S Justin Simmons 'Really Feels' Like Broncos are Poised for a 'Great' Year

Russell Wilson and Justin Simmons talked about the expectations surrounding the Broncos this season.

From the moment the Denver Broncos returned to UCHealth Training Center to kick off organized team activities, media and fans alike have felt that something feels different about this team. 

That difference can, and should, be attributed, in large part, to the arrival of quarterback Russell Wilson, but that doesn't explain it all. The energy that new head coach Nathaniel Hackett and his staff have brought to the team, combined with Wilson's influence, has the Broncos feeling very much like their 2012 counterparts. 

Peyton Manning's arrival in the Mile High City was a decade ago, as crazy as it sounds to write that or say it out loud. But the lift Wilson has given the Broncos feels very much like the year the now Hall-of-Fame QB arrived in town. 

The Broncos are now being talked about as more than just a surprise team, potentially. The NFL awarded the Broncos with five prime-time regular-season games and the football world is lining up with popcorn in hand to see what Wilson and company have in store for everyone. 

In a Broncos TV sit-down alongside safety Justin Simmons, Wilson reflected on how his transition from Seattle to Denver has excited him and why the noise outside is great — but it's only as good as the product the team is putting out on the field. For prolific players like Wilson or Simmons, it might be easy to get lost in the hype, but the pursuit, the process, keeps them focused and grounded. 

"I think the thing about the journey, of doing something new, it's a new opportunity," Wilson said. "It's a new opportunity to be able to start fresh, it's a new opportunity to be challenged differently, but there's still the same mission. I think, the same mission of doing the process. I think so many people, they get lost in the sense that they don't want to do the process anymore. Or they've done it successfully... it becomes one of those things where you forget about the process. What I love, coming here, just seeing the guys and being around them, the guys are addicted to the process. That makes it exciting for me. But at the end of the day, nothing else matters. All the talk, all the stuff outside—that's good, that's exciting, but the only thing is, we have to determine that every day here... that's what football's all about."

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Simmons is an optimistic fellow. Although his time in Denver has been marked by one of the darkest periods in team history, he's always been the type to foresee big things on the horizon for the Broncos when asked to predict how the team is shaping up during the offseason or training camp. 

While that may be true, the energy and vibe Simmons is perceiving around Dove Valley right now he can only compare to his first year in Denver. He was drafted two months after the Broncos hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl 50 and hasn't forgotten what this city felt like back then. The parallels are real. 

"For me being here for seven years, this going into Year 7," Simmons said via Broncos TV. "It's been just mediocre, sub-par, and it just stinks. I got here right after the Super Bowl and you could feel the electricity around the city, around the town. This is a football-led city. Ever since then, it's just been average. 9-7 my first year, and since then, [we] haven't hit .500. We haven't even sniffed the playoffs. All the excitement, all the energy is great, but we're the ones that control it. You've got to attack it. And that's what I love—out there at practice, we're competing, we're jawing back and forth. It's all so much fun for me because I can feel—every year, you're asked, 'Hey, how are you guys feeling this year?' And you're always going to say, like, 'Man, I feel good. I think it's going to be a great year. I like who we've got.' But I really feel that way. I'm really locked in with it. I mean, we're being led by, in my opinion, a Hall-of-Fame quarterback. I think there's no doubt—a Hall-of-Fame quarterback. We've got all the right pieces on offense, defense, special teams, the coaches—I mean the staff here is amazing. It's just going to be up to us. Go out there—I don't care what it looks like. 40-something to 40-something, 7-0, as long as we win those games." 

The veterans who've lived and fought through the depredations of the past six seasons are the ones now championing the temperature change at Broncos HQ. It's not just hopeful fans with orange-colored blinders on. 

The tide has turned for Denver. It won't be a surprise to see a Wilson renaissance this fall when Broncos football returns. 

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