ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Justin Simmons reported to the Denver Broncos' training camp on Tuesday flashing his usual big smile and sunny disposition just like he has each of the last six summers.
Only this time it didn't feel like that optimism will disappear in short order like it has every season since 2016, with middling quarterback play exacerbated by draft busts and free agent flops.
DENVER BRONCOS (7-10)
CAMP SITE: Englewood, Colorado
LAST YEAR: The Broncos extended their playoff drought to six seasons since winning Super Bowl 50, a record dry spell following a championship.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — From the moment Russell Wilson takes the field to the instant rookie head coach Nathaniel Hackett joins his players in end-of-workout wind sprints, the Denver Broncos have been a ball of energy at their offseason practices.
No. 64. DENVER BRONCOS (7-10)
LAST SEASON: The Broncos’ post-Peyton Manning slide continued after journeyman QB Teddy Bridgewater beat out incumbent Drew Lock in training camp and went 7-7 before a season-ending concussion in December.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Nathaniel Hackett and Russell Wilson have brought renewed hope to a Denver Broncos franchise mired in a six-year playoff drought since Peyton Manning’s retirement.
COSTA MESA, Calif. (AP) — Khalil Mack was watching the television show “Bel-Air” with his fiancéé and son last Thursday when he got a call from his agent that the Chicago Bears were trading him. In a strange coincidence, Mack’s new team is close to the real Bel Air.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — John Elway is refuting Brian Flores' claim in a lawsuit that his interview with the Denver Broncos in 2019 was a sham and only conducted to satisfy the NFL's Rooney Rule.
“While I was not planning to respond publicly to the false and defamatory claims by Brian Flores, I could not be silent any longer with my character, integrity and professionalism being attacked,” the Denver Broncos president of football operations said in a statement released by the team Thursday.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — George Paton sees Nathaniel Hackett as the booster shot the Denver Broncos desperately needed.
Through nearly 20 hours of interviews in Green Bay and Denver and on Zoom, Paton said it became clear Hackett “was the right leader for the Denver Broncos and really the perfect choice to reboot this organization.”
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett has agreed to become the Denver Broncos' new head coach.
He replaces Vic Fangio, who was fired a day after the Broncos finished 7-10, their sixth consecutive season out of the playoffs and fifth straight year they've failed to post a winning record.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Denver Broncos began their search for Vic Fangio's replacement in the Midwest, meeting with Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn ahead of their trip to Green Bay.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Before George Paton begins his quest to find the right quarterback for the Denver Broncos, he has to find the correct coach.
“I know how important that position is. It’s the most important position in sports," the general manager said.
DENVER (AP) — The Denver Broncos are looking for a new head coach to lead them out of a six-year playoff drought and a half decade of losing seasons that marks the most protracted plunge by a Super Bowl champion in NFL history.
DENVER (AP) — Down a touchdown late in a meaningless game — for Denver, anyway — coach Vic Fangio decided to send out the field goal unit on fourth-and-long from the 13.
The crowd voiced its displeasure, at least the fans who showed up.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Long snapper Jacob Bobenmoyer cut a lonely figure at the Denver Broncos practice on Wednesday with both kicker Brandon McManus and punter Sam Martin on the reserve/COVID-19 list.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Coach Vic Fangio staunchly defended his embattled coordinators Pat Shurmur and Tom McMahon during the Broncos' bye week, saying he needed to help them fix the multitude of maladies that were threatening to derail Denver's once promising season.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — The Broncos' failed Philly Special on Sunday encapsulated much of Denver's disappointment from a season that will end with the extension of this proud franchise's longest playoff drought since the 1970s.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Teddy Bridgewater remains sidelined with a concussion, so Drew Lock is preparing to make his second straight start Sunday when the Denver Broncos visit the Los Angeles Chargers.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — There isn't a team in the league that would want to face Denver's suffocating defense in the playoffs. Thanks to the Broncos' abominable offense, nobody's worrying about having to go up against Justin Simmons, Patrick Surtain II and Bradley Chubb in the postseason.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Denver Broncos let an opportunity slip away on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders, and their chances of returning to the postseason for the first time since winning Super Bowl 50 are in jeopardy.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Denver Broncos are paying for their prolonged playoff drought.
They're not on “Monday Night Football” this year for the first time since 1991 and they don't have a Pro Bowler for the first time since 1980.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Drew Lock is preparing for his first — and maybe final — start of 2021 for the Denver Broncos.
Coach Vic Fangio ruled out starter Teddy Bridgewater, who has a concussion, for their game Sunday against the Raiders but said it's possible he'll return next week against the Chargers if he's medically cleared: “Whatever’s best for his health moving forward is what we’ll do.”
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Denver Broncos are preparing backup quarterback Drew Lock for his first start of the season at Las Vegas next weekend after Teddy Bridgewater was knocked unconscious Sunday against the Bengals, carted off the field and hospitalized overnight.
Broncos quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was taken to a hospital for a head injury after he was carted off the field in the third quarter of Denver's 15-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
Bridgewater was hurt in a scary collision that also sent Bengals linebacker Joe Bachie from the game with a leg injury.
