Coming off the 2025 season, the Denver Broncos find themselves more motivated than ever to make it back to the Super Bowl in 2026.
Former Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer knows exactly how the current iteration of the team feels. In 2005, Denver had the best record in football, and in the divisional playoff game, Denver beat the back-to-back defending champion New England Patriots. After that, the Broncos lost at home in the AFC Championship game to the eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers.
Plummer, understandably, was reluctant to rehash the memory. "Thanks for bringing that up," Plummer said when asked by Broncos Wire about the loss. "It was hard, man. That was tough. We had the best team in the league. And it just didn't go our
way. Pittsburgh was a team of destiny and (it was) hard to get that far and to lose."
Plummer spoke with Broncos Wire while attending USAA's military boot camp at the team's facility on Wednesday.
In 2025, the Broncos unfortunately found themselves in a similar position: a home loss in the AFC title game, this time due to nearly unthinkable circumstances, starting a backup quarterback in the biggest game of the year to that point. They also didn't play up to the potential they showed during the regular season.
Plummer gave some advice on how to handle that adversity. "The offseason is short because you're playing all the way almost till the Big Dance, so you got to get it out of your system quick," Plummer said. "Coach [Sean] Payton really preaches that, and around here, like whatever happened last week, if it was a great win or a hard loss, learn from it and let it go. Get it out of here. Just move on because there's nothing you can do about it. You got to learn from your mistakes and correct those, but the only thing you can focus on is what's ahead of you."
The 2026 Broncos have a great chance to put the difficult loss behind them, despite a rough schedule ahead. "I think that this team will do a good job of eliminating and getting rid of that sour taste, and come out and just play ball," Plummer said. "Everybody's expecting the greatest thing in the world from this team every single week. And that was prior to last year. That's every season here in Denver, as you well know. They got to just put their blinders on and believe in that the people inside that building. What they've done with the new building and everything they've provided for these players, they've taken a lot of the things you got to do outside of this building and put them all right here so that they can focus on what they need to do, and that's just be consistent, get the work done and go out there and believe in one another. And then, (it) comes down to Sunday. You never know what's going to happen."
Whatever the Broncos do in 2026, Plummer has no doubt that former Broncos owner and Hall of Famer Pat Bowlen would be proud of how this team is being run.
"It's exciting what the organization is doing, the new ownership — not only with the current players, but also with us former players," Plummer said. "They're really extending a lot of opportunities for us to be involved and feel part of this organization. And I know that, you know, Mr. Bowlen, who had it for 30-plus years, would be very proud of how they've continued that family feeling here."
Plummer spoke to Broncos Wire as the featured guest at a USAA boot camp held for military members and their families at Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit on Wednesday. Plummer's connection with the military goes all the way back to his collegiate days, with former Arizona State teammate Pat Tillman.
Tillman was a former NFL player who enlisted in the military after the September 11 terrorist attacks and was killed in action overseas in 2004. "I always love coming out and getting to interact with these individuals that sacrifice so much to serve our country," Plummer said. "It gets me back to realizing, how special it was to know someone like Pat Tillman and Jeremy Statt, an ASU teammate that went and served our country and these guys with the courage, real courage to go and and step out of the comfort zone and onto the knife's edge and go serve our country knowing full well that you never know what can happen and that they're preparing themselves to defend our freedom."
Plummer also had the opportunity to interact with the military during his time in Denver. "I went down to Fort Carson a few times to spend time with the military and some soldiers and stuff too, just to say thank you and let them know we appreciate and were humbled by them and what they do for us," Plummer said. "Obviously, we draw a lot of parallels with football, to going to battle, and going to war, and we're playing a silly game chasing around a leather football, when we really are in awe of what they do and inspired by their sacrifices.
"It's always been something I've tried to do to stay in touch and you just let them know we appreciate what they do, especially after my close relationship with Pat. And when he got killed, realizing there were a lot of people not coming home to their normal lives as daughters, as sons, as husbands, wives, as whatever, whatever they left behind. As humans in America, we really take that for granted, I believe. So it's always a great time to be able to come out and just say thank you."
The Broncos posted some amazing pictures of the event on the team's official website.
The Broncos head back into battle against the Minnesota Vikings in their preseason finale on Friday night.
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This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: Jake Plummer shares his advice to Broncos after AFC title game loss
