How the Chiefs’ Super Bowl humiliation shows the Broncos are closer than you might think

NEW ORLEANS — Super Bowl LIX was never close.

But if you were watching with a Denver Broncos jersey nearby and orange and blue in your heart, it showed that your beloved team actually is closing on the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Philadelphia Eagles’ 40-22 destruction of the Chiefs was mostly defined by its defense, to be certain. Former Broncos head coach Vic Fangio — who Sean Payton wanted to be his defensive coordinator two years ago upon taking the Broncos’ reins — delivered a masterclass.

Fangio’s defense didn’t allow Kansas City to cross midfield for the first two-thirds of the game. By the time the forlorn Chiefs finally ran a play in Philadelphia territory, they trailed 34-0 and all that was left was the opportunity for garbage-time stat padding, posting meaningless late-game yardage and points of which Blake Bortles would be proud.

My goodness the Eagles are just dominating 😱

📺: #SuperBowlLIX on FOX pic.twitter.com/VtTMhNRZo3

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) February 10, 2025

For the portion of the game that mattered, Fangio’s defense corralled the Chiefs.

But containing the Chiefs is something the Broncos have done in recent years, too.

Vance Joseph wasn’t Payton’s first choice to guide Denver’s defense, but he has proven to be an apt one, guiding the Broncos from the ashes of a series of disasters in his first regular-season month on the job in September 2023 to neutralizing Patrick Mahomes and Co. just two games into the following month.

That performance in a 19-8 loss at Arrowhead Stadium in Week 6 of the 2023 season might not have seemed like much at the time, but through the prism of retrospection, it looms larger than ever. Kansas City scored just one touchdown, and even as the Broncos offense gasped and wheezed through much of the contest, Joseph’s defense limited the Chiefs to the point where a single touchdown drive got the Broncos back within one score in the fourth quarter.

Seventeen days later, Joseph’s defense dismantled the Chiefs in the Broncos’ first win over Kansas City in eight years.

Kansas City has just two touchdowns and an average of 14.7 points per game against the Broncos in the last three games in which the team used its regular lineup. (We’re not counting the game against the backups for obvious reasons.)

But what the Broncos have lacked is enough skill players to finish the job in the manner that the Eagles did. This offseason offers the chance to find them.

That, however, is not all to why the Broncos awake Monday with fresh hope of toppling the colossus in their midst.

A SUPER BOWL LOSS CAN LEAVE YOU WEAKENED

It was one game, yes. And one would be naive to expect the Chiefs to tumble to the ranks of the NFL’s also-rans.

In one of his national-media appearances during Super Bowl week, Payton noted that he “probably” wanted the Chiefs to win, telling Barstool Sports that it would create another offseason “where everyone wants pay raises [and] distractions.”

But the truth of the matter is that this loss is the best thing that could have happened to the Broncos.

It might have opened the door for them.

The Chiefs’ last Super Bowl defeat — another humbling blowout loss — did knock them off-track for a little while. It forced a course correction that helped eventually lead to a pair of consecutive Lombardi Trophies, as the Chiefs doubled down on fortifying their offensive line in the wake of losing Super Bowl LV at Tampa Bay.

But the year after that 31-9 defeat to the Buccaneers was the only season of the last six in which the Chiefs failed to make the Super Bowl.

Just one of the last 31 Super Bowl losers — starting with when Buffalo’s four-year run atop the AFC finally ended — returned to the big game the following season. On average, those 30 teams saw their average win total drop by 3.1 games. Two-thirds of them saw their win tally drop by at least two games; half dropped by three or more.

Super Bowl failure is more difficult to handle than success, perhaps in part because the arduous, tedious journey of a season to the final game is fruitless.

It’s easier to marshal one’s energy for a compressed offseason when you can open a box from a high-end jeweler and see a five-figure physical manifestation of the journey’s success.

The last time the Chiefs lost a Super Bowl, they fell from 14-2 to 12-5.

Further, this is a team that has played 81 games in the four seasons since the NFL expanded its regular-season slate to 17 games. At some point, the accumulation of age, roster poaching due to salary-cap constraints and the massive workload exacts a toll.

The Chiefs might be at that point.

And if they are, the Broncos need to be prepared to strike. To add the weapons that can allow the offense to do what Philadelphia successfully did in Super Bowl LIX: to pounce and strike in a way the Broncos have not.

This is surely part of the reason why Payton put “joker” at running back and/or tight end on his “must-have” list earlier this week. He knows what can close the game. He knows what can take Bo Nix to the level to where he — like Jalen Hurts on Sunday — can distribute the ball and have playmakers all around.

Denver is on its way. Courtland Sutton and Marvin Mims Jr. qualify. And among a group of young receivers, at least one should emerge with more experience and opportunity.

But the draft is rich with playmakers who can help. This could be a class like Payton’s 2017 group in New Orleans, which microwaved the Saints from three-straight 7-9 years to four-straight NFC South titles.

These Broncos are operating from a higher floor, having just gone 10-7.

Some pundits see the Broncos as two years away.

Sunday night, they looked closer.