Two years after hitting bottom, the Denver Broncos are the Super Bowl contender you didn't see coming

In a sign of how quickly fortunes can flip in the parity-filled NFL, the Denver Broncos now boast one of the league's best defenses, a QB it believes in and an 11-game winning streak.

The Denver Broncos were no one's idea of a Super Bowl contender two years ago.

Stumbling to an 0-3 start in 2023, they allowed 70 points in a game, the third most ever scored in NFL history. There was so much trader's remorse about quarterback Russell Wilson — whom the team had acquired to great fanfare less than two years earlier — that they benched him and later agreed to eat $85 million of his contract.

By that season's end, the Broncos had missed the playoffs for the eighth consecutive year.

In a sign of how quickly fortunes can flip in the parity-filled NFL, Denver (12-2) now boasts one of the league's best defenses, a quarterback it believes in and an 11-game winning streak. And after Sunday's 34-26 win against Green Bay, a team with its own credible aspirations of a deep playoff run, the Broncos have become the Super Bowl contenders no one saw coming even midway through last season.

"It's an exciting time to be a Bronco right now," second-year quarterback Bo Nix said Sunday after he threw for 302 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. "That was just another game in our journey of where we want to go."