This Year’s Team vs. Last Year’s Is A Fascinating Denver Debate

The Denver Broncos are once again 7-2 after nine games for the second straight season, and the question automatically raises a great question: which 7-2 team is better, this year’s squad or last year’s unit that came from out of nowhere to make a run that took them all the way to the AFC Championship Game?

Denver Post columnists Troy Renck and Sean Keeler took a run at this question, and they both raised some great points that are well worth a closer look. 

One of the biggest talking points was the Broncos’ schedule. It’s valid, too, for this year’s team, as all the scheduling metrics sites listed by Keeler had Denver ranked in the top five for the toughest schedules in the league.

Keeler also made an excellent point about the teams the Broncos used to get to 7-2 last year. The Tennessee Titans, New York Jets and New York Giants were among the punching-bag teams the Broncos used to get to 7-2, along with the Cincinnati Bengals team led by Jake Browning. Obviously, none of them made the playoffs. 

This year’s early opponents? That’s a very different story. Other than the embarrassing Los Angeles Chargers and the Arizona Cardinals, every other team will probably make the playoffs. You can make a shaky argument that the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks aren’t quite what they were, and the Carolina Panthers “lead” the NFC South despite being 3-5 after giving the Broncos a tough game. 

Beyond that, the play styles are remarkably similar. Both Broncos teams featured sputtering offenses and great defenses, but Renck made a great point by stating that last year’s version of quarterback Bo Nix had 17 touchdowns with six interceptions with 207 yards rushing with three touchdowns on 42 attempts. 

This year’s team had Nix struggling out of the gate, but he looks like he’s starting to find his stride a little. His penchant for fourth-quarter comebacks and game-winning drives remains intact, though, despite Nix’s struggles. 

In this particular comparison, there are two keys to the 2026 Broncos outpacing last year’s team. The first is Nix, of course, if he can keep trending up and go on something like the kind of run he made last year now that he’s starting to look healthy. 

The other X factor here is rookie running back Jonah Coleman. Last year’s Denver team didn’t have a running game when J.K. Dobbins went down with a foot injury, but Coleman has provided a huge spark that was very much missing on offense. last year.