Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse — a survey of fans across the NFL, powered by SurveyMonkey. Each week, we send 32 polls to 100+ plugged in fans from each team. Broncos fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.
SB Nation has been strategically tracking the confidence of Denver Broncos fans throughout the offseason. After ending the season 6-10, fans were obviously not feeling good about the franchise, with just 28% feeling confident about the teams direction.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16221004/denver.jpg)
I know I surely wasn’t liking things, but then John Elway moved on from Vance Joseph and chose a tough, hard-nosed defensive coach in Vic Fangio. He followed that up with an aggressive free agency that addressed several key areas on both offense and defense.
Our polling shot up to 69% and continued to rise to 75% prior to the draft. Fears that Elway would go all-in on Drew Lock with the tenth overall pick must have given a lot of us anxiety heading up to draft weekend - I know it did for me! However, when Elway and the Broncos came out with Lock as their third pick instead of their first, fan confidence shot up to 84%.
Frankly, I’m feeling good about the franchise right now. I know they are not quite there in all areas, but they did everything they could with the cap they had and the picks they had to get better in 2019.
In the AFC West, every fan base is feeling good about things. The only team suffering setbacks in confidence is the Kansas City Chiefs who have fallen to 85%. The Los Angeles Chargers stand at 88% and the Oakland Raiders at 79%. However, only the Broncos have seen consistent rises in confidence at each step of the way.
How confident are you feeling about the Broncos heading into this season?