Mike Tirico, new to Sunday Night Football, projects “a new time for Broncos football”

Mike Tirico’s in a high-profile transition year, and so are the Broncos.

The well-known play-by-play man is in his first season on Sunday Night Football, and he’ll be on the call alongside Chris Collinsworth as the Broncos host the 49ers in a Week 3 primetime showdown at Empower Field.

Sunday marks Tirico’s 17th Broncos game in 17 seasons calling the NFL, 10 of which were on Monday Night Football. But with a full season’s worth of Denver games under his belt, Tirico knows this is not the same Broncos team he’s covered in seasons past.

With a new coach, quarterback, ownership group and second-year general manager at the controls, Tirico acknowledged “it feels like it’s a new time for Broncos football.”

“And the good news going forward is, George (Paton) has done a really nice job building this organization and roster. Last year, they were better quarterback play away from being a playoff team.”

While the Broncos can make a statement with an upset win over the 49ers (Denver is a 1.5-point underdog), Tirico isn’t quite ready to project Denver as a playoff team. But he also isn’t worried about Nathaniel Hackett’s early growing pains — the head coach had game-management controversies in his first two games — which Tirico believes “we won’t be talking about come October or November.”

“There weren’t any teams outside of Buffalo and Kansas City that I put the playoff team stamp on (preseason), because of the depth of the AFC,” Tirico said. “Buffalo and Kansas City, they’re a league above everybody else, and we’re seeing that early on here. And consider the depth in the AFC West… everybody’s going to beat each other up.

“But I thought that next tier of teams, which the Broncos are part of… they are one of the teams that has a very strong resume, but also slight imperfections they need to get figured out. And a lot of this is going to be based on health.”

Tirico gives Paton a seal of approval for how he’s put the Broncos in a position for a turnaround. But he said the Broncos still have work to do in future drafts in order to overtake Kansas City — the Chiefs have beaten Denver 13 times in a row — and also keep pace with Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

“George has done a good job building this, and it’s going to be very important over the next few years how they draft in rounds three, four and five,” Tirico noted. “You’re going to need those guys to hit, and be impactful players. That’s what I’ll be watching over the next few years in terms of building this team from a team with a star quarterback and some very good pieces, to a team that can contend (annually) in a stacked division.”

For Tirico, Sunday marks the latest chapter in a whirlwind year underscored by winning the Sports Emmy for outstanding personality for a studio host. In February, Tirico served as host for Super Bowl LVI and the primetime host for the Beijing Olympics on the same day. He’s also called the horse racing triple crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes), the Indy 500 and two golf majors (U.S. Open and The Open).

But it’s the gig on Sunday Night Football — primetime’s No. 1-rated show for the past 11 years — that Tirico called a career-long goal, and one that’s “better than advertised.”

“Monday morning, I was half-exhausted because it’s been a long work week leading into the last game, but I got energized by thinking, ‘Niners and Broncos, let’s go and dive in and do this again,’” Tirico said. “I love being in the routine of doing these games.’”

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