After years of being one of the least healthy teams in the league, the Broncos have been one of the healthiest under Sean Payton
The Denver Broncos ended the 2022 season with a league high 23 players on the IR. The was the second highest number of players on the IR at the end of any season in the NFL since the end of the 2012 season. The highest was 24 which was “achieved” by the Giants in 2021 and 2018.
| Year | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 |
| League Average | 11.1 | 11.4 | 12.0 | 11.3 | 9.8 | 13.0 | 12.3 | 13.2 | 12.0 | 11.6 | 10.4 | 9.6 | 10.8 |
| NFL Total | 356 | 364 | 383 | 360 | 312 | 417 | 394 | 422 | 383 | 370 | 332 | 306 | 347 |
The Broncos finished last season with three players on the IR – Quinn Bailey, Alex Singleton and Delarin Turner-Yell. That was tied with the Bills for the fewest in the league. Prior to last season the fewest that the Broncos had on the IR at the end of the season was six in 2015.
The Broncos had nine on the IR at the end of the 2023 season, so in the two years under Sean Payton, the Broncos have had a total of about half of the players on the IR at the end of the season that they did in 2022 alone.
Being healthy is a huge boon for the offensive line because it is arguably the unit on the team that requires the most communication and familiarity between the five starters. Barring injury, the Bronco starting OL should be the same in 2025 as it was in 2024. Three starters played in all 17 games and Mike McGlinchey and Luke Wattenberg each started 13.
In terms of OL health, the Broncos had a fairly healthy OL in 2024. Using my OL health metric, the Broncos had the 7th most healthy OL in 2024. The Packers had the healthiest with all five starters playing 900 or more offensive snaps.
I find it interesting that all of the top nine teams with the exception of the Falcons made the playoffs. Proving that it is hard to win without a healthy OL, although the Eagles did it (and won the Super Bowl). The team with the least healthy OL was the Colts given that they had only one OL guy with more than 900 snaps and only two with more than 700.
Having depth is great, but having healthy above average starters is better.