The Lead
A 7-10 season left Denver out of the playoffs for the sixth straight year, but with the avenues available to the Broncos to improve, there should still be a sense of hope.
With the sixth-most cap space (according to spotrac.com) and nearly a dozen draft picks, including five in the first three rounds, the Broncos have a tremendous opportunity to add to the team over the coming offseason.
In an attempt to evaluate how each team's combination of draft capital and free-agency space stacks up, ESPN came to a similar conclusion, ranking the Broncos' "offseason capital" the third best in the league.
"The Broncos have extra picks in the second and third rounds thanks to the midseason trade that sent linebacker Von Miller to the Rams, to go along with their own position at No. 9 in the overall draft order," ESPN's Kevin Seifert wrote. "They could continue to flesh out their developing roster, or more intriguingly, package some of those assets to acquire a veteran quarterback."
Of the top three teams on the list, the Broncos are the only team to finish with more than four wins.
Below the Fold
As analysts and fans are well aware of at this point, perhaps the biggest factor in the Broncos making that kind of turnaround is how they approach the quarterback position. But even with that in mind, CBS Sports’ Tyler Sullivan ranks Denver as the third-most-likely team to make a worst-to-first leap in 2022.
"[T]he Broncos have several fascinating pieces in place, both at the skill positions and on defense," Sullivan wrote. "It almost reminds me of something similar to what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had going for them before landing Tom Brady in the spring of 2020. With the promise of some substantial quarterback movement this offseason, the Broncos are in a position to take a big leap in 2022 as long as they land a legit signal-caller."
