ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Broncos know they're on the cusp.
Denver heads into a "Thursday Night Football" matchup with the Chargers with a chance to clinch the franchise's first playoff appearance since 2015, and safety P.J. Locke was among the players who didn't shy away from what's at stake.
"It's huge, it's huge," Locke said Tuesday. "It hasn't been done in a while. We're right there. We're right there. We've been through a lot of things this year, and I think we've been prepped for this moment. All training camp, all OTAs, all season. It's right in front of us. [We've] just got to execute."
Tackle Mike McGlinchey said whether a player has been with the organization for nearly a decade or a short amount of time, they know the importance of a Week 16 matchup with a divisional rival.
"I think we all feel the urgency, whether you're here for your second year like me or Year 8 like Garett [Bolles] and [Year] 7 like Courtland [Sutton]," McGlinchey said. "This place deserves a championship-level football team. This city, you can feel it. I don't know if you guys have felt it on Sundays at Mile High. There's a different energy these last couple weeks, and the players are really appreciative of that. We're giving our fan base something to believe in again, and that's what we want to continue to try to do. And we've got to do that week to week by getting wins."
Added tight end Adam Trautman: "You want to be part of that group that's like, you resurrect Denver Broncos football. That's obviously the path that we're on."
Sutton acknowledged the Broncos have "a big game" against the Chargers, but he also noted it's "stepping in the right direction towards where we ultimately want to go." The veteran receiver said the Broncos have "so much more ahead of us," and he stressed the importance of continuing to control their own destiny.
"We do have some big games to finish the season," Sutton said. "We have to maximize them. [We] can't get complacent with the outside noise of what could be. We have to try to control the things that we can control, and that's Thursday, first and foremost, maximizing that. It's going in and watching this film from walkthrough, having a good practice tomorrow and showing up on Thursday and … starting fast and going out there and performing how we know to perform."
Quarterback Bo Nix echoed Sutton's message about taking advantage of the chances to come, as he said the Broncos' mindset is not to simply win one playoff-clinching game over the final three weeks.
"We've got three games to win three and go into the playoffs and win a Super Bowl," Nix said.
That journey continues with the same one-week-at-a-time mentality that the Broncos have held for the duration of the season — and it's led to a 9-5 record and a win-and-in scenario.
"We've talked about it all year, 'The next game is the most important game,'" Nix said. "Right now, this is what's important to us. It's the most important. I think this next one would put us on track for where we want to go. So, we have a lot of work to do. The job's not finished, so that's what we're going to do."
BRING ON THE ORANGE
The Broncos have traditionally featured a fan base that travels well, and that's certainly no exception when Denver plays in Los Angeles. As the team prepares for "Thursday Night Football," the Broncos believe they could enjoy an element of home-field advantage — even while on the road.
"I would say it's really cool once we get in certain points in the game, [and] you start hearing the 'Go Broncos' chants," Sutton said. "It's really cool to be able to hear that. Especially on the road, it gives it that home-field vibe without it being at home. It's cool to be able to see that and be a part of it, because we know that Broncos Country is going to show up. We always hear about these teams that travel well. It's really cool to be able to know that no matter what city we're in, Broncos Country is going to show up and we're going to have a little home-field presence there."
If Broncos fans can take away even a bit of the opposing home-field advantage, that could be a big asset to the offensive operation.
"We have great fans," Nix said. "They're going to travel really well. They have all year. Hopefully we'll have even more at this game. It's great when you can flip a stadium and turn it to your colors [at] a road game. Those are fun atmospheres to play in, because you are on the road and you are playing in a different environment, but you have more of your fans there. So, it's never a bad thing. It will help us out a lot."
