Carrie Walton-Penner signs her roof. Jerry Jones lights his on fire.
Sometimes, all it takes to realize just how good you’ve got it is to peek over the fence.
The taller kids on the Grading The Week (GTW) team stood on each other’s shoulders recently to get a glimpse of the rest of the NFL landscape. It’s ugly out there.
Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, who’s screwed up every quarterback decision he’s ever touched, is somehow already pre-emptively throwing his GM under the bus over Shedeur Sanders.
Wideout Terry McLaurin, a Pro Bowl target, just demanded a trade out of Washington.
Edge-rusher Micah Parsons, another Pro Bowler, just demanded a trade out of Dallas.
In a preseason that’s started off with bonkers, rancorous NFL headlines already, the Broncos just had a week in which they:
• Signed their WR1, Courtland Sutton, to a four-year, $92-million extension.
• Signed their best defensive end, Zach Allen, to a four-year, $102-million extension.
• Got a roof placed onto their new training complex in Dove Valley, complete with a “topping out” ceremony.
Remember when the Broncos were a league punchline? When Al Michaels called an entire Thursday Night Football game at Empower Field as if it were a community service sentence?
Remember Lock vs. Teddy? Russell Wilson’s video drops? Counting down the play clock?
No? It wasn’t that long ago.
But it feels like ages now.
Broncos culture — A
Whether it’s a building or a culture, franchise leadership trickles down — for better or for worse.
Between Peyton Manning’s retirement and the Walton-Penner group buying the team, the Broncos were a rudderless ship, drifting from coach to coach, QB1 to QB1. Training camps veered between carefully manufactured dramas and Hail Marys being thrown against the nearest wall to see what stuck.
When shoving all the chips to the corner of Plan A didn’t work, another set of chips would somehow get procured to push at Plan B. And so on, and so on down through the alphabet.
No more. Everything on the football sides feels measured and accountable, notable by the calm and steady hand of adults in the room.
What changed? Like all good makeovers, this one will be marked in Mile High history by stages:
• 2024: Bo Nix is drafted
• 2023: Sean Payton is hired
• 2022: The Walton-Penner group buys the Broncos
And that last one can’t be overstated. Good companies look out for their own, especially their own achievers.
While Jones was reportedly playing games with Parsons, his best defender, the Broncos owners over the last 13 months have given out new contracts to:
• Pat Surtain II, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year
• Jonathan Cooper
• Garett Bolles
• Quinn Meinerz
• Sutton
• Allen
A belated Team GTW toast to Greg Penner and Carrie Walton-Penner. To Sean Payton. To George Paton. To accountability. To culture.
Because, just like a solid roof, security and sanity start at the top.
Linebacker injuries — D
NONONONONONONONONONOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
Although …
Levelle Bailey! — A
When the football gods close off a thumb (Alex Singleton’s, in this case), sometimes, they throw open a window. Enter Bailey, an undrafted free agent from the class of ’24 with a leaner, meaner frame than a year ago.
“He’s had a few good days,” Payton said of Bailey. “Real good days. I think you’re getting a player into his second year with confidence. He’s in good shape. He looks like an NFL linebacker, too.”
Bailey played 147 snaps on special teams last fall over 10 appearances, with just five snaps on defense. With Singleton and Dre Greenlaw still sore, Bailey’s about to be playing for a job somewhere in this league this month, even if it’s not here.
Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.