DENVER (AP) — Teddy Bridgewater was hospitalized overnight for evaluation of a head injury following a scary collision that appeared to knock him unconscious during the Denver Broncos' 15-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Denver Broncos learned a painful lesson last year when they were forced to play a game without a quarterback. So, they're isolating third-stringer Brett Rypien as a precaution with the new, highly transmissible form of COVID-19 leading to a spike in infections across the NFL.
DENVER (AP) — Ndamukong Suh, Chris Harris Jr., Aaron Rodgers, Cameron Jordan. Ty Montgomery, Mark Ingram.
No, it's not a Pro Bowl ballot, just a smattering of the big names that have landed on the NFL's evermore crowded reserve/COVID-19 list this season.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — With the AFC West lead so tantalizingly in reach, the Denver Broncos fumbled, bumbled and stumbled their way to another loss against Kansas City, plunging to their familiar whereabouts in the division's cellar instead.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Broncos coach Vic Fangio declared that “field goals weren't going to beat" the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night.
Neither were 20-play drives that resulted in no points.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Ailing running back Melvin Gordon III was unable to practice Saturday and was ruled out for the Denver Broncos' Sunday night showdown at Kansas City with the AFC West lead on the line.
The Broncos don't beat the Chiefs. Andy Reid almost never loses coming off a bye.
The NFL flexed Denver at Kansas City with those facts staring directly at the league
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Rookie running back Javonte Williams will get his first start Sunday night at Kansas City if Melvin Gordon III can't play.
Gordon didn't practice all week because of hip and shoulder injuries and was listed as doubtful Friday.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs have won 11 straight games against the Denver Broncos, their onetime AFC West nemesis. And Kansas City coach Andy Reid's teams have won 19 of the 22 times they have played following a week off.
DENVER (AP) — Vic Fangio didn't pay much attention when the Kansas City Chiefs stumbled to a 3-4 start. All he knows is they've fixed whatever was broken, haven't lost since October and “they're back to being the Chiefs again.”
DENVER (AP) — Brandon Staley gets to face his mentor and maybe even his star pupil Sunday.
Staley's Los Angeles Chargers (6-4) visit Vic Fangio's Denver Broncos (5-5), who hope to get pass rusher Bradley Chubb back from a surgically repaired ankle that has sidelined him for two months.
COSTA MESA, Calif. (AP) — Before Brandon Staley became one of the top young coaches in the NFL, Vic Fangio saw his potential.
But not even Fangio, who hired Staley in 2016 to be an outside linebacker coach with the Chicago Bears, could predict his rapid ascension up the ranks.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Changes are coming to the Denver Broncos. Just not anytime soon.
Someone else will be signing the paychecks next year. Someone new almost certainly will be under center in 2022.
DENVER (AP) — For a guy who wouldn't put himself in harm's way or Darius Slay's path, Teddy Bridgewater sure didn't have any problem falling on the sword.
Or was he pushed?
Broncos coach Vic Fangio called out Bridgewater in a team meeting Monday for being a bystander instead of a barrier on Slay's 83-yard fumble return for a touchdown Sunday.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Teddy Bridgewater admits he shouldn't have surrendered on Darius Slay's game-changing, season-defining 83-yard touchdown return of Melvin Gordon III's fumble Sunday.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Denver Broncos are making backup play-calling plans after offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur tested positive for the coronavirus Friday and went on the reserve/COVID-19 list along with a fourth player infected this week.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Jonathon Cooper and the Denver defense pestered Dak Prescott a lot more than the rookie’s first two sacks in the NFL showed.
The final score wasn’t much of a reflection of the Broncos’ dominance either.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — How do the Denver Broncos make sure Von Miller's exit doesn't extinguish their playoff prospects? It starts with everybody insisting they'll be fine following the amicable divorce from the best defender in franchise history.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — So much for Vic Fangio's spectacular September. If the Broncos don't beat Washington on Halloween, Denver will be 0-for-October for the first time since 1967 under Lou Saban.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Broncos quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has a quadriceps injury in addition to his sore left foot and is questionable for the game at Cleveland on Thursday night.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Denver Broncos are celebrating Mike Shanahan's coaching contributions this weekend.
The two-time Super Bowl winner who holds the franchise record with 146 victories between 1995 and 2008, including eight playoff wins, will go into the Broncos' Ring of Fame during halftime of the Raiders-Broncos game Sunday.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Kendall Hinton is no longer just the practice squad receiver who was promoted to quarterback last November when all of Denver's regular QBs landed in COVID-19 quarantine.
He's not just the training camp long-shot who lined up at defensive back this summer to try to make the roster any way he could.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Teddy Bridgewater's chances of playing at Pittsburgh this weekend improved dramatically Thursday when he returned to practice four days after suffering a concussion against the Baltimore Ravens.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The number of Ben Roethlisberger doubters is growing by the week. Roethlisberger isn't among them. Neither is Denver Broncos coach Vic Fangio.
Fangio remains plenty wary of the 39-year-old Pittsburgh quarterback as the Broncos (3-1) travel to Heinz Field to take on the struggling Steelers (1-3).