When 2023 arrived, the Broncos were a mess. They had just gotten over the disastrous coaching run of Nathaniel Hackett, who didn’t last a full season. Russell Wilson, not long after being signed to a five-year, $245 million contract extension, didn’t look to be the answer at quarterback.

Then Sean Payton arrived.

Payton, on Feb. 3, 2023, was hired as Denver’s head coach. And since then, the Broncos’ quick ascension has caught the NFL by storm.

Following a 5-12 season in 2022, which included Hackett being fired after a 4-11 start and interim coach Jerry Rosburg taking over, the Broncos went 8-9 in 2023. Then they went 10-7 in 2024, marking their first winning season since 2016 and their first playoff appearance since winning Super Bowl 50 in the 2015 season.

Now, the Broncos are coming off a 14-3 regular season, got a first-round playoff bye as the AFC’s No. 1 seed and will face No. 6 Buffalo on Saturday in the divisional round at Empower Field at Mile High. It will be their first home playoff game in 10 years.

“It’s been incredible,’’ Hall of Fame quarterback and NFL Network analyst Kurt Warner said of the turnaround.

Warner had envisioned that Payton, who led New Orleans to a Super Bowl win in the 2009 season, would be able to turn the Broncos around but admits being “surprised” at how quickly it has occurred. He pointed to the change of quarterbacks from Wilson to Bo Nix as a key reason Denver’s ascension happened so fast.

After an ugly 2022 season in which Wilson had a career-low passer rating of 84.4, he was at least a lot better in 2023, having a rating of 98.0. But Payton made the decision that he wasn’t his quarterback of the future.

The Broncos released Wilson, then 35, in March 2024, taking an $85 million salary-cap hit that was spread over two seasons. They then selected Nix with the No. 12 pick in the draft in April 2024, and he has started all 34 games for them since.

“It kind of starts with the decision to move off a quarterback that has a big price tag that didn’t fit with what (Payton) was trying to do and a guy that he didn’t see as a franchise guy at that state of his career,’’ said Warner, who played in the NFL from 1998-2009 and won Super Bowl XXXIV with the St. Louis Rams in the 1999 season.

“And to be able to come in with that kind of leadership and with that kind of vision to make that decision, I think that was the first step in kind of show who he is as a coach (with Denver). And then to find the next guy (in Nix) and be able to put the pieces around a very young quarterback.”

The Broncos’ defense also has been pivotal in the turnaround. After being ranked No. 27 in total defense in 2023 under first-year defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, they have risen to No. 7 in 2024 and No. 2 in 2025.

“It was like a process to everything,’’ outside linebacker Nik Bonitto, who arrived in 2022 and had a team-high 14 sacks in 2025, said about the Broncos’ ascension. “We kind of went about the process the right way, whether it’s (Payton) trying to find the right people in the building, whether it’s players, coaches, people upstairs, and just continuing to build off that.”

On both offense and defense, the Broncos under Payton have been helped by some notable holdover players while also bringing in talent that fits the coach’s system. Of Denver’s four players named first-team All-Pro in 2025, three were inherited by Payton in tackle Garett Bolles, guard Quinn Meinerz and safety/special teams ace Devon Key, and defensive lineman Zach Allen arrived as a free agent in 2023. Of the two players on the All-Pro second team, cornerback Pat Surtain II was inherited while safety Talanoa Hufanga was signed as a free agent in 2025.

Of Denver’s 22 primary starters in 2025, nine were inherited by Payton and 13 have arrived since 2023. Among the key additions have been Nix, wide receivers Marvin Mims Jr. and Troy Franklin and cornerback Riley Moss through the draft and Allen, Hufanga, tackle Mike McGinchey, guard Ben Powers, tight end Evan Engram, safety Brandon Jones and running back J.K. Dobbins in free agency. Jones and Dobbins are now on injured reserve.

“If you’re getting hired by somebody, it’s probably because there are some challenges, you know?” Payton said when asked about the quick turnaround of the team. “That’s not the perfect job where you walk into. It’s still finding the right people, like (general manager) George (Paton) and our relationship. I can’t say enough about just working with him.”

Paton has been with the Broncos since 2021. Although he has received criticism for the hiring of Hackett and the 2022 acquisition of Wilson from Seattle and ensuing contract extension, Paton has been pivotal with Denver’s signing of free agents and with the draft.

The Broncos have been under the Walton-Penner ownership group since August 2022. While the first season was rocky, ownership got the turnaround started with the hiring of Payton.

Could Payton, though, have envisioned Denver’s ascension coming so quickly?

“You just focus on the work to be done, and you’re not envisioning what the timeline is,’’ Payton said. “You’re just envisioning each day there’s a sense of urgency to your roster,  your draft, finding those pieces.”

Payton, 62, compared taking over the Broncos to what it was like when he was hired by the Saints in 2006 for his first head coaching job. That turnaround was extremely fast with the Saints, a year after they had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina and went 3-13, making the NFC Championship Game in Payton’s first season. Payton was with New Orleans through 2021, going 152-89 in 15 seasons before taking a year off and returning to the NFL with Denver.

After joining the Broncos, Payton said he has pushed aside any excuses.

“Were not talking about the cap money or the dead hit (on Wilson),’’ Payton said. “There are a ton of built-in excuses that if you (can’t) allow yourself to (have).”

Broncos players claim to not be surprised at how quickly the turnaround has occurred.

“You’ve got a coach of this magnitude, he’s a Hall of Fame coach,’’ said cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian, who joined the Broncos in 2022. “He knows what this looks like to win and it’s just them bringing in the right guys. Sign a few players, draft and just build a team of great guys. Not just on the field, but off the field. And this team, we love each other, we work hard together and we’ve got one common goal (to win the Super Bowl).”

McGlinchey joined the Broncos on the first day of free agency in 2023 following five seasons with San Francisco, which included going to a Super Bowl.

“It’s all about the trust in the program,’’ McGlinchey said of Denver’s rapid ascension. “Trust in the coach. Trust in how we’ve been developed and how we go to work every day. It’s just a byproduct of every day choosing to be better.”

With Payton having compared building up the Broncos to what he did in New Orleans, former NFL star quarterback and longtime analyst Joe Theismann also sees similarities. Theismann has long known Payton, and the coach invited him to speak to Saints players before the 2006 season.

“I feel like to be successful in sports, you need to be mentally tough, and that’s what the Denver Broncos are,’’ said Theismann, who played for Washington from 1974-85 and won a Super Bowl in the 1982 season. “They’re a mentally tough football team.”

Theismann said that was evident during the regular season when the Broncos went 11-2 in one-score games and had five fourth-quarter comeback wins. But Theismann admits he didn’t see Denver going 14-3.

“For somebody to win 14 games in this league, it’s a surprise as it is,’’ he said. “But if anybody could do it, (Payton) certainly could and did.”

Payton is now seeking to become the first coach in NFL history to win a Super Bowl with two different franchises. Warner believes he can.

“I think (the Broncos have) as good of a chance in the AFC as anybody (to get to the Super Bowl),’’ Warner said. “I think the AFC is wide open. … Things bode well for them playing at home with that defense to get to the Super Bowl… Then I think they’ve got a great shot.”

Warner can relate to what Payton is trying to do. He almost in the 2008 season became the first starting quarterback to win Super Bowls with two different franchises before Arizona lost 27-23 in the waning seconds to Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XLIII. Tom Brady 12 years later, earned that distinction when he won Super Bowl LV with Tampa Bay after having earned six rings with New England.