Eric Goodman stopped me recently in the Mile High Sports offices as he prepared for his radio show.

The longtime host and reporter posed a classic sports talk radio question, one he planned to use on his show not long after our debate.

Shameless plug alert: Listen to Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro on “Afternoon Drive” weekdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 or streaming on your favorite devices.

“Which of the ‘Big 4’ Denver teams is closest to winning a championship?” Goodman asked.

His mind was made up, but like any good reporter he wanted to gather information and perspective from other sources.

Goodman says it is the Colorado Avalanche. His logic has merit, but I don’t believe he’s correct.

The answer I gave Goodman has not changed since that day; however, I believe it has since been reinforced — specifically by the events that transpired in the Divisional round of the NFL playoffs just this past weekend.

As crazy as it may sound, I believe the Denver Broncos are the closest among Denver’s “Big 4” to winning it all.

“But wait!” you might be saying. “The Denver Broncos just finished the season a dreadful 5-11 and have the No. 5 pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Their first-year head coach looked woefully unprepared for the job at times, and their offense was one of the worst in the league. That’s not to mention that several of their highest-paid players are north of 30 years old. And, oh by the way, they have no legitimate quarterback.”

I’ll willingly concede that all of those things are true. And I’ll still tell you that the Broncos are the closest team to bringing another championship to Denver.

First, I begin with why the three other teams are not championship contenders in the immediate future…

The Denver Nuggets

Michael Malone’s crew is the first and easiest to write off — for a number of reasons. While this roster certainly has the potential to grow into something interesting in the next several years, it lacks — at least for now — the transcendent player an NBA squad requires these days to win it all.

Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Gary Harris are a solid, likable trio. Paul Millsap is a bona fide All-Star. They are worth cheering for every night. They have the potential to get the Nuggets to the playoffs for the next five or six years. But none of them are even close to being at the level of players like LeBron James, Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook or James Harden. And those are just the “alphas” on their respective teams. Each of those squads has a beta and a gamma that is arguably as good or better than any of Denver’s big four. Could one of Denver’s cornerstones eventually develop to the level of James, Curry, et al? Sure. But it’s unlikely. And even as those NBA megastars age and are replaced, there’s another group like Karl-Anthony Towns, Ben Simmons and Giannis Antetokounmpo on the rise behind them.

The Nuggets, even when they manage to make themselves a consistent playoff contender, historically have proved that the long and winding road to the NBA Finals is one they cannot navigate. Denver enjoys one of the best home-court advantages in basketball (especially when fans show up — something they have failed to do during the Nuggets’ recent playoff drought), yet that advantage seems to evaporate over the course of a seven-game series. The Nuggets fired George Karl after he won a franchise-best 57 games in 2012-13 because his teams could not win consistently in the slow-it-down, grind-it-out, half-court game of playoff basketball. The Nuggets have been to the Western Conference Finals just three times since joining the NBA. They have never been to an NBA Finals. Until that changes, it’s impossible to consider them a legitimate championship contender.

The Colorado Avalanche

Goodman believes the Avalanche are the closest team to making a championship run. Anything can happen in the wide-open world of the NHL Playoffs, where a No. 8 seed has won it all as recently as 2012. A commonly held belief is that a goaltender gets hot at the right time and he can lead his squad all the way to hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup.

The problem is, the Avalanche don’t have a goaltender whose ceiling is high enough to deliver at that level for the 16 wins needed to win it all. At least, not one who’s ready to do it in the next two years.

Even in 2013-14, when the Avs pulled a worst-to-first and won their division behind a Vezina Trophy runner-up performance from Semyon Varlamov, they were tossed in the first round by Minnesota. This year’s club is trying to perform a similarly miraculous regular-season feat and go from being the worst team in hockey’s shootout era last season to simply making the playoffs.

The Avs are a vastly improved team in Jared Bednar’s second season on the bench, but they are still a ways off from being legitimate title contenders. Especially now that Varlamov is (again) on the shelf with a groin injury.

Colorado had a solid 1 and 1A goaltending combination in Varlamov and Jonathan Bernier entering this year. They’ve been flirting with a Wild Card bid all season. But with Varlamov once again down for the foreseeable future, Colorado must now rely on a 1A and B (or C?) combo in Bernier and Andrew Hammond.

