guard moment in the AFC West.
Three games remain in the regular season. The Broncos hope to play well past that.
Here are 7 thoughts from a barnburner at Empower Field.
1. Bo Nix looks like he’s figuring out not just how to play quarterback in the NFL, but how to play quarterback for Sean Payton
Playing for Sean Payton is not easy.
Ask any player and they’ll usually have plenty of positive things to say, but it often comes with a knowing reaction. A sigh or a grin or an outright acknowledgement.
“That’s a deep question,” the longest-tenured Payton acolyte on Denver’s roster, kicker Wil Lutz, said earlier this season when asked to describe what it takes. .
That’s true of any position, but it is especially so for quarterbacks.
There is no more demanding position in sports and there are few more demanding coaches than Payton.
Since the day the Broncos drafted Bo Nix in April 2024, Payton has expressed unwavering public support of and confidence in Nix and also pushed him hard behind closed doors. Piled responsibility on his plate, asked him to handle it all right out of the gate and paid no mind to all the challenges facing Nix heading into Year 2 or whether he was adding to them when he said repeatedly he thought the 25-year-old could be one of the game’s elite quarterbacks within two years.
On Sunday against Green Bay, Nix turned in arguably his best game as a professional. He completed 23 of 34 passes for 302 yards and touchdowns to four different players. He played on time. He played with command. He pushed the ball down the field when opportunities popped up, extended plays with his legs when required and didn’t take a sack.
He stood in against one of the NFL’s fastest, most disruptive defenses and shredded it from start to finish.
Bo Nix working on the best game of his career. pic.twitter.com/ppQwA6VW1A
— Parker Gabriel (@ParkerJGabriel) December 14, 2025
“He really made some plays with his feet and he made some plays up in the pocket,” Payton said.
It was a terrific performance on its own for Nix. Even, perhaps, something of a true coming-out party.
Perhaps more important for the Broncos’ fortunes over the coming weeks first and longer-term outlook beyond: Nix and Payton for the first time look like they’re fully speaking the same language.
The past two games put the next level of their connection on full display.
Against Las Vegas, Nix dinked and dunked. He took exactly what the Raiders’ defense gave him. The Broncos didn’t have a passing play longer than 15 yards but Nix completed 31 of 38 and led three road-grading touchdown drives.
Then against the Packers, he put on a laser show. He pushed the ball down the middle of the field. He hit Courtland Sutton on a 42-yard double-move up the sideline. He put darts on Sutton and Troy Franklin in the end zone for touchdowns.
It was the exact opposite of the week before.
It was exactly what Payton wanted.
The long-time coach likes to say there’s a path to victory in every game, but it’s different in every game.
Experience will help Nix sniff out coverage disguises and teach him where to go against certain looks. It will further familiarize him with certain coordinators and opponents. It should soak in continually, raising the water table’s level slowly and steadily over time.
Experience with Payton, though, is just as critical because it will continue to help Nix understand what exactly the coach wants each week and how he can maximize that particular plan.
“Every game has a different story, every play has another one,” Nix said. “I was able to learn in college that you’re not going to win the game on one play. You’re not going to win the game in one quarter. You have to piece it all together. It may look ugly at times, but it really doesn’t matter. There is always a way to win the game. There is always a way at the end to win a game, there’s always a way at the beginning. So you have to figure that out.”
Nix said the quarterbacks and position coach Davis Webb often talk about “play-caller intent.”
That’s specific to routes and concepts, of course. But play-calling is also Payton’s language. It’s how he expresses intent on not just converting a key third down but the way he sees a game unfolding.
“We’re just working really well off each other,” Nix said. “He trusts me, and I can tell by the way he is calling it. My job is to turn around and protect him and keep his call safe. We talk about play-calling intent a lot as a quarterback room. Take the intent, and what does he want on this play? At the end of the day, you have to protect it. It’s only Year 2, but I think the more and more reps I’m able to get with him in my ear during game — we’ve been able to grow. We’ve been able to develop with each other.
Any good relationship is a two-way street, of course, and Payton said Sunday that he’s continually learning Nix, too.
