Though there is a way to consider the 2019 season a success for the Denver Broncos, ultimately, the team will have a losing season for the third consecutive year. That hasn’t happened for quite a while.
You have to go all the way back to the AFL-NFL merger.
For clarification, a winning season is one in which the team finishes 8-8 or better. A losing season would be one in which the team lost more games than it won. A winning season is not necessarily one that ended with a playoff berth.
Still, the Broncos have been remarkably good in finishing at least .500. The fact that it was nearly 50 years ago that they had three straight losing seasons is incredible.
Let’s go all the way back to the last time it happened.
The time: 1970-1972
The merger between the old AFL and the NFL took place in 1970. The Broncos were a bad team in the AFL with a total record of 39-97-4 in 10 seasons. They never made the playoffs.
That run of mediocrity carried over into the team’s first few seasons in the NFL and that is as big a reason as any as to why the team had three straight losing seasons following the merger.
In 1970, the team went 5-8-1. The next season, they were 4-9-1 and in 1972 they were 5-9.
The coaches
Lou Saban was the team’s fifth head coach and was at the helm when the Broncos joined the NFL. All told, he coached at some level for over 50 years following his playing career.
He never had a winning season with the team and resigned during the 1971 season.
He was replaced by Jerry Smith, the team’s offensive line coach, on an interim basis. Under Smith, the Broncos went 2-3. He left to become the Houston Oilers’ defensive line coach following that season.
John Ralston was the head coach at Stanford for nine seasons before the Broncos hired him to take over in 1972. Though he went 5-9 in his first season with the team, he would lead the team to a 7-5-2 record the next season.
Ralston coached the Broncos through the 1976 season before being replaced by Red Miller.
1970 season
The Broncos actually got off to a 3-0 start in 1970, their first season in the NFL. They started the seasons with a win over the Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs before losing to the Oakland Raiders.
After a 4-1 start, the team lost seven of its last nine games, including one tie. The Broncos were just 3-3-1 at home that season and finished 1-4-1 in the division.
Still, they were only outscored by 11 total points on the year and three of their losses were by five or fewer points. The team was more competitive than its record indicated and for the first season in a new league, it wasn’t all bad.
Floyd Little, who would later go on to become a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, led the AFC in rushing that year.
1971 season
The Broncos started the 1971 season with a tie against the Miami Dolphins before proceeding to lose three games in a row to the Green Bay Packers, Chiefs and Raiders.
They would win their next two games before suffering another three-game losing skid. After a home defeat against the Cincinnati Bengals, Saban resigned on November 17th. He would stay on as the team’s general manager.
The Broncos finished in last place in the AFC West and had a 1-5 record against divisional opponents. Saban was hired as head coach of the Bills following that season.
1972 season
With Ralston on the sideline as the team’s new head coach, the Broncos started the 1972 season with a 30-17 win over the Oilers before going on to lose their next four games.
They managed to finish third in the division following back-to-back blowout wins over the San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots, which gave hope going into the next season.
Close calls
Between 1972 and now, there has only been a short time frame where the Broncos were in danger of having three losing seasons in a row. That was from 2007-2011.
After going 7-9 in 2007, the Broncos had back-to-back 8-8 seasons in 2008 and 2009. After one of the worst seasons in team history, the 4-12 2010 campaign, they went 8-8 in 2011 and won the division and a playoff game.
Is the current team the worst?
The current team is definitely in that conversation.
Despite a poor record, the Broncos have made strides under first-year coach Vic Fangio, but the jury is still out on him and the current regime as to whether or not the current leadership will turn this team around.
If you ask me, the team that was under the watch of Vance Joseph is the worst in franchise history and it’s not even that arguable. They were putrid.
However, when the main competition for being the “worst” was from an era when a team was crossing over into a new league, you know this team is bad and has been bad.
The Broncos have made history for all of the wrong reasons over the last three years and if significant improvements are not made in 2020, significant changes need to be made and that includes every significant position in the organization.