Bernier is hot right now. After Monday’s afternoon tilt with the Anaheim Ducks, Colorado has won seven straight games — six with Bernier in net. He’s allowed just seven goals in those six victories. He had a similar hot streak last season with Anaheim, going 12-0-2. He’s shown in spurts the ability to carry the torch as the No. 1. Now he’ll have to do it for real, full time, and then he’ll have to keep it up in the playoffs where he has just one career start under his belt.

In 55 games with Ottawa (48 starts) Hammond has compiled a fairly impressive 27-14-6 record with a .923 career save percentage. On the surface those are decent numbers; however, almost all of them came in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. Hammond saw action in just six NHL games last season (four starts), posting a 0-2-0 record and .837 save percentage. He has not skated at the NHL level in 2017-18.

Call me a pessimist, but I just can’t believe that even with as well as Bernier has been playing and with Hammond’s potential that the Avalanche can go from a historically bad season to hoisting the Cup. Give them two years to finally realize that Varlamov isn’t the answer, and give Bernier and Hammond the time to prove they they are a legit 1 and 1A, and the Avs have as good a chance as the Kings did back in 2012. Until then, the Avs’ faithful should be content with competing for a playoff spot — especially in the highly competitive Central Division.

The Avs have an MVP candidate in Nathan MacKinnon and arguably one of the best lines in the NFL with MacKinnon flanked by Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen. Their defense is greatly improved over last year, but they are still going to battle just to make the playoffs. With Varlamov down indefinitely and his long-term future in Denver now a major question mark, it’s impossible to go all-in on the Avs making a serious run at the Cup.

The Colorado Rockies

By all rights, the Colorado Rockies should be considered the leading candidate among Denver’s “Big 4” to win it all. After all, they’re the most recent team to even make the playoffs.

General manager Jeff Bridich and owner Dick Monfort have pushed their chips to the middle of the table for 2018 with the offseason acquisition of relievers Bryan Shaw and Wade Davis. They’ve ponied up the dough to keep Charlie Blackmon and DJ LeMahieu happy in their last years of team control, and they recently made deals with starter Chad Bettis and silent bullpen assassin Chris Rusin to avoid arbitration.

Bud Black enters his second year as manager with another potent offense led by now-perennial MVP candidate Nolan Arenado and a lineup that has the potential to lead the National League in just about every category. Black also has a stable of young starters ages  27 and younger that proved tantalizingly talented last year. Behind Jon Gray, Kyle Freeland, Jeff Hoffman, German Marquez and Antonio Senzatela — the last four who were rookies in 2017 — Black and the Rockies punched a Wild Card ticket. And that was without significant contributions from Chad Bettis and Tyler Anderson, who figure to be contributors again in 2018 after health issues kept them both off the field for most of last season.

But can Black’s young crop of arms repeat their feat this season? Some of them are bound to experience a sophomore slump. Injuries happen, as last year proved. Major-league hitters tend to catch on to young pitchers. Even last year, not one of those starters was consistently good over the course of the entire season. Each one had a solid four-to-eight week span where he caught fire, but was only average or below either before or after (if not both).

Winning over a 162-game season requires a starting rotation be consistently good and a bullpen back it up over six months. Winning in the postseason can be as simple as having two or three horses a manager can ride hard over a one-month span. Even if they make the playoffs can the Rockies’ horses compete with the likes of Clayton Kershaw, Alex Wood and Rich Hill in Los Angeles? Or Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez in Washington? Or Zack Greinke, Robbie Ray and Shelby Miller in Arizona? Colorado may arguably have the best bullpen in the National League (at least on the plus side of games) right now, but they’re going to need their starters to pitch at an All-Star level to truly compete in October.

I have tremendous optimism for this Rockies squad, but they are going to need a career year out of Jon Gray, Chad Bettis to channel his inner Josh Fogg, and at least one of those rookies to ripen into a bona-fide No. 2 ASAP if they are going to truly compete in 2018.

