Smile High, Denver. This Dusty Old Broncos Town has its most outstanding football team in 10 years.

With a Horse Force defense the Broncos will win at least 11 games and at least one playoff game for the first time since the 2015 season and Super Bowl 50. That’s a guarantee.

The Broncos are so good and so deep that six players who likely will be cut Tuesday would have been starters three seasons ago, and their third-best offensive play-caller in the preseason could have been head coach Sean Payton.

In three exhibitions the Broncos scored 85 points and surrendered only 35. They defeated the Cardinals 27-7, the 49ers 30-9 and the Saints Saturday 28-19. Those are Gary Kubiak, Wade Phillips, Peyton Manning kind of numbers on offense and defense. The 2025 defensive representatives are in the Orange Crush and No-Fly Zone sphere. Offensively, if the Broncos develop a running game, they could offer reminiscences of 1998 and 2013.

These Broncos can finish with 7 or 8 victories at home and 4 on the road (including one “across The Pond”.

They certainly won’t be torched for 70 points in one game or barely reach 8 points in another, as they did just two seasons past.

As someone who first saw the Broncos play in an exhibition on the road Aug. 24 59 years ago Sunday I can confidently claim they are for real.

The Broncos definitely are back in the blend with the Chiefs, the Bills, the Ravens, the Chargers and the Texans for the conference championship.

Picking the roster for Payton, Paton and Penner will be hard as granite in the Colorado Mineral Belt.

After Saturday’s Superdomefest, the Broncos still have a situation at running back, although one of the competing candidates – Blake Watson – left in the fourth quarter with a knee injury. Six players – J.K. Dobbins, R.J. Harvey, Jaleel McLaughlin, Tyler Badie, Audric Estime and Watson – are competing for three, maybe four, spots. Dobbins, the veteran free agent signing, and Harvey, the second-round draft choice, are obvious options. Dobbins will start the season as No. 1, but the other guy with initials might end up carrying a load. He is supposed to be the best “Harvey” since Denver playwright Mary Chase won a Pulitzer Prize with a 6-foot-6 invisible rabbit.

McLaughlin seems to be the third choice as a Payton favorite, and Estime, a draft pick from 2024, was the odd man out before Saturday. Badie is a goodie, and Watson has shown skills.

Dobbins didn’t’ drip a drop in the exhibitions because the Broncos are saving him for the Titans. Harvey began in the backfield, but managed only 4 yards on 3 carries and didn’t look comfortable. And he’s not a blocking back. McLaughlin didn’t play, but Estime, Badie and Watson produced. Estime rushed eight times for 45 yards and caught a pass, and his 8-yard touchdown was a nifty cutback. Badie and Watson each had four runs for about the same mediocre results, but Badie also caught 4 passes for 31 yards and had two impressive kickoff returns for 72 yards. So he finished with 107 for all purposes. Watson, an undrafted free agent last year, could be placed on IR.

Badie barely has been utilized by the Broncos in only four games the past three seasons, but he probably found a spot on the regular roster if the Broncos keep four.

The Broncos need a running game to compliment Bo Nix and the passing offense. Nix started for the second time in three games and wasn’t effective in the first two possessions, but did eventually connect with Courtland Sutton, who played worthy of his new contract, for four passes, which included a 47-yard gain, a 14-yarder to set up a field goal and a 19-yard hookup for a touchdown. Then the two watched the rest of the afternoon.

The Broncos have discovered another edge rusher for the queue at outside linebacker in Que Robinson. But several other youths on both sides won’t stick. Utes Caleb Lohner (tight end) and Karene Reid (inside linebacker) won’t join Utes Garett Bolles and Jonah Elliss on the final 53, but will make the auxiliary squad.

And Payton will beat out Joe Lombardi and Davis Webb as the play-caller.

Everybody in Denver and with the Broncos must be smiling high and wide before the season opener.