LANDOVER, Md. — Sean Payton implored a look back at history.
Take any Super Bowl team, he said in the wee hours of Monday morning, and look through their schedule.
“The journey of a good team’s season involves games like this,” Payton said.
Games like this. Games like the Broncos’ wild, 27-26, skin-of-their-teeth overtime win against Washington.
His Super Bowl champion New Orleans team in 2009 had their share. The 2015 Broncos did, too.
There aren’t many cakewalks in the NFL. This certainly wasn’t one for Denver.
But Payton’s team has won nine straight, is 10-2 and polished off a perfect November literally as the calendar turned to December.
At 11:59 p.m. EST on Nov. 30, the Broncos were 2 yards from losing for the first time since Sept. 21.
By 12:01 a.m. Dec. 1, they’d run their unbeaten streak into a third month.
Here are seven thoughts after yet another wild finish.
1. The Broncos’ biggest offensive play of the night unlocked Evan Engram and showed off a budding chemistry between the tight end and quarterback Bo Nix.
Perhaps no play mattered more for Denver’s offense Sunday night against Washington than a 41-yard catch-and-run connection from quarterback Bo Nix to tight end Evan Engram early in overtime.
It followed back-to-back 12-yard Nix completions to running back RJ Harvey and tight end Adam Trautman and put the Broncos all the way down to the Commanders’ 11-yard line.
In a sometimes sloppy tilt-a-whirl of a game, though, this particular play was anything but happenstance.
In fact, it arrived for the Broncos at the game’s critical moment in overtime because of Engram’s study during the week and Nix’s quick thinking on the fly.
As a reporter asked Nix — still in full pads in the Broncos’ postgame locker room— about the sequence, a smile creased his face.
This one had a story behind it.
Here’s how it happened.
Engram over the course of the week studies his own routes carefully and also how the defenders he’s likely to match up against tend to play certain looks, coverages and matchups.
“All week, he does a great job of film study,” Nix told The Post. “He’s very experienced, very developed as a player, obviously. That’s why he’s played so good in this league for a while.
“We talk about different routes and how we could set up routes.”
Engram thought he could get Washington inside linebacker Bobby Wagner to overcommit in the middle of the field.
“We knew Bobby was going to be in that position,” Nix said.
Engram and Nix formulated a plan for how they wanted to set up a potential big play in the middle of the field with a sequence of plays.
The first came during Denver’s two-minute drill drive for a touchdown late in the first half.
On first-and-10 from the Commanders’ 26, Engram pressed up the field and then ran a whip route against Wagner, where he faked like he was going to cut inside and then returned to the outside. Wagner bit on the fake but recovered in time to tackle Engram for an 8-yard gain.
An effective play, but certainly not a highlight reel entry.
Except Nix and Engram knew they were on to something. They had a quick chat on the sideline to make sure they were on the same page about what came next.
“He got Bobby to open up and then have to reverse back out,” Nix said. “So we knew that if we got the opportunity to check to this play, he was going to set it up like he did. Sure enough. I knew it, we were thinking the same thing. …
“We got (the first one) done and as soon as you show him the first pitch, you’re able to run a counter off it. We just got to the sideline, we were like, ‘hey, the next time we get that look, we’re getting to it.’”
In overtime, the Broncos were dialed up the pace after a 12-yard completion to Trautman.
Nix hurried the offense back to the line without a huddle and surveyed the defense.
In these types of situations, the Broncos have several plays on the menu. Nix stepped toward the line of scrimmage and put his hands in an “O” shape and called the play.
Engram sensed opportunity.
“That was one that I was waiting on, for sure,” Engram told The Post. … “We got the coverage that we wanted where we got to isolate a linebacker and that’s one of those plays that, when you get that matchup, you want to take advantage of it.
“Bo did a good job of seeing the coverage and getting to that play and we just went and executed it.”
Evan Engram goes for 41 yards! #ProBowlVote |
: @SNFonNBC pic.twitter.com/W9z0gAZxjQ
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) December 1, 2025
Engram again pressed up the field against Wagner and made the route look as similar as possible. He leaned inside, took a full stride like he was again whipping toward the sideline, but then darted back to the middle of the field on a jerk route.
Wagner, careful to not make the same mistake he did the first time when he overcommitted to the middle, was stuck too far outside. Nix stood calmly in the pocket, knowing Engram needed a beat to set up the route and execute it.
When Engram came free to the middle, Nix put an accurate throw on him and he exploded up the gut of the Commanders’ defense for 41 yards.
“The jerk route he ran was outstanding,” Payton said.
