Sean Payton Emphasizes Urgency for Broncos to 'Start Fast' in 2025

In Sean Payton's first season as head coach, the Denver Broncos lost their first three games. The Broncos would go on to win eight of the final 14 games, but those three early losses were too much to overcome, as the team finished 8-9.

In 2024, Payton's Broncos started 0-2 with a rookie quarterback, but managed to balance the scales, getting to 2-2 entering Week 5 thanks to a pair of East Coast road wins. Based on NFL history, starting 0-2 makes a playoff berth extremely unlikely, and very, very few teams have ever overcome an 0-3 start to make the postseason.

Still, Payton managed to dig the Broncos out of that 0-2 start last season, thanks to the emergence of Bo Nix and one of the fiercest defenses in the NFL. It's hard to miss the playoffs when your team notches 63 sacks and your quarterback, whether he's a rookie or not, passes for 29 touchdowns.

With Nix educated and edified by his 18 rookie starts, Payton aims to start much faster in 2025. The Broncos are no longer a basement-dweller trying to crack into playoff contention; this is a playoff team, and the players know it.

“A little bit of confidence always helps. You get going, you win some games," Payton said during mandatory minicamp earlier this month. "Any team really that’s been worth their salt has put a string of wins together. We need to start faster. [The] last two years we haven’t, but I like where we’re at right now.”

Just winning the season opener would be a massive boost to the Broncos' ambitions of starting fast and striking deeper into the playoffs. This team hasn't won a season-opening game since Vic Fangio's Broncos did it in 2021. Fortunately, the NFL schedule makers gave the Broncos every opportunity to start fast by sending the Tennessee Titans to the Mile High City in Week 1.

Not only were the Titans the league's worst team last season — by definition — but they'll be playing a rookie quarterback making his first NFL start. Cam Ward is a talented guy and the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, but rookie quarterbacks have a dismal record in their first career start, especially when it's the actual season-opener.

Rookie quarterbacks starting in Week 1 isn't exactly the NFL norm. For example, Nix became the first Broncos rookie quarterback to start the season opener since John Elway in 1983. We're talking 41 years of history. There's a reason teams avoid playing a rookie quarterback in Week 1, even if they're highly drafted.

The Broncos defense licked its chops when the 2025 schedule dropped. Now, that's no guarantee that Ward will bomb in his NFL debut or that Denver will win, but the odds are stacked in Payton's favor.

The Broncos draw the Indianapolis Colts on the road in Week 2. On paper, it seems like a relatively easy matchup for the Broncos. But remember, last season, with Anthony Richardson at quarterback, the Broncos were on their heels and getting their lunch handed to them until Jonathan Taylor inexplicably dropped a runaway touchdown just inches before crossing the goal-line.

That turnover gave the Broncos a new shot of life, and they were able to fully wrest away the momentum, prevailing 31-13. This year, it's unclear who will be under center for the Colts when the Broncos meet them in Week 2. It could be Richardson — the former No. 5 overall draft pick — or it could be Daniel Jones, whom Indy signed this offseason.

Either way, you've got to like Denver's odds of emerging from Lucas Oil Stadium at 2-0. Payton really must do what it takes to ensure that happens because the next two games won't be easy, with a road trip to take on the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 3 (who swept Denver last year), followed by a homestand on Monday Night Football vs. Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Broncos were unable to prevail against the Chargers and Bengals last year, but Payton is hoping to change that in 2025. If the Broncos can win even one of those games, and emerge from the first quarter of the season at 3-1, it'll be huge for Payton's goal of winning the AFC West, marching through the playoffs, and winning a Super Bowl.

Yes. It's no secret within Broncos HQ that, armed with a franchise quarterback, Payton's goal is a Lombardi Trophy. His players have embraced that objective.

“I think pretty well," Payton said of how the players have received his championship message. "I think they have a high standard of how they see themselves, and where we can be.”

One of the mitigating factors in Denver's 0-2 start last year was the early development of Nix. Payton kept the offensive training wheels on in those first couple of games and didn't really start opening up the playbook until Nix hit another gear in October.