The Broncos are riding the high of breaking their 16-game losing streak to the Kansas City Chiefs into their bye week. As the organization started its bye week, it decided to not trade a single player on their roster. This decision can only mean one thing, the Broncos believe they can make the playoffs with their current roster. Only time will tell if this opinion has any sanity. If the Broncos beat the Buffalo Bills in week 10, the decision to do nothing may gain traction in Denver.
Why The Broncos Didn’t Make a Move at the Trade Deadline
What The Broncos Said at the Trade Deadline
When Denver comes out of their bye to face the Bills in week 10, they’ll be 3-5. Even though they have struggled to be competitive through the first half of the season, a win over the Chiefs has given the team new hope in a year that seemed lost. The defense shined and the offense kept control of the clock against the reigning Super Bowl champs. Because of this dominant 24-9 win over a team they hadn’t beaten in 8 years, many of the Broncos that were supposedly being sent out of town have been given a vote of confidence by the organization. This decision to not trade a single Broncos player at the deadline has made a bold, yet controversial statement “The Broncos are going to make the playoffs.”
The Two Outcomes and Their Effects
The Broncos Make the Playoffs
Denver has a total of nine games left in the season. If the Broncos can win six or seven of those games, they can make the playoffs. This task won’t be close to simple. But if they do it, the people of Denver will look at the head coach Sean Payton, and the GM George Paton as the smartest men in Denver.
By week three of the season everyone, including yours truly, was screaming from the rooftops that the Broncos needed to get rid of everyone and rebuild. There were calls for the GM, Defensive Coordinator, and even at times, the Head Coach to be fired. The fan base is ready to purge any and all that are associated with a losing culture. Paton’s job is on the line, so quieting those doubters has to be his priority. The best way to quiet a fan base that is less than happy is to win.
If the Broncos make the playoffs, they will have proven every critic wrong. Every analyst who complained and moaned for an entire season would have to eat their own words. There’s a long road to the promised land, but if they make it the boobirds will quiet. If they make it, players like Jerry Jeudy and Courtland Sutton may be owed an apology by the whole state of Colorado. A playoff appearance will solidify the questionable decisions in the past as building blocks for the future.
The Broncos Miss the Playoffs
The Broncos have lost five games so far this year. If they lose four more, they are out of the playoffs. The aftermath of another season without success will call for a complete organizational rebuild. All the Broncos players that could’ve been shipped off before the trade deadline would be gone. Some of them are in the last year of their contract and some will be cut for money reasons.
That last straw will have broken, and the patients will be spent. As a General Manager, George Paton has made bad deal after bad deal. He made, arguably, the worst trade in NFL history for Russell Wilson, and that just scratches the surface. He has signed multiple aging stars and has signed extensions with underperforming players, and none of them have benefited the team. Paton even hired someone who had “one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL”. After all of that, his decision to not make a trade at the deadline will lose him his job as the Broncos General Manager.
The consequences can change drastically based on the Bronco’s success. The largest problem would arise if the team starts to win but they miss the playoffs. The happiness that comes with success would be engulfed by the loss of an early draft pick. A chance at finding the player that can save this organization would be squandered. If there’s another failed season, the analysts and disgruntled fans will have been proven correct once again and the Broncos will continue their cycle of losing.
Main Photo Credit: Jim Rassol / USA TODAY NETWORK