Two plays later, the Broncos took the lead, 27-20, on a 5-yard Harvey plunge.
“That was, honestly, when you look at it, probably our biggest play of the game,” Nix said of the connection with Engram. “It got Evan looking like Evan and went down — once we got down there we just had to punch it in and we did that.”
This is what it looks like for a quarterback and his receivers to start to develop real chemistry. To be able to understand matchups and planning at a high level and then to get to those looks on the fly in pressure situations.
This is what maturation at the quarterback position looks like. These are the kinds of adjustments that can be the difference between winning and losing.
“That’s when you see the film study come to fruition and go from the film room to the field,” Nix said, “and that’s when you feel like you’re playing at a good level. You don’t want to just do that work for no reason, so when you see that happen, you feel good about all your work.”
Engram led the team in catches (six), targets (nine) and yards with a season-high 79. All but one catch and six yards came on the Broncos’ three touchdown drives. He had three catches for 28 on a second-quarter scoring march, one for 4 on a third-quarter drive and then the 41-yarder in overtime.
“It definitely feels sweet to contribute to the win,” said Engram, who now has 38 catches for 339 yards on the season.
2. The Broncos are tied for the best record in the NFL with New England at 10-2. In the NFC, Chicago currently sits in the No. 1 spot at 9-3.
What does that trio have in common?
They’re all led by quarterbacks from the 2024 class, which is already shaping up to be a tremendous one.
The Bears took Caleb Williams No. 1 overall. Washington took Jayden Daniels No. 2 and he promptly led the Commanders to the NFC title game a year ago. Then New England took Drake Maye at No. 3 before the Broncos ultimately took Nix at No. 12.
The Commanders have had a horrible 2025 and Daniels has missed extended time due to injury — including Sunday night’s loss to Denver because of a dislocated left elbow.
Williams and Maye each are working with first-year head coaches that have dramatically changed not only the trajectory of each quarterback but also the culture and stability in each of their locker rooms.
Nix had that from the start in Payton and the Broncos won 10 games in his rookie year, but now they’re the heavy favorites to end Kansas City’s nine-year stranglehold on the AFC West and running even with the Patriots for the No. 1 overall seed in the conference.
The trio’s done it in different ways this year. Maye is an MVP candidate and is playing terrific, beautiful offensive football.
Entering Week 13, nobody in football had a better completion percentage than his 71.6% and he was running second in quarterback rating (110.7), behind only Matthew Stafford, the likely MVP frontrunner for the Los Angeles Rams.
Williams and Nix, meanwhile, have had somewhat similar second seasons. They each have their struggles but they’ve also engineered win after win after win and have each showed they can operate in the clutch.
“(Nix) plays confident. He doesn’t get rattled,” Engram said. “He definitely gets pissed off on bad throws, but he’s really growing into himself and he’s becoming a really good leader.
“And the kid just keeps making plays. Backs against the wall, he just continues to step up and make plays.”
The Commanders have already nearly made a Super Bowl, while Denver, New England and Chicago are chart-toppers through 13 weeks this year.
All of these teams — along with Atlanta and Minnesota, who took quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and J.J. McCarthy at Nos. 8 and 10 overall in the 2024 draft, respectively, are squarely in the rookie quarterback window.
The Broncos are still burning off the final $32 million of Russell Wilson’s cap hit this year, so their books are even cleaner in 2026.
For the Broncos and the others, though, this is the time to press the advantage. There are really two ways to be a real contender in the NFL: Have a true franchise-lifting quarterback in the Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow class or have a rookie who can play at a high level while he’s cheap enough to support a strong supporting cast.
So far this year, the latter reigns supreme.
Soon enough, we’ll find out if that holds through the postseason.
3. Nik Bonitto’s club-handed, game-winning knockdown came after what head coach Sean Payton refers to as a “Kodak” moment.
Terry McLaurin had just hauled in a touchdown to draw Washington within 27-26 in overtime. With 2:50 remaining, there was no way Commanders head coach Dan Quinn, sitting at 3-8 on the season, was going to opt for a game-tying extra point and put the ball back in Denver’s hands with a chance to win. The best he could have hoped for in that scenario was a tie and, really, it would have been asking to lose. A Denver field goal would have ended the game.
No surprise, then, that Quinn kept his offense on the field. Once the Commanders got to the line of scrimmage, Payton took a timeout.
“We call it a Kodak situation where you have a timeout and the game’s going to end,” Payton said, meaning the Broncos can get a picture of the offensive formation the Commanders set up. “So call the timeout, regroup, collect your thoughts. Vance did a great job changing a call up. And it was the right call.”
