Repeating is one of the hardest things to do in sports for numerous reasons.

First of all, after winning the championship, you automatically will have a target on your back the following season. With that in mind, in a perfect world, you’d hope your team is prepared for everyone throwing their best shot at you.

However, in the case of the Denver Broncos, it doesn’t appear they’ll be prepared to defend their crown this upcoming season.

The primary reason Denver was able to obtain their third Super Bowl title was defense.

Denver ranked first in the NFL in total team defense, while only allowing 18.5 points per game. Also, they led the league in team sacks (52).

Hall of Fame quarterback and current general manager John Elway had some strong words following their championship run.

“To me, to sit here and say, if you look at it, if you look at the performance in that Super Bowl, they are in the argument to be one of the best ever. It’s hard to say that they’re going to be that, but they’re in the argument, which is a (great) compliment to them.”

Nonetheless, with Malik Jackson and Danny Trevathan going elsewhere in free agency, this once historically great defensive unit will be taking a step backwards in 2016.

Considering their defense won’t be as dominant this upcoming season, it would be beneficial if their offense could produce a little more, but that doesn’t look too realistic with Brock Osweiler taking his talents to Houston.

Denver invested a second round pick on Osweiler back in 2012 with the thought of him being the franchise quarterback one day. Now, Elway and company are stuck with Mark Sanchez and rookie Paxton Lynch at signal caller.

Although it appears to be a very difficult situation for Denver moving forward, Elway is rather optimistic about what the near future holds for Paxton. 

“Do I have any regrets about this whole thing?” Elway asked. “No. We’re thrilled to have ended up where we are, with Paxton. If you had said to me, ‘Here are your four options,’ and you named the four we just went through, this is the one we’d take. We think Paxton, long-term, is a perfect fit for our offense.”

Sure, Paxton is the long-term solution, but veteran Sanchez is likely to start from day one. 

“Because he’s been in playoffs, he’s been in championship games,” Elway explained. “He’s proven he can do that. He hasn’t done it in a while. I don’t know that he’s ever been in a great offensive system that takes advantage of what he can do. And I can’t tell you I’ve gone and studied him when he was with the Jets. I know with the Eagles last year … he played OK when he did play. He made a couple of mistakes.”

Look, whenever you’re fresh off a championship, the only way to go is down more often not, but Denver hasn’t done anything to help their case this off-season.

At the same time, Elway knows what it takes to repeat, since he did it during his playing days.

So, let’s wait and see what happens, but it doesn’t look promising to say the least.