During Thursday's joint practice between the Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers, legendary former coach Mike Shanahan could be seen studying the events as they unfolded. Shanahan was especially honed in on what the Broncos' offense was doing with Bo Nix under center.
The Broncos and 49ers will meet back up on Saturday night at Levi Stadium for their first preseason game. We've heard from 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and GM John Lynch on their impressions of the 2025 Broncos, but now it's time to hear from the boss of bosses.
In between that joint practice and Saturday's preseason game, Aric DiLalla of the team website caught up with Mike Shanahan — who won back-to-back World Championships in Denver back in the late 1990s — to pick his brain on where the 2025 Broncos are headed.
First thing's first, Shanahan dished on Nix, after watching what he achieved as a rookie last year and seeing him operate as a year-two quarterback in Thursday's joint practice.
“I just like the way he handles himself. He handles himself like he’s a 10-year vet," Shanahan told DiLalla. "Nothing’s too big for him. You can tell he’s just cool, calm, and collected. He’s got a lot of poise. He handles pressure very well, and you can tell that he’s a competitor. So it’s going to be fun to watch him for a lot of years.”
Among his many achievements as a head coach, Shanahan was famous for his running game and the zone blocking scheme, which cranked out one 1,000-yard rusher after another, including a 2,000-yard rusher in 1998. The Broncos have worked hard to upgrade their rushing attack this year, not only with the addition of running backs like RJ Harvey and J.K. Dobbins, but also in the new installation of the outside zone.
Shanahan sees the Broncos reaping positive returns on the offseason seeds they've planted. He was asked about how a defense is a young quarterback's "best friend," and he concurred, offering up one caveat and a bold prediction.
“A good defense and a good running game, and I think you’re going to see both of them with Denver,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan knows what it's like to grapple with the NFL salary cap as a head coach while also getting the most out of a coaching staff and a roster on gameday. Considering the mountain of obstacles Sean Payton has overcome since arriving in 2023 — including a dearth of first and second-round draft picks and a record amount of dead money charges thanks to the Russell Wilson release — Shanahan marvels at how quickly he's turned around a Broncos team that had become an NFL cellar-dweller for the preceding eight years.
“It’s unbelievable what he’s been able to do in two years, especially with the salary cap situation that he was in and the draft choices and all those type of things. And for the defense, people forget how good that defense was last year," Shanahan said of Payton. "Everybody’s saying, ‘Look at the offense and Bo Nix,’ and what they did on defense was, I mean—you take a look at third overall, second in this, second in that, first in takeaways, and then in sacks, and you’re just going… Especially coming back now with the addition of a few good players, they’re going to be hard to beat.”
Broncos fans have a hard time giving any credit at all to Vance Joseph, and right or wrong, it's easy to understand why. In his two-year stint as head coach (2017-18), he won only 11 games before being fired.
However, time has proven that Payton's controversial decision to hire Joseph as his defensive coordinator and bring him back to Denver was the right one. Joseph had his ups and downs in his first year back, but in 2024, he fielded one of the most ferocious defenses in the NFL and in the history of the franchise.
The Broncos led the NFL in sacks and ranked in the top five in most of the key statistical categories. It sounds like Shanahan is of the belief that people aren't appreciating the magnitude of that accomplishment and how much of an asset this defense will be to Payton and Nix moving forward.
When it comes to Payton's public "Super Bowl" comments, Shanahan likes how the Broncos' head coach is working to speak it into existence. In order to get the troops to buy in, first, the general must be seen to believe. Faith precedes the miracle, after all.
“Well, if you don’t believe, the players are not going to believe. And that’s what I love what Sean has done. He’s said, ‘Hey, we were pretty good last year. Take a look at where we finished on defense,'" Shanahan said. "Teams that finish almost in the top five in every area, especially on defense, gives you an opportunity right there. Then you take a look at the offense, and some of the additions they’ve gotten through free agency; they’re going to be a team to reckon with. You’ve still got to get lucky and stay healthy, and you’ve got to have a little luck on your side, but I like the way they’re headed.”
Shanahan is a Broncos Ring of Famer and belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When it comes to Canton, his time will come, but suffice it to say, he knows how the sausage gets made.
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