ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Early in training camp, Denver Broncos owner/CEO Greg Penner and his wife Carrie (also in the Broncos' ownership group) climbed just over eight stories of stairs to the cab of an industrial-sized crane at the site of the team's future 205,000-square-foot facility. They stood near the open door and snapped a photo of the team's growing state-of-the-art complex below.
That photo framed what they've entrusted coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton to build -- a team good enough to win a fourth Super Bowl championship.
"All you have to do is look up at practice," said running back J.K. Dobbins -- who signed with Denver in June -- while pointing to the construction site. "That ain't like what anybody has. Top to bottom here, they're making something with resources to go win."
Entering his third season as Denver's coach, Payton feels like he has the infrastructure to put together an elite team with staying power. He has the means to build the Broncos in his vision -- starting from the inside out, based on youth and less reliant on the salary cap machinations that defined much of his tenure with the New Orleans Saints. The process comes complete with what he calls "the right kind of people you have to have around if you're going to succeed."
That has Payton doing what few coaches in the league are willing to do in the preseason. The 61-year-old has matter-of-factly told anyone willing to listen that the Broncos are good enough to play in Super Bowl LX in February.
"[The Super Bowl] has to be a comfortable topic," Payton said. "You can't be afraid of talking about the end game. And then you have to also be comfortable saying, 'This is what's required.'"
Payton liberally sprinkles words like "culture" into any discussion about the current Broncos' roster and how it might look in the future. But right now, the Broncos look, act and play the way he wants. It's a group filled with youth, strength in the trenches and plenty of Payton's type of players. And it's amplified by the enviable resources and support he said he searched for when he returned to coaching.
DURING PAYTON'S TENURE as the Saints' coach (2006-21), New Orleans waged what seemed like an annual battle to squeeze under the salary cap. That meant they routinely had one of the league's oldest rosters. They had an established long-term quarterback in Drew Brees and often sought out veterans to try to keep the best team possible around him.
It also meant often using voidable years in contracts -- essentially dummy years added to deals -- to spread out salary cap charges. It's a bookkeeping tactic teams use to push inevitable salary cap pain down the road, like a minimum payment on a credit card. And while many teams utilize them, the Saints aggressively employed them to try to keep their championship window open as long as they could.
But a franchise-shaking decision made in March 2024 has led to a significantly different approach in Denver.
One of the biggest gambles of attempted addition by subtraction in league history was the Broncos' decision to release quarterback Russell Wilson. The move left behind a record $85 million dead-money charge that the Broncos had to split between last year and this year.
According to Payton, it rendered "a third of the operating budget" unavailable for use last season and left a hole at quarterback entering the 2024 draft. According to several sources in the league, it also encouraged Payton to pivot from the veteran-heavy roster strategy he executed in New Orleans. The Broncos needed a rookie quarterback and a roster that leaned hard into youth from top to bottom. Denver ultimately drafted Bo Nix with the No. 12 overall pick in 2024.
"If [Nix] doesn't come in right away and show them he can start, getting through that is much harder," an NFC general manager said. "You want that kind of quarterback and those kinds of decisions, but that guy, that franchise guy, on a rookie deal is the kind of flexibility that is big. And [Payton] also went young, and I don't think he ever went that young in New Orleans."
During Payton's 16-year reign, the Saints had 11 drafts in which they picked fewer than seven players and two when they picked fewer than five. By contrast, the Broncos have selected seven players in each of the past two drafts.
Along with embracing youth, the Broncos have shown early indications that they might pivot away from the voidable years that were staples in Saints contracts. It hasn't been an immediate transition, as the dead money associated with Wilson's departure prompted the team to add multiple voidable years to deals for veterans like offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey, guard Ben Powers, wide receiver Courtland Sutton and offensive tackle Garett Bolles. But there's evidence that voidable years might be on their way out.
With Wilson's dead money off the books after this season, the Broncos added only one voidable year to the four-year extension cornerback Pat Surtain II signed last September and did not use any voidable years on Zach Allen's four-year, $102 million extension earlier this offseason. Many in the league noticed how the Broncos navigated their salary-cap issues and feel the structure in place, from the Penners down, has allowed a transition to happen.
"They have many more resources, and I think the owner has a bigger voice in things," said an AFC general manager.
Payton alluded to that dynamic when Allen signed his extension, referencing meetings with Penner along with Paton and vice president of football administration Rich Hurtado. And when asked in training camp about what it takes to build a championship-competitive team, Payton cited the importance of that foundation.
"I would say most importantly, ownership, because there are 20 [teams] that each year have hopes and dreams and they're dysfunctional at the top," he said.
Having the structure and cooperation in place has allowed Payton to address two more of his important roster-shaping tenets -- building from the inside out and finding "his guys" to lead the way.
PAYTON OFTEN SPEAKS of all he learned in his time with Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells, whom he served under with the Dallas Cowboys from 2003 to 2005. One of the biggest lessons Payton said he took in constructing a roster was looking beyond the skill positions and starting with the trenches, especially the offensive line.
"It's really important," Payton said. "That's how you build from inside out ... two years ago we set the tone."
Payton was hired by the Broncos in January 2023 and didn't waste much time making his mark, much like he said he tried to do in New Orleans almost two decades earlier.
