ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- When Aqib Talib looks at the current version of the Denver Broncos, he sees a reflection of his football past.
"They're us," the former Pro Bowl cornerback said when comparing the current Broncos to the franchise's Super Bowl 50 championship team. "They all love ball, talk to each other, hold each other to it. It's clear as day when you see it."
Talib is not the only player from the Broncos' most recent Super Bowl-winning team to see history potentially repeating itself. Dallas Cowboys edge rusher Von Miller -- who was the MVP of the Broncos' Super Bowl win over the Carolina Panthers at the end of the 2015 season -- feels a similar vibe with the 2026 Broncos.
"Oh yeah, I see it," Miller said earlier this summer. "They do it the way we did it. ... You can tell they keep it straight with each other."
This is turn-back-the-clock stuff for Talib, Miller and those who lived it in 2015. They see similarities between how their championship team was set up and how the current Broncos, who were 14-3 last season and went to the AFC Championship Game, function. The two teams share parallels on and off the field, including institutional support, reliance on an elite-level defense and a penchant for thriving in close games. And these Broncos now hope that the culture created from this formula gets them a Super Bowl win, just like the 2015 team. Denver begins its quest for its fourth title when it plays at the Kansas City Chiefs on "Monday Night Football" (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC).
"Real winning is in what you might not even see until it's right," Talib said. "It's that attitude, that giving and sharing. You give everything you have, and you don't ever lower that bar on anything, and you hold each other to it every day. And you get guys who can take that accountability. They have it, we had it."
When Broncos coach Sean Payton is asked a question about winning, his responses start with words like program, grit and culture. He believes this roster has those things, which is why 45 of the players who were on the 53-man roster for last season's opener still remain with the franchise.
That rate of retention is almost unheard of in the NFL and is risky in its own way. But Payton believed this group was good enough to be in the Super Bowl hunt last season because of how it was assembled -- and believes it is good enough again.
"Culture is one of those things, we all talk about it, it's like a go-to word sometimes, but to really have it ... it's rare I think," Broncos defensive tackle Zach Allen said. "Some places just say they have it and it's really nowhere to be found. ... If you need to be pushed, or reminded to work, or, like be told to get to work, you're not going to be around here."
'Finding the right people'
Payton has often said that the number of NFL teams that can actually win a Super Bowl is fewer than most think because "a lot of them have trouble getting out of their own way."
When Payton, who coached the New Orleans Saints from 2006 to 2021, looked to return to coaching in 2023, he searched for franchises that had a "triangle" for success. That involves ownership that provides and understands the resources and infrastructure it takes to win; a personnel department capable of finding the right players; and a coaching staff with the game-day chops and developmental skills to make the most of that talent. And all three of those sides of the triangle must be connected, with a clear vision.
"It's still finding the right people, ownership like we have in Greg and Carrie [Penner] and our group, like [general manager] George [Paton] and our relationship," Payton said. "... So when you get that triangle, and you get the ownership triangle ... you have a chance to then do the right things, a chance to acquire the right people."
Gary Kubiak, who coached the Super Bowl 50 winner and spent more than two decades with the Broncos as a player, assistant coach and head coach, had a similar mindset to Payton. He described the 2015 dynamic, when he and then-executive vice president of football operations John Elway worked together to form the roster, as a "talent puzzle."
They agreed that not all players will fit together, no matter their talent level, if there is not a clear mission about which players are acquired and retained. Talib calls it the process of finding players with "good ego" and avoiding those with "bad ego."
"Good ego is you know what you can do ... and we hold up each other to the standard, don't pull down, pull up, no grudges, just real talk," he said. "But you get bad ego, and talent don't mean s---."
Many players on both 2015 and 2026 versions of the Broncos say it's that mix that separates them. That the character and accountability have to hold up under stress and the inevitable tests of a season.
Kubiak said the current Broncos show the mission he saw in the 2015 team.
"It's always about the players,'' Kubiak said. "But the 53 most talented guys just put into the meeting room probably won't win if they don't go together. They have to demand of each other to prepare right, demand of each other to be smart, if that's something you're getting from your group, not coaches, the group, that's special."
Payton calls it the "debrief," when the game that has just been played is put through the grinder. He has often said the debrief might be more important than the game itself. No matter the result, Broncos players know what's coming.
"Honest talk," Broncos cornerback Jahdae Barron said. "Look at it, assess it, fix it. And that's everybody."
Talib, Chris Harris Jr. and T.J. Ward -- members of the 2015 secondary -- said weekly players-only film sessions by the defensive backs were a constant exercise in accountability 11 years back.
"All those cliches and s---, it's true; you don't have that 'everyone is accountable' mentality, you ain't going to get the ultimate prize," Kubiak said. "You've got to have it from the top down in the building, at every locker in your locker room."
'Just play badass defense'
The 2015 Broncos had one of the best defensive postseason runs in the Super Bowl era. Denver's defense surrendered only one total touchdown pass in three playoff games combined against Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady and Cam Newton, that season's MVP. The Broncos had 14 sacks and 32 quarterback hits in the playoffs, and Miller capped off that run as the ninth (and most recent) defensive player to be named Super Bowl MVP.
