Broncos and 49ers are evidence that you can be completely fine as a franchise despite making the odd MASSIVE mistake, provided that your Management and Coaching is competent

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The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/OhSoManyThoughts on 2026-01-27 16:55:35+00:00.

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The Denver Broncos had a $32M dead cap hit this season cause of Russell Wilson. It was $53M last season. And yet, they were the #1 seed in the AFC and made it to the AFC title game. The Russell Wilson deal was awful, and yet, the Broncos are back to being contenders.

The San Francisco 49ers traded away 3 first round picks for Trey Lance! They have over a $100M in dead cap space this season. And yet, they’re perennial contenders.

To a lesser extent, the Patriots drafted Mac Jones and hired Jerod Mayo, which were both bad calls - the former in hindsight, and the latter probably from the get go. And yet, they’re back in the Super Bowl.

All this to say that well run franchises (management + coaching), almost certainly recover from a major personnel / draft mistake, or multiple moderate mistakes, and do so quickly. There is a culture of winning and competence embedded in the them. The bad franchises (see: Jets, Browns, Raiders), will just come up with excuses.