Bill Belichick has a lot of respect for Sean Payton, Russell Wilson and Denver Broncos

BOSTON -- There's a whole lot of hubbub swirling about Bill Belichick's future in New England. Understandably so.

Yet for Belichick, he is once again focused on his short-term future, which this week involves a trip to Denver to face the Broncos.

As is the case every Wednesday, Belichick opened up his morning press conference by providing a rundown of the upcoming opponent. 

"All right, so looking at the Broncos here. They're a well-balanced team. Obviously, you see Sean [Payton]'s mark on the team. Sean, ton of respect for him, what he's done for his career, just the way he coaches, the way he prepares and just the football coach that he is," Belichick said. " I think Sean does a great job."

As Belichick often does, he pointed to the opponent's special teams play as a point of strength, spotlighting rookie Marvin Mims Jr. in the return game as a threat. He then turned to the offense, which is led by veteran Russell Wilson.

"Offensively, good receivers, good running back, really good quarterback," Belichick said. "Wilson's definitely a problem. Running, throwing, extended plays, similar to what we talked about last week with [Patrick] Mahomes, but runs more, runs more than probably any quarterback in the league other than [Lamar] Jackson."

Belichick expounded on the threats posed by Payton's offense.

"[Payton] does a good job of putting stress on the defense. Whatever the defensive rules and adjustments and fundamentals are, he does a good job of attacking them," Belichick said. "They obviously have good players. They started the same [offensive] line in every game, so they've got a lot of continuity there. Quarterback's a unique player, he's got a lot of skill. Receivers -- [Courtland] Sutton's as good as there is -- big guy, great hands, contested catches, a really hard guy to cover. He's had tremendous production, especially down the field. So, good players."

And though the Denver defense famously allowed 70 points against Miami earlier this year, Belichick has seen that unit develop over the course of the year. 

"Defensively, they've really kind of hit their stride here the last few weeks," Belichick said. "Turn the ball over a lot, pretty well-balanced team. [Zach] Allen, Josey [Jewell]'s been a really productive linebacker. Obviously, [Justin] Simmons and [Pat] Surtain are two of the better DBs in the league. You can see their improvement over the course of the year. Turnovers have been a big thing. They've done a good job of turning the ball over and playing good third-down defense, and they've been really good in the return game. Those things really kind of sparked their last seven or eight games, whatever it's been, that they've won most of them. So, different group to get ready for than we saw back in '20, obviously a lot of changes. But, they've done a good job. Sean's done a good job."

The Broncos enter the Christmas Eve matchup with a 7-7 record, but that's after starting the year 1-5. Though they got blown out, 42-17, in Detroit last week, the Broncos won five straight games and six out of seven to climb into the fringe of the playoff picture in the AFC. The Broncos have just a 24 percent chance of making the playoffs, and that number will only climb to 32 percent if they win this week, but Payton's team will clearly have more to play for on Sunday than the 3-11 Patriots.

Given that situation, Belichick was asked if he's found it to be more difficult to keep the team motivated as the losses have piled up in New England.

"We're just ready to go every week," he answered.