It was the continuation of a regular season in which the Broncos led the league in defensive EPA (by a whopping 17 points), sacks, total defense and pass defense. Denver was also No. 4 in scoring defense. The rugged, make-things-happen group allowed the 2015 team to stay afloat despite injuries and inconsistency from quarterback Peyton Manning. Manning missed seven games with a foot injury and completed a league-low 59.8% of his passes with 17 interceptions (second most in the NFL).
"We just felt, and I think as a coach you take it with you into every game, that our defense was going to keep us in it," Kubiak said. "... Even after Peyton was injured and Brock [Osweiler] was playing, we could put things together week-to-week knowing we could play tight games ... and feel good about winning them."
The current Broncos have also been led by their defense. Denver's defense led the league in sacks in each of the past two years, setting franchise records in each of those seasons. Edge rusher Nik Bonitto has turned into an All-Pro (14 sacks in 2025), finishing second to Micah Parsons last season in pressure rate among rushers with at least 300 rush attempts. Allen led all players in quarterback hits a year ago, while All-Pro cornerback Pat Surtain II (the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year) leads a deep and schematically flexible secondary.
Over the past two seasons combined, the Broncos have allowed the fewest points per game in the NFL (18.3) and have given up the lowest QBR (49.5). They have also led the league in sacks per dropback (9.4%), defensive EPA and red zone defense (opponents scored TDs on only 44.8% of drives).
"We want more, we want to get stops, we want to get the ball back for our offense, we want to keep people out of the end zone," Bonitto said. "And we all should feel like we can be better than last year just like we thought we could be better last year than we were the year before."
The Broncos finished 12th in takeaways last season, one area where they want to see improvement, but not at the expense of what defensive coordinator Vance Joseph calls "good defense." He has said that tackles need to be made with the intent to knock the ball out and interceptions need to be caught, but those aspects are not as important as third-down defense "or stopping the run or playing tough in the red zone." Better ball luck would help, too.
"I know I dropped enough that if I just catch the ones I had, the numbers look different," Broncos All-Pro safety Talanoa Hufanga said.
Count Talib as someone who is convinced the Broncos still have the defensive profile to win a Lombardi Trophy.
"[Joseph] has been cooking," Talib said. "Cooking like [former Broncos defensive coordinator Wade Phillips] was cooking with us. But VJ's matching up zones, great blitzes. VJ sees the field, he sees the game.
"It's what you need, just play badass defense. We did, they do. That gives you that edge, you put a defense with [third-year quarterback] Bo [Nix], that's everything."
'Be hard to kill'
Allen cites performance in a game's biggest moments as one of the prime indicators of a team's culture. Both the 2015 and 2025 Broncos flourished in late-game situations, with the 2015 squad going 9-3 in one-score games and last year's unit setting an NFL record with 11 one-score wins.
While close-game success can be fleeting year to year, Payton has often said the "right choices in talent acquisition" can make that performance more consistent, that confidence and belief in these moments come from "demonstrated ability."
Several 2015 Broncos players and coaches say their championship run got a nudge in Week 2 that season. In the closing seconds of regulation in Arrowhead Stadium, the Broncos were tied 24-24 with the Chiefs, who seemed content to get to overtime. But Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall knocked the ball out of Kansas City running back Jamaal Charles' hands, and cornerback Bradley Roby scooped up the fumble and returned it for the winning touchdown with 27 seconds left.
"After that, we had a bunch of games, we made plays right at the end," Miller said. "Last seconds, a touchdown on offense, field goal, forced fumble, a sack on defense. We just felt like it would happen and it did."
The Broncos had five more wins that season in the final two minutes or in overtime, highlighted by a 48-yard touchdown run by running back C.J. Anderson in an OT win over the Patriots that ultimately decided home-field advantage in the AFC. It's a skill the current Broncos demonstrated last season and believe they have the mindset to repeat, especially as Nix has quickly become one of the NFL's preeminent "tight game" artists.
Since the start of the 2024 season, Nix is tied for the league lead with eight fourth-quarter comebacks, with five coming last season. He also led the Broncos to the winning overtime drive in the divisional round against the Buffalo Bills. And every Nix game-winning drive inspires the defense to keep games in range that much more.
"It's more about knowing, in those situations, you're going to do the right things to give you the chance,'' Allen said. "Being in the huddle knowing you've done it before and that you have the guys to do it again because everyone looking back at you wants to win more than anything else."
Denver will try to play fewer tense games while jump-starting an offense which finished tied for 13th in scoring last season and 14th in offensive EPA with two significant offseason moves. The Broncos traded for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, and Payton relinquished primary playcalling duties to newly promoted offensive coordinator Davis Webb.
But when the stakes are high, the Broncos are confident they'll prevail. Or, as cornerback Riley Moss phrases it, they'll "just be hard to kill.''
That mindset helped the 2015 Broncos win the franchise's third Super Bowl. And Talib hopes that these Broncos can turn all that accountability, talent and big-moment success into their own Super Bowl rings.
"Of course we all want success, but you can't gatekeep s---, don't gatekeep information, don't keep secrets," Talib said. "We kept it right with each other, everybody's success is the real success.
"They play good ball, so you know they have the people who keep it right."
