It’s that time- Predict the Broncos 2022 Record

[SpringStein]

New first time Owner
New first time Head Coach
New first time Offensive Coordinator
New first time Defensive Coordinator
New QB

Same old fans. . Who are the optimists? You - get over there on the Mingo team! Who are the pessimists? Start your own bandwagon.

 

[MileHigh64]

I see the Broncos as a 10 win team in 2022. I think it's reasonable, considering the upgrade at QB. So incredibly unpredictable right now.

• Is Russell Wilson still in his prime or on the downside?
• Will we see a quarter to half of the season where the team isn't quite gelling yet?
• How will the new coaching staff, their schemes and philosophies play out?
• How will the other AFC West teams perform this year with all the upgrades? Are we all going to beat each other up?
• Will our touted skill players really show up, now that they have a QB?
• Will the defense take a step back without Fangio, stay consistent or improve?
• How many lucky bounces will the Broncos get this year?

I'm sticking with 10 wins. Hopefully gets the Broncos into the playoffs!

 

[Mingo]

Bronco Juggernaut!

 

[CEH]

9-10
vegas has denver at 9.5

 

[SpringStein]

I voted 10-11 for the following reasons:
1. It’s still a QB league and we finally have a QB after 6 years wandering around in the desert.
2. I think our D will be really good. What we didn’t see in preseason was DJ Jones in the middle clogging up the running game. I believe our run D will be improved which will mean an improved overall D.
3. Special teams is an unknown yet - but can it be worse?
4. Balancing that out is the AFC West - easily the toughest division in football. We may be much improved and still end up 3rd in the division.
5. And as I mentioned in the opening, there are lots of new people in leadership. And that may take more than the snap of two fingers to hit the ground running.

Of course, the wild card with every team is injuries to key players. And I don’t want to try to predict that. Regardless, I think we are in for a more entertaining year than any we have had for awhile.

 

[CEH]

plus Lock , that scrub, lost 4 and a half straight games last year to end the season
still went 7–10.

 

[PumpFake]

I voted 0-4 because I’m always wrong. This year I decided to make it a cure instead of a curse.

 

[PumpFake]

But I subscribe to most/all of MH64 & Springer’s thoughts above. Planning on an average year as new parts come together in a stacked division, but hoping for some divine intervention from the football gods. Maybe even enough divine juice to get Randy Gradishar into the HOF.

 

[LGM]

Let's not get silly Pump. Plus Randy has his own thread (still).

 

[PumpFake]

Let's not get silly Pump. Plus Randy has his own thread (still).

Someone’s envy is showing!

 

[Mountain Bronco]

I am going to go with 11 wins, but could see a range of 8-11 wins baring major injuries which you just can't predict. The one thing making me nervous is all the new pieces and the fact that our WR and TE's outside of Sutton are not at all proven. Lots of hype but haven't seen it on the field yet.

W1 - Sea Win
W2 - Hou Win
W3 - San Loss
W4 - LAS Loss
W5 - Ind Win
W6 - LASC Loss
W7 - NYJ Win
W8 - Jack Win
W10 - Tenn Loss
W11 - LAS - Win
W12 - CAR - Win
W13 - Balt - Win
W14 - KC - Win
W15 - AZ - Win
W16 - LAR - Loss
W17 - KC - Loss
W18 - LAC - Win

 

[Mingo]

I think many fans are underestimating how well this Bronco offense can execute. Even with the scrubs playing in the preseason you could see the coordination in the passing game has reached a higher bar than Bronco fans have seen in years. Hackett is not a coach who is going to hold back his offense - he aims to score early and often and if he does that like he did in Green Bay - the Bronco defense is made to devour offenses trying to catch up.

 

[Draft Crazy]

10.5 we tie once this year.

 

[cdumler7]

I think many fans are underestimating how well this Bronco offense can execute. Even with the scrubs playing in the preseason you could see the coordination in the passing game has reached a higher bar than Bronco fans have seen in years. Hackett is not a coach who is going to hold back his offense - he aims to score early and often and if he does that like he did in Green Bay - the Bronco defense is made to devour offenses trying to catch up.

I loved even with a vanilla calling system we got to see glimpses of what he can do to get players open. Especially his work of doing tight formations to force teams more into single high safety looks opening up the deep passing game.

Throw in then giving QB's easier reads with a bunch of the roll outs. And we did finally see the run game start to come alive there at the end. To me this season depends on how quickly they can get that run game working well. If that happens early then watch out. If it takes a few games and they lose a couple of the easier games at the first part of this schedule then the Broncos could find themselves on the outside looking in.

 

[iknowftbll]

I think this team can get to 10-7 and maybe 11-6. Any of the AFC West teams can conceivably get 10+ wins, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the winner of the division at 10-7 and last place 8-9. But the truth is one of them isn't going to live up to the hype. The other three should be pretty good. Hopefully the Broncos insert themselves into relevancy again.