The Broncos had a pressure dialed up but during the timeout defensive coordinator Vance Joseph changed it.
“The challenge in those plays are designed QB runs, which we were concerned with,” Payton said. “And so some of your zone call, if you will, at the two-yard line — we went from one pressure to another.”
Washington came back out in a slightly different look, though it was likely just a mask. Before the timeout they were empty with trips to the left and then tight end Zach Ertz and running back Jeremy McNichols to the right.
After the timeout everybody was in the same spot except McNichols was out to the left with the three receivers. He motioned into the backfield, which likely is what would happened before the timeout, too, just from the other side of the formation.
At the snap, Washington’s receivers crashed inside to create as much traffic as possible and McNichols sprinted for the left flat.
He was wide open.
Except Broncos outside linebacker Nik Bonitto came free as a rusher off Mariota’s left, alertly got his hands up and knocked the ball down. He barely broke stride as he sprinted toward the Denver sideline, which was already erupting in celebration.
NIK BONITTO. GAME OVER. pic.twitter.com/wdilygDF1x
— NFL (@NFL) December 1, 2025
“(Mariota) kind of drifted back kind of far, too,” Bonitto said. “So I knew he was just buying time.”
Bonitto within moments of the game-winning play had his phone in hand in the locker room and posted on X, “I hate wearing a cast.”
I hate wearing a cast
— Nik Bonitto (@nikkkkbonitto) December 1, 2025
The implication, of course, is that if he wasn’t wearing it he’d have intercepted the pass and run it back for a touchdown just for an exclamation point on the win.
“Yeah, he might have scored,” fellow outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper allowed after the game with Bonitto nodding his head just to Cooper’s right.
A perhaps ironic wrinkle: Bonitto’s been wearing a brace or cast on his right wrist since Week 2, a walk-off loss against the Colts. When he saw the now infamous “leverage” penalty get called on the field, he slammed his fist into the Lucas Oil Field turf and injured his wrist. Now he’s got to wear the hardware for the rest of the season. So far, it’s working out just fine for him.
4. The Broncos, though, are on a wild run of wins in part because of those early season tribulations.
Bonitto and the rest of the Broncos couldn’t believe the manner in which they lost against the Colts and then again the next week at the Los Angeles Chargers. They didn’t trail a second in the fourth quarter of either game, but lost on walk-off field goals nonetheless.
Since then, they’ve done a 180 in late-game scenarios. On the current nine-game winning streak, seven victories have come by one score. They’ve won in walk-off settings four times in their past six games. They’ve won their past four games by three, three, three and one.
“We’ve got incredible belief no matter what,” Nix said. “We just feel like we’re going to figure out a way to win the game and make the next play. We’ve been playing some really good football teams and tonight was another.”
Payton’s seen this group grow and in the process become a group that figures it’s going to win on the margins rather than lose.
“Yeah and we began feeling it a long time ago,” he said. “But when you get on a streak — I mean, generally, when you have a good team, you win how many games in a row at some point. And when you win nine in a row and then convert that to baseball or basketball, you guys do the math. What would it be? It’s like 45 games. So, it’s a lot.
“And you do begin to believe it’s gonna happen. But there can’t be that false belief. There has to be that preparation and corrections so that next week is better.”
There are certainly things that Denver’s going to have to do better in order to win more close games down the stretch or in the postseason.
Payton said Washington caught them off guard to some degree with how they defended the run — the Broncos now have two pedestrian rushing efforts to their name since J.K. Dobbins’ foot injury — and the defense struggled to tackle early in the game.
“I thought it looked like we’d had a week off,” outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper said.
But belief is powerful and Denver’s certainly got it.
“You never know man,” Engram said. “This is the NFL and so many weird things can bounce around. But you just want to be prepared when your number is called and we have a lot of good guys in this locker room that prepare for the big moments and prepare for the game-altering plays.
“When your number is called, you’ve got to step up and execute.”
5. Nix had a particularly good thought on the notion that the Broncos might now have more pressure.
The quarterback was told after the game that each Denver team that started a season 10-2 has made the Super Bowl and asked whether that came with any added pressure going forward. Nix’s answer in full is instructive to how he views leadership, handling success, pressure and outside opinions.
“There’s no added pressure,” Nix said. “When we started this season — every season starts with a goal and our goal is to make a Super Bowl run. And not just make it. We wanna win the whole thing. The funny thing about stats is tomorrow you’re gonna wake up, and there’s gonna be a new stat. There’s gonna be something else that somebody else figured out. This happened or this stat. They’re just that.
“They’re just a stat. They have nothing to do with the football game. They can’t grow legs and go out there and score touchdowns for you.”