In Payton's first offseason with the Saints in 2006, New Orleans made arguably one of the greatest free agent signings in history in Brees, to lead a hefty group of 13 free agents. He also picked Heisman Trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush at No. 2 in his first draft with the team. But Payton still says it was two eventual long-term starters on the offensive line -- Jahri Evans (a six-time Pro Bowl selection) and current Broncos offensive line coach Zach Strief -- who truly got his rebuild plan underway.
"An important draft," Payton said. "It was a year after Katrina, we had signed Drew, and Reggie was our first-rounder. But I still wanted that inside out build; we just did it with Jahri and Zach."
Payton then selected left tackle Jermon Bushrod, another eventual starter, in the fourth round of the 2007 draft. That line-first approach followed Payton throughout his New Orleans tenure. The Saints used a first- or second-round pick on an offensive or defensive lineman in each of his last seven drafts with the team, most notably taking offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk in 2017 and center Erik McCoy in 2019. The Saints also hit on offensive tackle Terron Armstead in the third round in 2013 and edge rusher Cameron Jordan (who has played 226 games with the team) in the first round in 2011.
With the trenches secure, Brees, a 13-time Pro Bowl selection, put up a record four 5,000-yard passing seasons, wide receiver Michael Thomas had three 100-catch seasons, and running backs like Bush and Alvin Kamara flourished.
The approach Payton has taken in Denver looks similar thus far. When his first free agency period rolled around in March 2023, the first moves made were not for skill-position threats. Along with Allen at defensive tackle, the Broncos gave high-end deals to McGlinchey and Powers.
Then, just before training camp opened last year, the Broncos signed right guard Quinn Meinerz to a four-year extension. And another four-year extension for Bolles followed in December.
In Payton's first 24 months, the Broncos made four of their starting offensive linemen among the highest paid at their respective positions. That group, according to multiple sources around the league with access to official salary data, made the Broncos' offensive line among the three highest-paid in the NFL.
Payton said he made those decisions because he believes they impact every layer of a team and help Nix's development. Last season, the line led the NFL in both pass block win rate and run block win rate. Nix was sacked only 24 times -- 23 fewer than fellow rookie Jayden Daniels and 44 fewer than No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams.
"It's the first line of attack," Payton said. "The building, the roster, everything we're doing, it's hard to accomplish when that group is not what it needs to be.
"It's extremely important to get that group right ... that group permeates the building."
TALENT, MONEY AND good quarterback play all matter in building a winner, but there's another element -- one not always easy to grasp -- that means as much to Payton.
"We talk about ability all the time in this league; compatibility is an important part of it throughout the organization," Payton said.
Nix has described it as "no prima donnas" -- that the Broncos are "dudes that are here for one reason ... to succeed." And Penner similarly has said, "I don't think prima donnas would do very well here."
The player that might embody that sentiment the most is Nix, the first quarterback a Payton team had ever selected in Round 1 and the first rookie QB to be a full-time starter under the long-time coach. Multiple team sources have said that Payton's two highest-rated quarterbacks in the 2024 draft were Daniels and Nix.
Nix threw 29 touchdown passes last season -- only two behind Justin Herbert's rookie record set in 2020 -- and his head-down, all-business approach has won over his teammates.
"I've always wanted to be with a quarterback that has that dog mentality," Broncos safety Brandon Jones said.
Nix was a key component in the Broncos' navigation out of the dead-money quicksand created by Wilson's release, helping Denver surprisingly break an eight-season playoff drought with a 10-7 record in 2024. He also gives the Broncos a window of contention with a quarterback on a rookie salary, which Denver has tried to take advantage of by extending more of Payton's "guys."
Mike Clay explains why Bo Nix could outperform his fantasy ADP due to his dual-threat ability.
Surtain (the reigning Defensive Player of the Year), Meinerz and Bolles all inked extensions in 2024. Allen and Sutton -- who Payton said "checks all the boxes" -- were extended in July, and the team hopes edge rusher Nik Bonitto is next on the list.
"One of the challenges always in free agency is you can't pay everyone, but you want to make sure you're paying make up and character because the contract, none of that will impact just how he practices and how he approaches the game," Payton said.
This is all part of the bigger picture Payton, Paton and Penner have referenced, merging the brick-and-mortar things such as the dining hall, locker room and travel with the right players and a relationship with ownership that has drawn attention from outside the organization.
"I'd say, from the outside, [Payton] is in a more collaborative situation in Denver," said the AFC general manager. "I think [the] personnel [department] is more collaborative, all of it. Sean is still at the center with his view on how they should go, but I think anybody who knows him would say it's more collaborative."
Payton feels that synergy gives him the ability "to win the jump balls" in the pursuit of free agents or the hiring of assistant coaches, scouts and personnel in every department. It worked with Dobbins, who said it was a "complete no-brainer" to sign with the Broncos.
"All the boxes checked," Dobbins said. "Every one. ... It was pretty clear for me, and I think other people are going to see that moving forward. Other places seem good, other places sound good, but look at this place. Look who owns the team, how they run it. Look at this enormous building under construction.
"They're going to win here. It won't just seem good. It will be good."