Thirteen things about the Broncos entering Monday night’s season opener at Seattle:
1. Can the Broncos go from losing record (7-10) to Super Bowl champion? It has happened four times in the last 23 years after only once from 1947-98, according to research by frequent contributor Dan Daly. The full list: 1981 San Francisco (6-10 in ’80), the 1999 Rams (4-12 in ’98), 2001 New England (5-11 in ’00), 2017 Philadelphia (7-9 in ’16) and 2020 Tampa Bay (7-9 in ’19).
2. The common theme among those clubs? Quarterback, of course. Joe Montana started seven games in ’80 and all 16 in ’81. … Kurt Warner replaced an injured Trent Green in the Rams’ preseason and won NFL MVP. … Tom Brady replaced an injured Drew Bledsoe and kept the job with the Patriots. … Carson Wentz was playing at an MVP level for the Eagles (11-2 record) in his second season, but was injured and Nick Foles found football lightning in a bottle. … And Brady was in his first year with the Buccaneers. The Broncos have turned to Russell Wilson at quarterback.
3. In their history, the Broncos have gone from losing season to the playoffs four times — 1983 (2-7 to 9-7, lost in wild card round), 1991 (5-11 to 12-4, lost in AFC title game), 2000 (6-10 to 11-5, lost in wild card round) and 2011 (4-12 to 8-8, lost in divisional round),
4. Former receiver Emmanuel Sanders’ retirement allowed for a look back at the Broncos’ decision to trade Demaryius Thomas to Houston on Oct. 30, 2018, and flip Sanders to San Francisco on Oct. 22, 2019. Thomas was flipped along with a 2019 seventh-round pick for fourth- and seventh-round selections. Sanders and a 2020 fifth-round pick went to the 49ers for third- and fourth-round selections.
5. The Broncos used the Texans’ pick at No. 125 in a package with Cincinnati to move up 10 spots in the second round to draft quarterback Drew Lock and traded No. 237 to Carolina to move up to take receiver Juwann Winfree. A year later, with the two 49ers picks, the Broncos selected McTelvin Agim at No. 95 and traded No. 137 to Jacksonville for cornerback A.J. Bouye. Talk about a wash.
6. General manager George Paton’s two drafts total 19 picks. From 2021, six remain with the team (all on the 53-man roster) and three are starters (cornerback Pat Surtain II, running back Javonte Williams and right guard Quinn Meinerz). From this year, eight of the nine picks are on the active roster and one (cornerback Faion Hicks) is on the practice squad. None are expected to start at Seattle.
7. A win Monday night would be the Broncos’ 200th regular season road win; they are 199-271-3 on the road, including 13-14 at Seattle. The Broncos opened as a 6 1/2-point road favorite, which would be their biggest road favorite spread since November 2014 at St. Louis (minus-8 and lost 22-7). If the line holds, it will be the Seahawks’ biggest home underdog status since October 2018 (plus 7 1/2, lost 33-31), which was the only time in Wilson’s home career he was an underdog of at least 5 1/2 points.
8. Entering Week 1, the Broncos were tied with Philadelphia and Kansas City for the most opening-week wins over the last 10 years (8-2 record). The Broncos have a point differential of plus-58. Seattle is tied for seventh with six wins. The Broncos’ eight Week 1 wins since 2013: Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Carolina, the Los Angeles Chargers and Seattle at home from ’13-18 and at the New York Giants last year.
9. New assistant coaches produce new stories. Outside linebackers coach Bert Watts’ brother, Tom, played collegiately at Calif.-Davis with Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett and defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero. “I was at Cal at the time and we would always go visit them in Davis,” Bert said. “As we got into coaching, you start developing that relationship as you go through the process and you’re scrambling to make a dime and get a job.”
10. Of receiving the call from Evero this winter to return to the NFL for the first time in 10 years, Watts said: “I didn’t except anything from him or Nathaniel. I know how this business goes and you can’t hire everybody you want. When it eventually happened, the whole family got excited immediately.
11. Tight ends coach Jake Moreland’s stops include two at Air Force (2012-14 and ’16) and his first NFL job was last year with the New York Jets (assistant offensive line). “It’s an unbelievable opportunity,” he said. “It’s something I’ve dreamed about for a long time. I was in college coaching for 18 years and to be at the highest level and learn from everybody’s experiences is unbelievable.”
12. Three years ago, Marcus Dixon was the defensive ends coach at Hampton (Va.) University. Last year, he won a Super Bowl ring as the Rams’ assistant defensive line coach and now he’s running his own room with the Broncos. “Every day, I pinch myself; it’s a dream come true,” he said.
13. Inside linebackers coach Peter Hansen joined the Broncos after two years as the defensive coordinator at UNLV. His first NFL stop was 2011-13 with San Francisco (quality control) on the same staff as Evero. Hansen played college basketball at Arizona for Lute Olson. Asked if any of Olson’s approach translates to football, Hansen said: “The thing I fall back on the most is when we won, he was the hardest on us and we won a lot so he was pretty hard on us. And when we lost, he was like, ‘OK, we just have a few corrections and we’ll be fine.’ He didn’t pile on when you lost because everybody felt bad. I fall back on that every single year.”
