ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When Damani Leech finished his interview process to become the new team president of the Broncos in the late summer of 2022, he was left with one unmistakable impression.
The franchise’s new ownership group, led by Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner, wasn’t going to waste any time before making an impact on an organization it believed had “potential through the roof.”
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“It was a combination of those two things of, ‘Look, there’s tons of potential here,'” Leech said recently from his office that overlooks the Broncos’ practice fields. “The organization, because of the (prior) ownership uncertainty, wasn’t able to really push the envelope, so there was room to do some of that. So that was really what attracted me to the role.”
Almost immediately, Leech, who had spent the prior eight years working for the NFL’s league office, began realizing the immense scope of what was to come in his new job.
“Literally, I think a week before I had officially started, Greg called me and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to put 100 million (dollars) into the stadium. Let’s figure out how we’re going to do that,'” Leech recalled. “So it was was a sprint right away.”
That pace hasn’t slowed in the roughly 22 months since the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group bought the team for a record $4.65 billion. The $100 million renovation project at Empower Field at Mile High — a massive new video board, a larger team store and renovated suite spaces were among the myriad upgrades — was started as soon as the 2022 season ended and wrapped up before the Week 1 opener in 2023. As that project unfolded, the Broncos were already beginning a nearly two-year process of designing and rolling out the team’s first new set of uniforms in three decades. They were concurrently making plans for a sprawling new training complex, which will be built on the site of the current venue and is scheduled to be completed before the 2026 season.
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All the while, the Broncos were making tweaks to the game-day experience, implementing substantive changes to the philanthropic arm of the franchise and creating a system to forge deeper ties with player alumni. That came as the ownership group conducted its first search for a head coach, landing on Super Bowl winner Sean Payton, began work on various league committees and started laying the research groundwork for a potential future stadium.
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It hasn’t just been a sprint. It’s been Usain Bolt jetting out of the starting blocks.
“It’s incredibly unique,” Leech said of the number of substantial projects the Broncos have undertaken in less than two years, his context created during his work at the league office that gave him insight into how various teams operated. “My peers who are presidents around the league will remark about how much we have going on. I think it helps to get that confirmation around the league.”
A focus on winning
When the Broncos hosted a summit for their business partners at the stadium in downtown Denver earlier this week, it was a chance to celebrate the vast off-field momentum the organization has created in less than two years since the new leadership group has settled into place. But even in that setting, far removed from the football schematics happening at the suburban training complex, Penner left no doubt about the biggest priority ahead.
“We have to be football first,” Penner said during a fireside-style chat hosted by Broncos play-by-play radio announcer Dave Logan. “Our objective is to win football games on the field. That has to be the first priority. If we’re doing that, that enables a lot of other things across the organization. It enables a great business with great partners. It enables a great fan experience. Allows us to have impact in the community and what we do there. But being a great football team is what enables that. The organization understands that.”
The Broncos went 5-12 during a 2022 season that began just after the new leadership group assumed control of the franchise. Penner fired head coach Nathaniel Hackett with two games remaining. He later hired Payton, who led the Broncos to an 8-9 record that was the team’s best mark since 2016 — but also equated to an eighth straight season without a playoff appearance. Penner, whose friend-next-door demeanor belies a fierce competitiveness, is keenly aware of the angst a drought that long has created for a passionate fan base.
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“I want to make sure our fans understand that I get their frustrations,” Penner said in January when he addressed the media and accepted responsibility for a season that ultimately fell short of expectations. “The main message for Broncos Country that I would have is we’re just as impatient as you are to win here. We understand that we have a lot of work to do this offseason to get better.”
Penner on Monday said he is pleased with how that offseason ultimately unfolded. He said he was impressed by how Payton and general manager George Paton approached a complicated puzzle at quarterback that began with cutting Russell Wilson and incurring an $85 million dead money hit. He said the duo “really fell in love with Bo Nix” about eight weeks before the NFL Draft and ultimately selected him with the team’s first-round pick at No. 12. Nix will be the team’s starter at some point, but for now he is competing with Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson for the Week 1 job, offering options at the all-important position.
Optimism for Penner also stems from what he’s seen with Payton as he heads into his second season as coach.
“I’ve seen him be really reflective when he’s made mistakes and be open to talk about that with me and then say he’s going to take a different approach the next time,” Penner said. “To me, that’s the most important thing. Anybody in a leadership position has to have a sense of humility. You’re never going to be perfect. As long as you recognize where you’re making some mistakes and you’re getting better every day, then we’re on the right track.”
