Here's a look at the Super Bowl prospects of the Denver Broncos, who finished the season 5-11. The tiers consist of: Realistic Super Bowl expectations; Should contend, but there are question marks; Middle of the pack; Lots of work to do; and Nowhere close.
Westgate odds to win Super Bowl LIII: 30-1
Lots of work to do: The Broncos still have a Super Bowl MVP on their roster who is in his prime in linebacker Von Miller, and they also have a locker room with plenty of players who experienced what it takes to win a Super Bowl to close out the 2015 season.
But they also have a coach in Vance Joseph who was almost fired after this past season, they have enormous questions at quarterback and they are poised for a roster makeover that just might see some of the team's most notable players moving on.
The Broncos' first order of business is what they plan to do at quarterback. They are in a rather odd situation because despite going through this past season with four quarterbacks they drafted -- Trevor Siemian, Brock Osweiler, Paxton Lynch and Chad Kelly (injured reserve) -- they figure to give both free agency and the draft a long look at the position.
Whether that means an all-in mega-deal in free agency or using the No. 5 pick in the draft on a quarterback -- or both -- remains to be seen. But the team's top football decision-maker, John Elway, has declared quarterback the top priority of the offseason and has said the Broncos won't get better until they are better at the position.
Doing that will take salary-cap space the Broncos have not devoted to quarterback the past two years. And that could cost some high-profile players their roster spots as the Broncos make those adjustments.
Players such as cornerback Aqib Talib and running back C.J. Anderson have said they are unsure about their futures, and even the longest-tenured Broncos player -- wide receiver Demaryius Thomas -- has said he's not sure how everything is going to look in 2018.
That means Joseph likely will face plenty of pressure if things don't go well in his second year on the job, especially if the Broncos roll out a couple of big-money contracts in free agency. The bottom line is that many of the Broncos kept saying they were better than their record this past season -- and that might have been their most painful lesson of all because the Broncos earned every bit of that 5-11 finish with how they went about their business.