 

[cdumler7]

I think this team can get to 10-7 and maybe 11-6. Any of the AFC West teams can conceivably get 10+ wins, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the winner of the division at 10-7 and last place 8-9. But the truth is one of them isn't going to live up to the hype. The other three should be pretty good. Hopefully the Broncos insert themselves into relevancy again.

Part of why I give the Broncos a better chance of huge success this season is them playing that 4th place schedule. So getting a couple of those easier wins added to the total and say then splitting within the division gives them a huge shot at coming away with 10+ wins on the season.

 

[Mountain Bronco]

Part of why I give the Broncos a better chance of huge success this season is them playing that 4th place schedule. So getting a couple of those easier wins added to the total and say then splitting within the division gives them a huge shot at coming away with 10+ wins on the season.

There is only really one extra "easy" game due to 4th place schedule in getting the Jets rather than Bills, Dolphins or Pats. Otherwise the AFC west teams all get the Texans, Jags and Seattle as other "easy" games two of which comes in the first two weeks with a completely new scheme and staff. I would rather play the Steelers than Ravens with the Steelers QB situation and lack of weapons. The last six games are brutal as well so Denver has to play really well out of the gates to make 11 wins IMO but they have the talent to do it.

 

[cdumler7]

There is only really one extra "easy" game due to 4th place schedule in getting the Jets rather than Bills, Dolphins or Pats. Otherwise the AFC west teams all get the Texans, Jags and Seattle as other "easy" games two of which comes in the first two weeks with a completely new scheme and staff. I would rather play the Steelers than Ravens with the Steelers QB situation and lack of weapons. The last six games are brutal as well so Denver has to play really well out of the gates to make 11 wins IMO but they have the talent to do it.

Oh I'm not saying it is an easy schedule. I just would rather take ours over that of especially the Chiefs or Raiders at this point. I could see an argument for wanting the Chargers schedule.

 

[iknowftbll]

Part of why I give the Broncos a better chance of huge success this season is them playing that 4th place schedule. So getting a couple of those easier wins added to the total and say then splitting within the division gives them a huge shot at coming away with 10+ wins on the season.

The Chiefs are going to be good again. We've seen nothing to indicate a drop-off though they did move one of their best offensive weapons in the off season. Still, I think they're a 10 win team.

The Chargers are loaded on both sides of the ball and return their coaching staff. A staff that played passed on a tie and a sure playoff appearance and instead wound up with a loss and outside looking in while the Steelers took that 7th spot.

The Raiders are loaded too and despite how much we want to spew hate on McD he could be a very capable HC in his second run. It's a good roster and even in the middle of a season where they lost their HC they managed 10 wins.

So that brings us to the Broncos. The only team in the division that did not have a winning season last year and hasn't since 2016. It is definitely a more loaded roster than before. Defense is the best in the division and the offense should be able to pull its weight for the first time since 2014 so I am really eager to see if this is a formula that comes together in time to have an exciting 2022!

 

[cdumler7]

The Chiefs are going to be good again. We've seen nothing to indicate a drop-off though they did move one of their best offensive weapons in the off season. Still, I think they're a 10 win team.

The Chargers are loaded on both sides of the ball and return their coaching staff. A staff that played passed on a tie and a sure playoff appearance and instead wound up with a loss and outside looking in while the Steelers took that 7th spot.

The Raiders are loaded too and despite how much we want to spew hate on McD he could be a very capable HC in his second run. It's a good roster and even in the middle of a season where they lost their HC they managed 10 wins.

So that brings us to the Broncos. The only team in the division that did not have a winning season last year and hasn't since 2016. It is definitely a more loaded roster than before. Defense is the best in the division and the offense should be able to pull its weight for the first time since 2014 so I am really eager to see if this is a formula that comes together in time to have an exciting 2022!

The other part of this for me of why I am so high on the Broncos this year (homerism aside) is because of the balance they bring compared to the rest of the division. They can win games multiple ways. One week it might be the defense is just playing lights out and the offense only needs to put up 20 points to win. The next week it could be the run game going for 200-yards as the other team decides they don't want Wilson and the skill players to beat them. Then the next week they decide to load up the box and Wilson destroys them over the top. I don't think you can look at the rest of the division and say they can do that with confidence. Chargers would be the next closest in all around roster.

I do agree Chiefs will be great as they do have the best head coach and QB in the division. That is probably worth at least 8 wins just by itself. They will find a way to win 10-games as they work in all of these new pieces.

Chargers have a ton of talent. I question a little Staley as a head coach though. He made a ton of questionable decisions last year. He was actually too aggressive as a coach and cost his team at least a few games.

Raiders I don't see the talent that you do. I see the top end talent. The top about 5-6 guys on the roster could be the best of any team in the league. They have a huge drop off after that. The defense is full of holes and that OL could be the worst in football. Those are two big things to be missing especially with a QB like Carr that depends so much on good OL play for him to be successful.