The Broncos are the reason my last season ended, so let me be honest about it. January 17, 2026, the divisional round, my Bills in Denver, and the Broncos won it 33-30 in overtime. That game cost my coach his job and sent me into another long offseason. It was also Denver’s first playoff win in a decade, the night a proud January franchise woke back up. I hated it. I also understood it.

A team built on big January moments

Few franchises have a richer postseason book. John Elway authored The Drive in January 1987, ninety-eight yards to break Cleveland’s heart, and later closed his career with back-to-back titles. Peyton Manning rode a historic defense to a Super Bowl win to end the 2015 season. Denver in January, for most of its history, has meant a team that shows up when it matters.

The drought and the return

After that 2015 title came the wilderness, years on the outside, a playoff-win drought that stretched on. They nudged back into January, lost a wild card, and then this past season earned the top seed, took their bye, and beat my Bills in overtime for that first win in ten years. They lost the AFC Championship to New England in the snow a week later, but the franchise is a January team again.

A storied postseason history, a long quiet, and a return that came at my expense. Broncos fans, you picked the worst possible team to end your drought against, as far as I am concerned. But your January pedigree is real, and that overtime win announced you were back. I will be rooting for the rematch to go the other way.