Good morning, Broncos Country. The offseason is already kicking into gear with a lot of news coming out about the Broncos. There is a lot to digest on the coaching front with the potential for more changes to come. On top of that, the team scouts and personnel are being diligent making the rounds in Mobile, Alabama evaluating some of the top talent available in the 2026 NFL Draft.
A few days ago, Head Coach Sean Payton and General Manager George Paton offered their thoughts on the state of the franchise.
Most importantly, outlined early thoughts what they need to do moving forward at their end-of-season press conferences. They certainly were proud of what they accomplished this season. Even so, both know the 2026 is a clean slate for every team vying for a chance to win the Super Bowl.
It’s back to square one. Yesterday, owner and CEO Greg Penner took the stage in front of the media to shine some light on various aspects of the franchise. However, with his opening statement, he let everyone know that despite the success and turnaround in 2025, they didn’t reach the pinnacle of the sport—hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
“The main message is that we are not satisfied. We know that we have a lot of work to do. We have obviously made a lot of progress in the last four years, but we are going to work our tails off this offseason and come in next year ready to go,” Penner stated yesterday with a desire to see the Broncos ascend to greater heights in ‘26.
Coming off a fourteen-win season, the franchise’s first AFC West title in a decade, and earning the top-seed in the playoffs, the building blocks for sustained success are evident in the Mile High City. It’s been a quick turnaround, perhaps quicker than most could have predicted. Penner took time to acknowledge that establishing a culture of toughness over the past few seasons helped them reach several big goals they had for their ‘25 gridiron campaign.
“It really starts with the culture of toughness, resiliency and grit that Sean has instilled into this group and having the right players here. Obviously, there is the skill set that players bring, but are they the right players in the locker room? If you talk to any of our players, I think that they want to be here, and they want to be part of it. They want to work hard. That’s a big part of it,” remarked Penner who stated that philosophy has taken place with every single aspect of the organization.
Both Payton and Paton alluded to the Broncos being aggressive with their approach to upgrading the roster via various avenues of pursuit in the offseason. Being movers and shakers appears to be in order. That’s the type of news Broncos Country wanted to hear especially after their AFC Championship game loss to the New England Patriots.
While Penner affirmed the team will take an aggressive approach, he vowed that it would be opportunistic. It won’t be an absolute free-for-all with big checks going out to just anyone. That’s a smart call to make from a well-known businessman.
“I get a little worried about just the pure phrase of ‘aggressive,’ because you can be aggressive, but you want to do it in a smart way. So again, we’ll be willing to spend if we see something that, we see a player that we think is going to add a lot of value here. We’ll definitely take an aggressive approach, but we’re also not just going to bring in somebody that’s not right for this locker room. There’ll be a lot of factors that we consider. I’d say we’ll be opportunistically aggressive,” added Penner discussing how he views the situation.
As always, thank you for reading. Here is today’s slate of articles for Horse Tracks.
