Broncos Bear A Big Resemblance to Last Super Bowl Winner

The Denver Broncos don’t get a lot of love when it comes to forecasts and predictions, but they do get plenty of envy from the last Denver team to win the Super Bowl. 

That team won Super Bowl 50 with a defense that was tough as nails, and former cornerback Aqib Talib  and linebacker Von Miller see a lot of similarities between the team they starred for and this year’s unit, according to Jeff Legwold of ESPN. 

"They're us," said Talib, who is a former Pro Bowl cornerback. "They all love ball, talk to each other, hold each other to it. It's clear as day when you see it."

Miller, meanwhile, spent the entire offseason lobbying for a Denver comeback, and he even dropped some hints that he’d be open to eventually replacing Broncos GM George Paton. His comments echoed Talib's, even though Miller eventually wound up signing with the Dallas Cowboys. 

"Oh yeah, I see it," Miller said earlier this summer. "They do it the way we did it. ... You can tell they keep it straight with each other."

The Broncos had to work hard to get to this point, however. The franchise was way down when coach Sean Payton was hired to fix the mess, but he made the tough call to move on from then-quarterback Russell Wilson and draft quarterback Bo Nix to be his franchise QB. 

"Real winning is in what you might not even see until it's right," Talib said. "It's that attitude, that giving and sharing. You give everything you have, and you don't ever lower that bar on anything, and you hold each other to it every day. And you get guys who can take that accountability. They have it, we had it."

Payton’s answers to questions about winning include words like program, grit and culture, per Legwold, and he’s relying on continuity this season. It’s a risky gambit given the constant churn and turnover in the NFL, but everyone has bought in, including Pro Bowl defensive tackle Zach Allen. 

"Culture is one of those things, we all talk about it, it's like a go-to word sometimes, but to really have it ... it's rare I think," said Broncos defensive tackle Zach Allen said. "Some places just say they have it and it's really nowhere to be found. ... If you need to be pushed, or reminded to work, or, like be told to get to work, you're not going to be around here."

Last year’s version of culture didn’t get rolling until the Broncos surprisingly beat the Philadelphia Eagles on the road in the middle of the season, but we’ll get to see what this year’s version looks like tonight against the Kansas City Chiefs.