{"id":468813,"date":"2026-02-09T16:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468813\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T16:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:34:08","slug":"early-2026-nfl-power-rankings-have-the-denver-broncos-ranked-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468813\/","title":{"rendered":"Early 2026 NFL Power Rankings have the Denver Broncos ranked high"},"content":{"rendered":"

The offseason has arrived after the most predictable Super Bowl outcome, but we\u2019ve got one more power rankings update to share before we dive right into the run up to free agency in five weeks.<\/p>\n

For the Denver Broncos, this will go down as the franchise\u2019s biggest \u2018what if\u2019 season. That said, there should be an immense amount of hype around this franchise with a fully healed Bo Nix and a roster that is mostly returning in tact for the 2026 season. Frankly, they can only get better this offseason.<\/p>\n

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Let\u2019s take a look at what the national prognosticators think about where the Broncos stand with the rest of the league.<\/p>\n

Offseason in three words:\u00a0Find some pop<\/p>\n

When the Broncos debrief the 2025 season, it will be difficult for them to escape the conclusion that a Super Bowl trip was hindered by their lack of impact on offense. The Broncos were 14th in scoring even with quarterback\u00a0Bo Nix\u00a0in the lineup, so it\u2019s well beyond the question of whether Nix\u00a0playing<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0AFC Championship Game<\/a>\u00a0would have changed anything. They were 29th in percentage of drives that ended in a three-and-out. They were 15th in plays of 20 yards or more (the other three conference championship teams were Nos. 1, 2 and 4), and running back\u00a0J.K. Dobbins\u00a0led the team in explosive runs despite\u00a0not playing<\/a>\u00a0after Nov. 6.\u00a0\u2014 Jeff Legwold<\/p>\n

Fox Sports: 1st<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest: The Patriots don\u2019t get to the Super Bowl if QB Bo Nix doesn\u2019t fracture his ankle one week earlier. He\u2019ll be back with the NFL\u2019s best coach (Sean Payton), a punishing defense, hopefully another receiver, and a battle-tested team that should be hard to beat.<\/p>\n

With a 90.1 PFSN Defense Impact Score, the\u00a0Denver Broncos\u00a0had the best defense in the NFL in 2025. They were the only team with an \u201cA\u201d grade this season, with players like Patrick Surtain, Zach Allen, Nik Bonitto,\u00a0Talanoa Hufanga, and Jonathon Cooper all putting together strong campaigns.<\/p>\n

Denver has such a good defense that they\u2019ll be competitive in most games they play in 2026. The biggest question is the further development of\u00a0Bo Nix. He\u2019s a good quarterback who can execute Sean Payton\u2019s system well, but can he ever be great? If he takes that next step, it\u2019ll be tough to prevent them from making the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Sporting News: 10th<\/a><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Broncos\u00a0will be hoping for further passing evoluation of Bo Nix in the offense with more help from the running game. The defense should be good enough for a third consecutive playoff trip.<\/p>\n

CBS Sports: 4th<\/a><\/p>\n

The Broncos still aren\u2019t getting much respect after winning the No. 1 overall seed, coming in third in odds in their own division. There\u2019s no reason to think their success this season isn\u2019t repeatable, even if their division rivals enjoy better health and luck this year.\u00a0Bo Nix\u00a0should have a relatively normal offseason after his ankle injury in the divisional round, and the Broncos look to be among the more complete teams in the league.<\/p>\n

Aside from the Sporting News\u2019 ranking and their use of the word \u2018evoluation\u2019, the Broncos are getting plenty of hype otherwise. I actually expected much lower rankings across the board, but instead, most people seem to see a Broncos franchise on the rise over a fraud. Perhaps it was the New England Patriots scoring 10 unassisted points in the two most important games of the season that made people realize that with Bo Nix that team would have never had a chance of making the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Beating the Seattle Seahawks, on the other hand, would have been a difficult task on the Broncos best day. I don\u2019t think they would have been blown out, though. The 2025 Broncos played well in all but one game last year and that one bad game was after an insanely long win streak that was likely wearing them down. I like where the Broncos are at and I look forward to seeing how they improve heading into the 2026 regular season.<\/p>\n

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What are your thoughts on the state of the Broncos heading into the 2026 offseason?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The offseason has arrived after the most predictable Super Bowl outcome, but we\u2019ve got one more power rankings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,17469,5366,1261,3897,1256,85488,1231,593,48929,23374,1254,85,87931,156646],"class_list":["post-468813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bo-nix","tag-broncos","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-jonathon-cooper","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-nik-bonitto","tag-patrick-surtain","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-sports","tag-talanoa-hufanga","tag-zach-allen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}