“He’s early in the process and improving,” Payton said, using a half-marathon reference and suggesting Nix as at Mile 4 out of 13.1. “The thing about him is he loves playing. It’s contagious and that’s a really good trait for a player in his position and his teammates feel that.”
Payton’s adjusted to Nix, too. He’s put the second-year quarterback under center more the past four weeks and the results have followed.
In back-to-back games against Houston and Las Vegas — the latter of which Payton later said he and his staff devised a “terrible” offensive plan — Nix completed 52.3% of his passes for 323 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. Denver scored two offensive touchdowns.
In the four games since then, he’s completed 69.5% of his passes for 1,130 yards and five touchdowns against one interception.
“We’re playing different,” Payton said in the lead-up to the Green Bay game.
Nix is playing different and he’s playing efficient. He’s playing with confidence in and care for Payton’s plan each week.
“It’s not easy for him after so long with one consistent quarterback who was absolutely dominant in this league, to take a younger guy and trust him,” Nix said of Payton and his long history in New Orleans with Drew Brees. “It’s hard. I really appreciate that. I appreciate the opportunity that he’s given me, and I think together we have something going right now. At the same time, he’s extremely competitive himself. I always wanted that, just a coach that was going to compete for me, compete with me, and go out there and let me play.
“That’s what he does. I think it’s working and we’re going to find ways to make it work even more.”
PHOTOS: Denver Broncos clinched playoff berth after defeating the Green Bay Packers 34-26 in NFL Week 15
2. In essentially a best-on-best matchup, the Broncos defense prevailed by a landslide in the red zone and it delivered victory
The Packers scored on each of their first five possessions Sunday, but there’s a difference between scoring and fully making it count.
The Packers went up and down the field between the 20s seemingly at will the entire first half, but they ran into considerable resistance in scoring territory.
That, ultimately, proved the difference and more in a one-point game.
Green Bay came to Denver ranked No. 2 in the NFL in red zone touchdown percentage at 68.1%. The Broncos defense led the NFL in allowing just 40% of red zone trips to end in touchdowns.
Denver won that battle handily on Sunday.
The Packers’ opening drive stalled at Denver’s 35-yard line but their next three trips pushed into the red zone. They came away with a touchdown and two field goals. They were set up first-and-10 at Denver’s 18-yard line early in the fourth quarter, trailing 27-23 but with a chance to take the lead back after a pinpoint 27-yard throw from Jordan Love to rookie Matthew Golden.
From there, though, the drive stalled on a Josh Jacobs run for minus-1 and a pair of incompletions. The Packers settled for a field goal and a 27-26 margin. They didn’t get another chance to take the lead.
“Every week, we talk about ‘if they get in the red zone, make them kick field goals,’” defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers said. “If we do that, we’ll like the outcome. That’s the goal if they ever get there. Our goal is to make them kick field goals and we did a good job of that.
“The in between and not letting them get there, obviously we’ve got some stuff to correct, but that’s one of the best football teams in the NFL.”
Love overall in the red zone completed just 2 of 8 for 19 yards, one of which was a beautiful 14-yard touchdown pass to Jacobs. The Packers ran twice for three yards and committed two penalties in the red zone, too.
3. The Broncos’ o-line delivered perhaps its best outing of the Sean Payton era
Payton and the Broncos have spent considerable time and resources building an offensive line it can lean on.
That group graded out as one of the best units on the team in 2024, so performing at a high level is nothing new.
This game, though, might have been the unit’s best overall performance of the Payton era.
Right tackle Mike McGlinchey played through an injured right shoulder that forced him into a pre-game workout just to determine whether he could play. Left guard Alex Palczewski continued to look good in his spot despite only having played there the past two months.
Left tackle Garett Bolles picked up a holding penalty against star rusher Micah Parsons, but overall held up well against Parsons, Rashan Gary and the rest of Green Bay’s talented and athletic pass-rush group.
“That’s a real impressive rush front,” Payton said. “And to come out of that game with no sacks, I thought we did a good job. We had a good protection plan.”
