ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Broncos have surged into their bye week.
On the heels of a win over the Panthers, Denver enters its Week 10 bye atop the AFC West and tied for the most wins in the NFL.
"I like this team," Head Coach Sean Payton said after Sunday's win. "There's room for us to get better, but I like this team a lot. We've just got to take advantage of the position we're sitting in right now."
Amid a five-game winning streak, the Broncos currently hold the second seed in the AFC and join the Bills, 49ers and Bears as the only teams with seven wins. Denver navigated one of the league's toughest opening schedules to post that 7-2 start, earning wins over teams like the Chiefs, the AFC South-leading Jaguars and defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks.
"We're in a really good spot, obviously where you want to be," quarterback Bo Nix said. "You want to be first in your division. You want to be winning football games. We've played a really tough part of our schedule."
Added cornerback Pat Surtain II: "We're carrying the momentum into the bye. … All that does is just build confidence."
In the same breath, Nix turned his focus toward what awaits following the bye and the improvement that can still come for the Broncos.
"At 7-2, we feel really confident, but at the same time, there's a lot of things that we could get better at," Nix said. "We've said this every week, and some weeks we've gotten better at other things, some things we still got to clean up."
Inside linebacker Alex Singleton was among the Broncos defenders who echoed Nix's sentiment, saying Denver is "still getting better" as the second half of the season approaches.
Before they get better, though, they'll get away. Payton once observed the success that Andy Reid had as the Eagles' head coach following the bye and asked Reid about his philosophy.
"He just said, 'I get them out of here and I see them the next Monday,'" Payton said Sunday. "And ever since we've done that, we've been pretty good after the bye as well. So, they'll rest."
On Sunday, the Broncos improved to 4-0 in their final game before the bye week under Payton, and they'll look to match that 4-0 mark with a win over the Raiders in Week 11. Denver is currently 3-0 immediately following its bye week under Payton, including last year's win over the Commanders on "Sunday Night Football."
When the Broncos do return, they'll continue to chase the first two of their season-long goals: winning the division and securing the best seed possible. The Broncos currently hold a 57 percent chance of winning the AFC West and a 16 percent chance of earning the top seed in the conference, according to The Athletic’s playoff simulator. The Bills and Jaguars are the only AFC teams with higher chances of earning the top seed, according to The Athletic. Denver holds the head-to-head tiebreak over Jacksonville following a Week 2 win, and the Broncos and Bills will meet on Christmas Day in Denver.
Those percentages and standings, though, are secondary to the week-to-week work that must occur for the Broncos to keep winning. And that begins by resting during the bye week to pursue those goals in the second half of the season.
"This will be a good break, good rest for us," Nix said. "We all feel really good about it, feel like we need it. ... We'll get some rest. Players will get some rest, and then we'll start right back up next week with our next opponent. It's just going to be a good time to relax and also debrief and look back at a few things and just have a great breakdown and sort of digest where we've been and what we're doing and where we want to go."
