Sean Payton: 2025 Broncos Capable of Winning Super Bowl

Sean Payton unleashed arguably his boldest statement yet as Denver Broncos head coach, declaring in a recent interview with Yahoo! Sports that the 2025 iteration of the team is not only "capable" of toppling Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs for AFC West supremacy but capturing football's richest prize by season's end.

His second Lombardi Trophy.

“The short-term goal is winning the division,” Payton told NFL columnist Charles Robinson in an article published Aug. 3. “But this is a team capable of winning the Super Bowl. I’ve coached six teams that I thought could win the Super Bowl. Some went to championship games, some to the playoffs. This is my seventh team that I think has that.”

Though never lacking for confidence, Payton wasn't making these statements this time last year. If anything, he was a tad more bashful, gently denouncing dismal record predictions and statistical prognostications — before taking the Broncos to their first playoff game since 2015, on the strength of developing rookie quarterback Bo Nix.

This year, that quarterback is fully developed and, according to Payton, ready to break into the NFL's elite tier.

“He’s going to be one of the top four or five quarterbacks in the league the next two years,” he said of Nix. “That’s what we’re seeing right now. He doesn’t take sacks. He’s got exceptional arm strength. ... He threw the longest ball — [67] air yards against Cincinnati. He can run. He can throw in funny body angles.”

The Broncos will kick off the preseason on Saturday with a road game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium, which just so happens to be the site of Super Bowl LX. Which also happens to be the same place Denver upset the Panthers in Super Bowl 50.

And all the pieces are in place for history to repeat — surprisingly or not.

“Obviously it has to start with quarterback," Payton said Monday of his desired attributes in championship-caliber teams. "It has to start with defense. It has to start with the offensive line. There are certain things that if they’re not on point, it’s hard to make a statement like that. When you look at some of these critical factors, I told them that… That just means you have a chance. And then 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.”