Some of the credit goes to Nix, too. Earlier this season he was at times too quick to bail out of mostly clean pockets. Recently and particularly Sunday, he made good decision after good decision. Hung in when he needed to, got to the perimeter when he needed to.
Late in the game Nix put a couple of balls in harm’s way, but overall he did his part in keeping the clean sheet.
So, too, did a front-line group that’s playing like one of the best in football.
“It’s just been about being more consistent,” right guard Quinn Meinerz said. “We’ve been having games where, you know, we score a bunch of points, and then we have games where we don’t really score enough points. So I think this offense is — we’re finding our identity, we’re finding our flow and yes, I think we are finding our thing.”
4. Malcolm Roach has always been quick to say he knows his role as a run-defender and vocal leader. Don’t look now, but his role is expanding.
The thought passed almost like an after-throught. Broncos pass-rush consultant BT Jordan was going down the list of a bunch of things he liked about Denver’s defensive front this summer, but one little nugget stuck out.
“It’s fun watching these guys develop,” Jordan told The Post back in August. “Malcolm Roach has had a real good camp rushing.”
Shortly thereafter Roach strained his calf and missed the first five games of the season.
Since then, he’s ramped back up to full speed and is putting that pass-rush ability on display.
Roach has three sacks in eight games this year and, though he didn’t get one Sunday against the Packers, his fingerprints were all over the game.
Don’t let his stat line — three tackles — deceive. Roach did quality work against the run and against the pass.
Roach entered the weekend playing a career-high 52.5% of defensive snaps. The Broncos count on him not just in running scenarios but also to rush the passer. They rewarded him with a three-year extension coming out of the bye week and he looks like he’s a key part of the puzzle for replacing John Franklin-Myers, who appears likely to hit free agency come the spring.
“Shoot, do the NFL got a Sixth Man of the Year award?” Franklin-Myers said Sunday. “My man, whatever that award is, he needs it. That’s another one of them guys that we’re just fortunate to be able to have him on the team. He makes everybody better, for real.”
Roach entered Sunday with a career-best 7.9% pressure rate and said he’s just trying to continue growing his game whenever the chance arrives.
“That’s just called being a professional,” Roach said. “And you also have to know what your role is on the team. When I was in New Orleans, my job, literally, was to go in there and play the run. ‘Hey man, we gotta make sure we stop the run. Stop the run. And that’s just evolved ever year. You want to get better at something every year.
“With (defensive line coach Jamar) Cain, coach BT Jordan, Isaac (Shewmaker), (Brian) Niedermeyer, all those guys man, they’re giving me opportunities to go out there and rush. It’s something I know I could do and always had the ability to do.
“Just like that your role expands.”
Roach and other say that part of what makes the Broncos’ defensive front special is understanding that element of the game.
“Me and D.J. (Jones) know what we’ve got to go do, but we’ve also got to be good rushers, too. JFM and Zach, we’re like, ‘ok, bruh, we’re going to get y’all to where y’all want to be and then it’s time for y’all to go hunt the quarterback.’”
This year, Roach has been doing some quality hunting of his own.
5. Watching Philip Rivers play at 44 years old conjured up a thought: What if Davis Webb had taken a similar offer in 2023?
Most of the country got the Broncos and Packers broadcast on CBS, but while they played something remarkable happened simultaneously in Seattle. That, of course, was 44-year-old Philip Rivers returning to the game five years after retiring.
Rivers threw a touchdown pass and for 120 yards total in an eventual 18-15 loss to the Seahawks. The Colts have gone from 8-2 to 8-6 and now look unlikely to make the playoffs. They went from being the best offense in the NFL to likely finishing third in their division behind surging Jacksonville and Houston.
All of this for Indy came to a head last week when quarterback Daniel Jones tore his Achilles. Funny enough, it also circled back to Broncos quarterbacks coach Davis Webb in more ways than one.
First, the age gap is astounding. Rivers was a first-round pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. Webb was a third-round pick in 2017.
But this is more than merely one more way to frame how old Rivers is.
Jones in November 2023 was quarterbacking the New York Giants when he suffered a season-ending elbow injury.
As New York tried to figure out what to do, then-head coach Brian Daboll called Webb to gauge his interest in ditching the coaching gig and returning to playing. Head coach Sean Payton said as much multiple times that offseason.