Beyond 2018 is a crapshoot, as both Blackmon and LeMahieu will become free agents and the Rockies will face the difficult decision as a mid-market team to pay that duo or invest in the hundreds of millions it will take to keep Nolan Arenado long-term. The Rockies have depth at second base (Brendan Rodgers) and centerfield (David Dahl) to replace LeMahieu and Blackmon long-term, but will that depth mature fast enough to capitalize on the two-to-three-year window they have with Shaw and Davis at their peak in the pen?

Mid-market clubs like Cleveland and Kansas City have shown lately it can be done, but the big dogs in L.A., New York, Houston and Chicago all have teams primed and ready for October baseball right now and over the next two to three years. The Rockies should be in the mix, but getting over the hump and winning it all will be a tall order.

The Denver Broncos

So, that brings us to the Broncos. The 5-11, last place Broncos. The team that ranked second-to-last behind only Cleveland in turnovers and turnover margin in 2017. The team that lost by double-digits eight times, four times by at least 21 points in Vance Joseph‘s first year as head coach. The team whose three (three!) quarterbacks combined for the second-worst (again behind only Cleveland) passer rating in the NFL last season.

So, why do I believe the Denver Broncos are the closest team to winning it all?

Take a look at the four teams still remaining in the NFL Playoffs.

We just witnessed a Divisional round weekend in which the following happened…

Those three teams — Minnesota, Jacksonville and Philadelphia — ranked first, second and fourth in total defense in 2017. Denver ranked third. After a slight Super Bowl hangover in 2016, the Broncos defense proved that it is still one of the elite units in the NFL. Despite being constantly backed into a corner by the offense, the Denver D still had a solid year — even if the defensive turnovers weren’t there as frequently as they were during the Super Bowl run.

Those same three teams ranked first (Jacksonville), third (Philadelphia) and seventh (Minnesota) in rushing offense. Denver ranked 12th. And consider that the Broncos rushing attack all but vanished during the middle of the season when offensive coordinator Mike McCoy decided that Trevor Siemian and Brock Osweiler could throw the Broncos to victory. That flawed thinking ultimately cost McCoy his job, cost the Broncos a top-10 rushing attack and effectively derailed their season.

Despite having the second-worst quarterback combination (in terms of passer rating) in the league, Denver still managed to rank 20th in passing yards this season. Philadelphia, who lost one-time MVP candidate Carson Wentz midseason to an ACL injury, ranked just 13th in passing yards as a team. Minnesota, with Keenum (in the 14 games he started) and Bradford (two games), ranked 11th. Bortles and the Jaguars ranked 17th. The point being, a prolific passing offense does not a championship contender guarantee. Yes, the ageless wonder Tom Brady and the Patriots are now the heavy favorites to win the Super Bowl, and they were the No. 2 passing offense in 2017 (No. 1 overall offense), but the other three conference finalists show that a path to the Super Bowl exists without the need for an all-world quarterback performance.

The Broncos know this firsthand, as their Super Bowl 50 victory came in a season that saw Peyton Manning and Osweiler pass for less than 250 yards per game and throw more interceptions than touchdowns (19 to 23).

With even a moderately competent and healthy quarterback under center, the Denver Broncos have every opportunity in 2018 to flip their record and compete for the AFC West or, at the very least, a Wild Card.

Once in the playoffs, as we’ve witnessed so far this year and as we saw when the Broncos bullied their way to a Super Bowl 50 victory, defense can carry the load. The one-and-done nature of the NFL Playoffs makes it possible for teams like the Jaguars to sneak past perennial playoff contenders like Pittsburgh (just like the Jags did in the ’90s against the Broncos). They allow the Vikings to steal victory from the jaws of defeat on a fluke play (much like the Ravens did to the Broncos).

The Broncos have many parts that need repair — quarterback and right tackle chief among them — but the NFL is built so that a team can go from 5-11 to 11-5 in one season. The Rams, you might recall, went from 4-12 to 11-5 just last year.

The Broncos are, right now, a 5-11 team with a top-five pick. They are also a team that won five consecutive division titles from 2011 to 2015 and still has more than a dozen starters on the roster from a team two years removed from a Super Bowl victory.

As crazy as it may sound after the season that just transpired, the Broncos are still my favorite to claim Denver’s next championship.