The 2025 regular season has finally arrived and with that comes the weekly power rankings for the NFL. Every prognosticator and fan is going to either publishing their own power rankings or keeping track of where their team fits in on the list in their own heads. It’s just natural to rank and, yes, we all know it means nothing.
For the Denver Broncos, the hype all offseason has been a bit disconcerting and I’d very much like them to live up to all that preseason hype. Hopefully, where they rank here below
isn’t where they end up peaking for the season. So let’s get to it.
Here is where the Broncos rank to start the season:
NFL.com: 9th
There’s no question the Broncos are becoming a dangerous team, acquiring even more defensive talent for a unit that was strong a year ago and adding pieces to an incomplete offensive picture. If Bo Nix can build on what he did last season, Denver can challenge Kansas City and others for the division title. The Broncos nearly knocked off the Chiefs at Arrowhead last season and blew them out in a Week 18 game when Andy Reid rested starters. The chore now is for the Broncos to be more consistently successful against the league’s better teams. They were swept by the Chargers, blown out at Baltimore and only won two games against teams that finished over .500. Sean Payton has done a great job retooling the roster, and if his skill-position additions add punch, don’t sleep on this squad.
Fox Sports: 14th
If there’s a team whose preseason performance should excite you, it’s the one in Denver. The defense looks as strong as it did last year, the club as a whole looks as well-coached as ever in the post-Peyton Manning era, and second-year QB Bo Nix was a solid 16 of 25 for 141 yards and one touchdown. Now, preseason results can be deceiving, and it’s hard to forget how the defense faded down the stretch last year. But the Broncos tried to improve it in the offseason and the early returns suggest they did.
CBS Sports: 10th
They shocked many by going to the playoffs last year, and they are a better team now. The defense could be the best in the league and Bo Nix should show growth in his second season.
Pro Football Talk: 9th
The Ringer: 12th
If the Commanders are the popular pick to take a step back, there’s near equal expectation that Denver will surge forward this season. The Broncos had one of the NFL’s best defenses in 2024, but adding linebacker Dre Greenlaw and safety Talanoa Hufanga gave the middle of this unit the nasty edge it needed. With the NFL’s best defensive back in Pat Surtain II on the perimeter, expect this group to be a nuisance against any team it plays.
The story of the season will ultimately be the development of Bo Nix. There’s belief that head coach Sean Payton can coax out another level from the quarterback in his second year, and that may get the team into our top 10. I’ll just wait and see for now.
Pro Football Focus: 14th
The Broncos were one of the surprise outfits of 2024, finally ending their long playoff drought and finishing with a 10-7 record in the regular season — their first-winning season since 2015. The defense earned a 77.9 PFF grade and was one of the best units in the NFL. It only got better this offseason.
Finding the balance between optimism and pragmatism is a fine line, but the Broncos have improved the ecosystem around second-year quarterback Bo Nix. Even in a tough AFC West, they’re heading into the 2025 season with Super Bowl aspirations.
Overall, the consensus is that the Broncos are a playoff-caliber team — but not a part of the true contender list of teams in the AFC. That can change if the Broncos start beating those contenders in the regular season, which would be something they could not do last year. In fact, their blowout losses all came against those contenders. They will need to prove themselves before these national outlets become true believers that these feisty Broncos are deserving to be considered Super Bowl contenders.
