Ja'Quan McMillian’s interception in overtime off Sam Darnold was a mile marker at Mile High. 

Certainly, McMillian goading the Seahawks’ quarterback who just eight months ago hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, into an ill-advised throw before jumping the route, essentially sealed Seattle’s fate on Thursday night.

But, the moment may wind up being far more significant than that. 

Three plays later, Wil Lutz split the uprights from 53 yards, ballgame, Broncos 17, Seahawks 14.

Denver improves to 4-1 within striking distance of the Kansas City Chiefs.

For all the offense’s warts, and there are many, McMillian’s interception signaled Denver’s arrival as a genuine Super Bowl threat. 

There’s just no other way to look at it, when a defense sacks Darnold five times and has sacked the quarterback 10 times over its past two games.

Coordinator Vance Joseph is mauling these Broncos into contention while carving out an identity like Nik Bonitto or Alex Singleton are carving out rush lanes.

Thursday night at Mile High, it as a stampede of Broncos that summoned the ghosts Darnold was frequently tormented by during his early-career days with the New York Jets; sacking him five times, hitting him 17 more times, and making him see pressure that was never really there at all, on even more snaps than that.

That, is a winning formula.

Through the first five games of the season, the Broncos have already knocked off the Los Angeles Rams, in true to form frenetic comeback fashion, edged out the Jacksonville Jaguars that are playing like one of the more consistently dominant teams in football, on the way to becoming the No. 10 ranked team in defensive DVOA, on the way to being the ninth-stingiest defense in the league, holding opponents to just 20.3 points per game.

Meanwhile, only the Lions have more sacks.

All this, while Bo Nix has only thrown multiple touchdowns once this season, has just a 79.4 passer rating, and Sean Payton is running out of scapegoats to rip the play-sheet and headset from.

But, if the Broncos ever figure out how to field a competent and balanced offense, this is a defense that is picking up steam, looking like it’s more than capable to lead a deep playoff run.

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The opportunity is there for the Jets on Sunday, against the New England Patriots, to notch the first signature victory of Aaron Glenn’s tenure and hand him a pretty massive win to point back on when his future may be decided at season’s end.

New York is 2-3, with one of those losses coming in overtime, in a torrential monsoon to the Green Bay Packers and a seven-point loss in Detroit against the Lions, in a game where a Geno Smith fumble at Detroit’s 28-yard line with :51 remaining ended a last-gasp drive to take the game to overtime or score a game-winning touchdown.

All that is to say that this has, for large swaths of this season, been a sneakily competitive Jets team with loads of young talent that’s beginning to rise to the moment.

Glenn’s influence is starting to be visible on a Jets defense that enters Sunday ranked fourth in the NFL in total defense, allowing just 293 yards per game, and is fifth-stingiest scoring defense, allowing just 19.2 points per contest.

Sure, it helps that No. 2 overall pick, pass rusher David Bailey has developed into an immediate game-wrecker with five sacks, off a three-sack barrage of the Browns last weekend, but this is an ascending defense.

Bailey has been as advertised, adding 20 quarterback pressures, which ranks 10th among NFL pass rushers, while making 12 run-stops, according to Pro Football Focus, but the former Texas Tech standout is a cog in the machine of a defense that sits ranked No. 17 in DVOA.

This is the first divisional test for the Jets, and it comes one week after Drake Maye had the chance to get some target practice in against the Raiders, passing for a season-high 374 yards and four touchdowns.

However, Maye has had a tumultuous start to the season that has seen him toss multiple interceptions twice and was held under 250 passing yards three times.

The Jets’ plus-three turnover differential to the Patriots’ minus-5 feels like a key area to watch Sunday, but New York will need to make any turnovers more punitive than they have so far this season, with just 13 points off takeaways through five weeks.

New York hasn’t beaten the Patriots since sweeping the season series in 2024, but a victory over their bitter rivals on Sunday would give the Jets real momentum and a major feather in Glenn’s cap that he might need by season’s end.

The Eagles were in real trouble before Jalen Hurts was diagnosed with a superficial blood clot in his calf, and will miss at least Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers and probably several more.

After all, before converting 1-of-4 third downs in the third quarter against the Jaguars, Philadelphia had just three third down conversions in the third quarter of their first four games.

There are currently 24 players on the Eagles’ injury list, including Saquon Barkley and DeVonta Smith, but even before the recent injury calamity, Philadelphia had been outscored 66-23 in the second halves of the first five games of the season.

Let’s be honest, after watching A.J. Brown and Hurts’ relationship capsize last season leading to Howie Roseman being forced into trading the Eagles’ top receiver to the New England Patriots, Sirianni entered this season on the hot seat.

The biggest problem for Sirianni is that even if the Eagles move on at season’s end, even with a Super Bowl ring on his finger and two Super Bowl appearances on his resumè, it’s beyond fair to question what exactly his strengths are.

Sure, when the Eagles are winning, and the vibes are off the charts riding the cascading waves of victories, Sirianni does a great job of holding his teams together.

Those teams, though, were built on the foundation of having the most dominant offensive and defensives lines in football.

What’s happened since?

How has Sirianni stopped the boat from capsizing?

He hasn’t.

Sirianni doesn’t call plays.

Sirianni isn’t the architect of the defense.