DENVER • At the end of yet another baffling, infuriating Denver Broncos season, 23-year-old receiver Courtland Sutton said exactly what you wanted him to say.

He promised a youth movement to revive a broken-down franchise.

“We’re going to pay respects to the vets,” he said. “However, we’re not going to let a lot of things slide.”

Big words, but bigger words were ahead. Sutton offered a bold prediction that covered the rest of his Broncos career. Remember, he’s only a rookie.

“We won’t ever go 6-10 again, I can promise you that. We’re not going to allow things to slide and go like it happened this year.”

If you’re skeptical of Sutton’s aggressive optimism, please consider the impossible-to-predict state of the NFL, where teams transform from loser to winner (and back to loser) with astonishing speed.

In 2016, the Jacksonville Jaguars finished 3-13, their sixth straight losing season. The pitiful Jags had lost 74 of 96 games. Only darkness and gloom seemed on the horizon.

In 2017, the Jags rolled to the AFC Title game at New England, where they led Smiling Bill Belichick and the Patriots late in the fourth quarter. The Jags had climbed, ever so briefly, to within sight of the NFL’s summit. They ranked as a darkhorse candidate to play in the Super Bowl this season.

In 2018, the Jags tumbled to 5-11. The franchise’s rise and fall defies logic, but emphasizes one of the prime reasons why the NFL seizes the hearts of so many Americans.

Teams can rise, and rise quickly, from the gutter. Keep this truth in your heart during the offseason.

Sutton promises such a rapid rise. He sees winning days just around the corner for a team that has lost 25 of 37 games.

I admire his defiant spirit, even if I wonder about his qualifications as a football prophet.

What a strange Broncos season. Four weeks ago, the Broncos had risen to 6-6 after winning four of six games. The road to the playoffs, and to rescuing Vance Joseph’s job, was wide open. The defense looked powerful. The schedule was favorable.

Maybe, said the optimists, the Broncos could run the table and roar into the postseason.

On Sunday evening, in the final minutes of Joseph’s tenure, Mile High was virtually empty after fans fled from their team and a bizarre season. The table had been overturned. The Broncos had lost four straight, including inexcusable defeats to the 49ers and Raiders.

In the locker room, nose tackle Shelby Harris talked about his plans for the next few weeks. He wants, he said, to relax and spend time with family.

He does not want to watch what’s left of the NFL season.

Harris, too, said exactly what you wanted him to say.

“It’s hard to watch the playoffs,” he said. He hungers to play in the playoffs, hungers so much that he can’t bear to watch the action on TV.

Broncos fans understand this hunger. Only 36 months ago, a mega-ferocious defense was preparing to lead the Broncos to a Super Bowl title. The Front Range was afire with Broncos fever.

No one could have foreseen the wreckage that would follow the Broncos dominating and, to the rest of the NFL, terrifying victory over the Panthers in the Super Bowl.

No one could have seen three straight playoff misses and an empty, silent Mile High and a young receiver feeling the need to promise a revolution.

“We know we don’t want to go through this again,” Sutton said.

Amen to that.

SUTTON!.jpg