It turns out Russell Wilson wasn't the only reason Broncos were bad last season

After the Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50, a mass exodus of veteran leadership deteriorated the team's winning culture. Since then, the Broncos on-field product has been difficult to watch.

Even after taking a giant swing with quarterback Russell Wilson, Denver was unable to find their footing. The Broncos finished the 2022 season with a 5-12 record, their third season with five or fewer wins since 2017. Although they improved to an 8-9 record In 2023, it still marked their seventh consecutive season with a losing record.

Quarterback Russell Wilson was held accountable for Denver's woes in the past two seasons, and while he certainly deserves a fair share of the criticism, many of the Broncos' struggles were beyond his control.

Following a disastrous 2022 campaign with former head coach Nathaniel Hackett, the team was in dire straits. The Broncos brought in Sean Payton to remedy the team, but a complete coaching overhaul set the team back.

In 2022, the Broncos fielded one of the top defensive units in the league under defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero. When Evero joined the Carolina Panthers in 2023, Payton hired Vance Joseph as the team's new defensive coordinator.

Broncos defense is determined to learn from their humiliation in 2023

Joseph attempted to ease the Broncos defense into his schematic change, but it resulted in one of the worst starts to a season for a defense in NFL history.

“We [as players] were trying to do one thing and [coaches] were trying to help us, and nothing meshed,” Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton told The Athletic. “That’s what happened to us the first five weeks.”

The Broncos produced the worst-ever DVOA through five weeks. The poor start was on full display in Week 3, when the Miami Dolphins scored 70 points on the hapless Broncos defense. Denver allowed 938 rushing yards during that five-game stretch, the highest rushing total allowed by a team through five games in more than two decades. With a 1-4 record to start the season, Denver's campaign was over before it even began.

The season served as a reminder on the importance of chemistry and cohesion. In the NFL, the talent gap between players is marginal and the margin for error is even slimmer. Often times, the difference between winning and losing comes down to the unnoticeable intricacies and details.

The Broncos finished the 2023 season with a 7-5 record, which gives them some optimism to build on as they prepare for the 2024 campaign. For defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, last year's failures serve as a reminder on the importance of chemistry and cohesion.

“I would say, in your second year with the same scheme, that’s going to happen naturally,” Joseph said earlier this month. “It’s going to be easier for the players to grasp the system. We expect to play better early and that’s the bottom line.”

Offensive and defensive units must move in unison, with timing and rhythm. Like synchronized swimmers, all 11 players must work in harmony for the team’s success. That level of chemistry takes something that the NFL is often unwilling to give: time. Far too often, coaches and players are given a short leash to produce results. Year after year, NFL teams deal with heavy turnover at every level of their organization, from front office executives to practice squad players.

After three different head coaches, offensive coordinators, and defensive coordinators in the past three years, the Broncos will have some cohesion this season. Although there are new assistant coaches and players across the roster, the return of Payton, Joseph, and offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi will give the Broncos some familiarity and cohesion as they attempt to climb back into playoff contention.