Nix continued on.
“For us, we’ve got to continue to figure out ways to put all the distractions, all the noise, everything aside and just continue to play as one team. We’re 10-2. We won 10 games last year and that was at the end of the season. We’re not at the end, so we’ve shown great improvement, but we definitely don’t want to stop here. This is not where we wanted to be. We didn’t want to be 10-2. We didn’t wanna get to December and be 10-2. That wasn’t our goal. Our goal was to make a deep playoff run and we’re clearly not there yet. We haven’t even had time to get there yet. So we’re going to continue to battle, continue to fight.
“We have a great mindset in the locker room. Guys are really fighting and battling for each other. We love one another. It’s really an honor to be a part of this team. I’ve played on a lot of close football teams but this is up there with the best of them.”
6. The Broncos really value Nate Adkins, but trying to avoid an IR stint with him on two different occasions this season has hampered roster flexibility and Denver’s lucky to have got away with it.
Adkins is a good player and he’s valuable because of his versatility. Payton made that much clear after the third-year tight end had “tightrope” surgery on his ankle in August and the coach said pointedly that Denver was not going to put him on injured reserve to start the season.
“He’s too good a player,” Payton said, for Denver to afford having him miss four games when he could be back sooner.
Adkins did indeed return for Week 3 and worked his way up into essentially his full workload over the next couple of weeks.
Then against Dallas he slammed his knee on the ground while making a diving attempt at a touchdown and injured it.
Again Denver didn’t put him on injured reserve, hoping he’d be back in time to play Sunday night against the Commanders. That strategy — to get five weeks of rest and only miss three games because of the bye week — worked for Pat Surtain II and his pectoral injury but didn’t work for Adkins. He didn’t practice at all last week and Payton said playing against Las Vegas on Sunday is a more realistic target than this past game would have been.
Had Denver known that when he first got hurt, of course, they’d have put him on IR. He ended up missing four games anyway.
And while the Broncos won all four games Adkins missed and navigated Sunday night with two healthy tight ends by using Engram and Trautman plus a heavier-than-normal dose of tackle Frank Crum as the jumbo TE, it didn’t have to be this way.
Had Adkins gone on injured reserve, Denver could have, for example, simply put Marcedes Lewis on the 53-man roster. Instead, he used his three practice squad elevations and the Broncos would have had to waive somebody to get him in a uniform for Sunday night.
Adkins has been on the roster but inactive due to injury six games this season. He’s only appeared in that many.
It ends up a bit like nitpicking since the Broncos are on such a role, but nonetheless, that’s a steep roster cost for a player who has only played more than 38.6% of offensive snaps once in a game this year.
7a. Here’s a couple of underrated stats to close out an Open All Night edition of 7 Thoughts.
Rookie running back RJ Harvey hasn’t had a huge statistical season, but he’s done one thing really well: Find the end zone. Harvey had a three-touchdown game earlier in the season against Dallas and then he punched in two more rushing touchdowns Sunday night at Washington.
Harvey now has eight total touchdowns on the season, which is tied with Mike Bell for fifth-most in franchise history among rookie running backs.
7b. The Broncos’ rate of explosive plays in the run game, however, has dried up without J.K. Dobbins in the backfield.
Dobbins had 21 carries of 10-plus yards alone in the 10 games he played before a foot injury, at minimum, ended his regular season.
Denver’s running backs didn’t log a 10-plus yard run against Kansas City in Week 11 and had just two on Sunday night at Washington — an 11-yard RJ Harvey rush on the first snap of the night and then a 14-yard Jaleel McLaughlin burst up the middle early in the fourth quarter.
Denver’s run game overall has dried up after being one of the most efficient in the NFL over the first 10 games of the season. McLaughlin, Harvey and Tyler Badie haven’t generated big plays, but they haven’t consistently churned out the yardage that Dobbins found between the tackles, either.
7c. When Dre Greenlaw pulled down an interception in the second quarter Sunday night, he ended a long dry spell since his last.
The veteran inside linebacker hadn’t logged a pick since Dec. 11, 2022, with San Francisco. That’s nearly three years and 24 total regular-season games for Greenlaw, who missed substantial time with injuries near the end of his 49ers tenure and then to start his stint in Denver.
Greenlaw now has four picks total in his six-year NFL career.
Turns out, it was a big night for veteran inside linebackers who used to roam the NFC West overall. The two turnovers of the game came from Greenlaw and Wagner, the longtime Seattle linebacker who picked Bo Nix off early in the fourth quarter when Nix apparently didn’t see him in the middle of the field and threw the ball right to his chest.
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