Sometimes, sitting at his desk, Sean Payton will get lost in daydreams outside his window. He can see it. Not far across the sky, beyond the glass of his third-floor office in Dove Valley, the boom of a crimson crane places pieces of timber on the Broncos’ new identity.

In a year, this $175 million project will be complete, and the new team headquarters the Broncos have touted since 2023 will be buzzing with the operations of a rising NFL franchise. For now, it is a hunk of wood and steel, hammers echoing across the grass at Broncos Park. But Payton still finds himself mesmerized on occasion. Then he’ll snap back to watching tape of a championship foundation he’s trying to construct himself.

In March, general manager George Paton put up an easel in his office with a large rendering of

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