The job of an NFL ownership group and its senior leaders is to operate on parallel tracks, putting the team in the best position to win now in what Payton has called “a year-to-year league,” while also constantly building a foundation that can sustain success. Penner knows the culture required to reach the latter goal can’t be achieved overnight, but building it is a daily process that began as soon as the new group took over in August of 2022.
“When you come into a new organization, for me it starts with people,” Penner said. “You just have to look and say, ‘Do we have the right people here?’ That’s on the business and football side. We made a number of changes there. Once you get those people, you need to set expectations and those expectations need to be high. Then, you have to give people the resources. One thing we found is that we didn’t necessarily have the resources and that’s where you’ve seen a number of changes, including the new training facility. Then, you’ve got to hold people accountable. So, for me, that’s the mental model that I go through in thinking about building a culture. It’s not just one person. It has to be throughout the organization.”
Tapping into rich history
Part of forging the culture for the Broncos’ ownership group has also centered on honoring a winning past. Before his group bought the team, Penner said his insight into organizational leadership at the NFL level was largely built through relationships he had with members of the San Francisco 49ers. He was struck by how former players like Harris Barton and Ronnie Lott remained connected to the organization long after their playing careers ended thanks to its player outreach efforts.
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“That was something coming in, for Carrie and I, that was really important to start to build here as well and figure out how we could bring those former players in closely,” Penner said.
The Broncos, in the first two seasons after the new group bought the team, honored the franchise’s 1997 and 1998 Super Bowl teams, and there is an event planned to honor the 1977 AFC Championship squad this season in conjunction with Randy Gradishar’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and his teammates, Riley Odoms and Steve Foley, being placed in the Broncos’ Ring of Fame. And former players have routinely been guests of the owners at practice. They’ve volunteered in growing numbers for the Denver Broncos Foundation, the organization’s charitable arm that strengthens its support of youth advocacy programs.
“They are amazing ambassadors for us,” Walton Penner said at Monday’s summit of the team’s former players. “My interactions with our alumni have really helped my learning curve with the Broncos. They care so deeply, not only about the team and the organization and our history but also about Broncos Country.”
The goal of honoring a championship past while also pushing the Broncos forward is evidenced, Leech said, by how the group has built out its senior staff over the past two years. There are executives, like chief commercial officer Dennis Moore and stadium general manager Jay Roberts, who have an extensive history with the organization and have served as an important bridge to the era of late Hall of Fame owner Pat Bowlen.
Throwin' it back to 1977.
📸's » https://t.co/k9h0wyheHM pic.twitter.com/hyMPYWGsKU
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) April 22, 2024
“Things can get sideways quickly when you don’t respect your history and the culture,” said Leech, who said he read the book “77” by author Terry Frei when building plans for a uniform that honored the team from that “Orange Crush” era.
Embracing tension
But the Broncos also have carved new roles to attract talent with outside experience. That includes Jesse Nading, a former NFL player and Colorado State standout, who was hired last year to be the team’s vice president of strategy and business intelligence, a new role focused on helping the Broncos create an apparatus for more data-driven decision-making. It also includes Hailey Sullivan, a former executive at Mattel Toys who was hired as chief marketing officer and was instrumental in the team’s uniform project.
“I think we have a good mix that gives us some good, healthy tension when we’re debating things as a senior staff, and it really pushes us,” Leech said. “I push the team to be creative and curious, and I think we have a team that can do that.”
Tension is another word Penner has embraced. It’s a requisite ingredient for growth, the Broncos owner believes, and he is keen on challenging preconceived notions on how an organization should strive for success.
“If you start having people justify decisions by, ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it,’ that’d be a concern,” he said.
Indeed, despite a rich history of success, the Broncos have needed new ways of thinking. Only the New York Jets have a longer current run of consecutive seasons without a playoff appearance. There isn’t much outside expectation that the Broncos will end that drought this season.
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But the Walton-Penner group, in ways big and small across the past two seasons, has made clear its expectations are higher.
“Everybody gets that we’re trying to win. That’s why we’re here,” Leech said. “We’re trying to win a Super Bowl.”
(Top photo of Carrie Walton Penner and Greg Penner: AAron Ontiveroz / Getty Images)
