Don’t tell anybody. But the Broncos have a bad case of trophy envy.

And that’s a good thing.

The Colorado Avalanche hoisted the Stanley Cup in 2022.

Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets went on parade with the Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2023.

And now?

“It’s our turn to bring a parade to the city,” Broncos receiver Courtland Sutton said Wednesday.

“The Avs have won the Stanley Cup recently. The Nuggets have won the NBA Finals recently. We, unfortunately, haven’t had success since 2015. We feel it’s our turn to do our part for the city, in terms of keeping the winning tradition going.”

The three Super Bowl trophies on display at the team’s headquarters no longer suffice. Sutton is itching to add a Lombardi he can call his own to the trophy case.

After winning 11 regular-season games in a row, a worrywart like me might get his knickers in a knot about Denver’s feeble 3.65 yards rushing per attempt during the course of the four most recent victories.

But there’s something else the Broncos need to address before the NFL playoffs begin: The nobody-loves-us narrative.

Far be it for a team of scrappy underdogs to get drunk on success, because when Sutton looks around the country for people “who do want to give us a pat on the back .. (there) aren’t many.”

They don’t get no respect, I tell ya.

Playing that old Rodney Dangerfield get-no-respect card has served Sutton and his teammates well to this point.

The football computer geeks and Las Vegas oddsmakers, however, are beginning to catch on to Denver’s act. While they don’t ever do anything nice and easy, the Broncos are pretty, pretty good.

Prior to this season, oddsmakers looked at the Broncos and said “meh,” listing them as 22-1 to win the Super Bowl.

In mid-December, those odds have dropped to 8-1, making Denver the most formidable challenger to Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in the AFC.

Now, I’m not certain how Sutton will react to this news, but the Broncos are still long shots to claim the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

After feeding in their raw data into the computer, ESPN’s Football Power Index projects Denver to have no more than an 11.7 percent chance to win the Super Bowl 

The good news? The Los Angeles Rams are the only team in the league given a better chance to win it all.

Here’s the challenge on the horizon: Instead of the disrespected team with a chip on its shoulder, the Broncos better be prepared to face the burden of being a postseason favorite with a target on its back.

OK, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Denver still must play ‘em one at a time. When Jacksonville visits Sunday, the Jaguars will have designs on stealing the No. 1 seed in the AFC from the Broncos.

The top seed assures home-field advantage on the AFC half of the Super Bowl tourney bracket. Perhaps more importantly, it would require Denver to only win twice instead of three times in order to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time in a decade.

This team’s mindset has already allowed an enthusiastic peek at January. Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain confirms it, when hinting he expects to see the Jaguars this weekend and again in the playoffs.

We’ve got championship fever, baby. 

What a wonderful time it is for any diehard sports fan to be alive in Denver. 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and much like the weather around here, our local pro football, basketball and hockey teams are on an unprecedented heater.

Broncos quarterback Bo Nix, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar are the gifts that keep on giving.

Get this: Since Halloween, the combined record of the Broncos, Nuggets and Avs is 40-6-3.

That’s not a misprint.

It only seems too good to be true.

“It’s super dope to see all three of us having success at the same time,” Sutton said.

The Mile High smiles are too legit to quit.

How loud and proud is the No. 1 sports city in America?

Well, Sutton put it more eloquently than I ever could.

“I know people around the country,” Sutton said, “see the state of Colorado bumping right now.”