This time when Jones got hurt, the Colts called Broncos practice squad quarterback Sam Ehlinger to see if he’d return to Indy for a spot on the active roster.
Ehlinger eventually said no, in large part because he wanted to continue working with his coach: Davis Webb.
In that way and others, it’s been a good week for Webb. Ehlinger decided to stay in his room. Then Nix played perhaps the best game of his career.
Then, of course, there are Webb’s prospects on the coaching circuit, too. The 30-year-old is widely considered to be a likely coordinator candidate in the upcoming coaching cycle — perhaps even as a pair with Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph should he land a head coaching gig.
None of that would have materialized, or at least not in Denver, had he taken the gig back in the middle of the 2023 season.
6. A key early decision that paid off for Payton: Not keeping RJ Harvey in the doghouse after an opening-drive fumble.
When Denver came out for its second possession, Jaleel McLaughlin replaced him in the backfield.
The Broncos went three-and-out.
Drive No. 3? Harvey was right back in there.
Denver didn’t have its best day on the ground — 89 yards on 31 carries, though that 2.9-yard average ticks up slightly when removing two sneaks and two kneel downs for Nix that totaled 2 yards.
Harvey, though, churned out 65 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries.
He found the end zone for the 10th time on his rookie season to close Denver’s scoring with 7:27 to play.
In four games as Denver’s lead back since J.K. Dobbins suffered a Lisfranc injury against Las Vegas in early November, Harvey has now carried 60 times for 205 yards (3.4 per) and four touchdowns and caught 12 passes for 72 yards.
He didn’t compile eye-popping numbers Sunday, but he took the trust Payton and the offensive staff put in him after the fumble and made sure it was rewarded.
7a. Courtland Sutton roasted Green Bay’s top corner, Keisean Nixon, repeatedly and put himself on track to top 1,000 yards again in the process
The first 10 games of the Broncos’ winning streak featured wild finishes, walk-offs, blowouts, and all manner of nutty stuff. One thing that didn’t materialize in that stretch: A Courtland Sutton 100-yard receiving outing. That changed in win No. 11 on Sunday vs. Green Bay. Sutton roasted top Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon on a double move for 42 yards. He beat him off the line of scrimmage for a third-quarter touchdown. He converted third downs and hauled in key catches. Along the way, he racked up seven catches for 113 yards.
It was Sutton’s first 100-yard outing since a Week 3 loss at Los Angeles. The veteran receiver now has 886 yards this season and is on pace for 1,080. That would mark the second straight season Sutton’s topped 1,000 yards and the third time in his career.
7b. The Broncos’ pass-rush didn’t record a sack on Packers quarterback Jordan Love on any of his first 30 drop-backs.
From there, though, Denver’s defense revved into gear. Alex Singleton sacked Love on drop-back No. 31. Then Dondrea Tillman and Jonathon Cooper logged a pair of sacks in a three-play sequence late in the fourth quarter to turn Green Bay over on downs and deliver the ball back to Denver’s offense.
Denver now has 58 sacks on the season. They’ve fallen slightly off the pace to match the 1985 Bears’ total of 72. They’re presently tracking at 70.4.
It was a quiet start. But when Denver needed it the most, they found ways to get home.
7c. A couple of quick notes on a winning streak that’s pushing further and further into rarefied air
At 11 games, the Broncos’ winning streak is now the longest in the NFL — New England’s loss left Denver atop the league in that regard — and is tied for the longest by the franchise since 2011. Denver’s also won 12 straight at home, which is tied for the franchise record.
7d. OK, one more for the road. The clinching scenarios are going to ramp up quickly for the Broncos. There are ways in which the team can clinch the AFC West against Jacksonville — a win and a Los Angeles Chargers loss at Dallas would do the trick there — and the No. 1 seed. The latter is unlikely, but if Denver beats the Jaguars and the Chargers lose/tie, Buffalo loses or ties against Cleveland and New England loses at Baltimore, the Broncos would clinch the bye and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Now that’s a wild thought before Christmas even arrives.
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