The Denver Broncos inactives for their game against the Kansas City Chiefs were: QB Sam Ehlinger, DL Jordan Jackson, S Talanoa Hufanga, TE Dallen Bentley, OL Kage Casey, DL Tyler Onyedim, OL Gavin Ortega.
For the first time this season, Gavin Ortega was elevated to the 53 and made inactive. This was the first time in his career that he has been elevated from the practice squad. The rest of the inactive cast was the same as the week before. Ortega replaced Patrick Surtain on the inactive list.
Offense
The offensive
line and Bo Nix played every offensive snap for the seventh time this season. Quinn Meinerz is the only offensive lineman who has missed any snaps and it was two snaps. The offense has 491 snaps so far this season. The defense has 582 – 91 more than the offense.
This was the changing of the guard at RB in this game. After JK Dobbins run where he turned a 2 yard loss into an 8 yard loss, he was out of the game. He did not see the field. He had 13 offensive snaps, carried the ball 7 times and gained 13 yards. Jonah Coleman got 41 snaps, and Cody Schrader got 2. Dobbins is currently one of the worst RBs in the NFL in terms of yards per touch at 3.25 while RJ Harvey and Jonah Coleman are near the top (35 touches minimum).
Adam Trautman, Evan Engram, and Nate Adkins played 35, 30 and 19 snaps. Trautman had one amazing hands catch similar to the one that he had last season. I’d like to see him do that more than once a season. Nate Adkins got another red zone TD. Evan Engram had 3 targets and zero catches. Engram is on pace for his worst NFL season. He has 13 catches through 8 games. He is on pace for 28 catches. His career minimum is 44 and he did that in 8 games. I don’t know if it’s that he has lost a step or that Bo Nix has lost confidence in him, but for whatever reason Engram has been mostly a waste of snaps so far this season. His 52 percent catch rate (13 catches on 25 targets) is also a career low for him. He has played 263 offensive snaps so far this year (54 percent). Adam Prentice played 13 offensive snaps at fullback.
Courtland Sutton, Jaylen Waddle, Troy Franklin, Marvin Mims, and LJ Humphrey played 50, 28, 44, 18, and 12. They combined for 9 catches on 13 targets. Waddle also had a catch for the two-point conversion.
Defense
On defense three men played every snap: Alex Singleton, Pat Surtain, and Riley Moss.
With both starting safeties out or limping, Taylor Rapp played the most at safety with 56 snaps (81 percent). Devon Key played 49 snaps on defense, Brandon Jones played 24, and JL Skinner played 9 very impactful snaps. Skinner made that critical goal line tackle to keep Kenneth Walker out of the endzone at the end of the game.
At CB, JaQuan McMillian played 56 snaps while Jahdae Barron only played 4 and Kris Abrams-Draine played zero. This is a huge change from the previous game where Barron and KAD played a ton of snaps.
At the other ILB spot Justin Strnad played 50 snaps.
At the OLB spots Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Dondrea Tillman, and Que Robinson played 41, 42, 27, and 28 snaps.
Zach Allen, Eyioma Uwazurike, DJ Jones, Malcolm Roach and Sai’Vion Jones played 49, 31, 32, 38, and 16 snaps.
The defense forced three three and outs in the first half, but none in the second half. The Bronco offense had four three and outs in the game, one in the first half, and three in the second half.
Special Teams
Four players played 75 percent or more of the ST snaps for the Broncos: Que Robinson, Tycen Anderson, Dondrea Tillman, and Devon Key. For the most part the coverage teams played extremely well until the final KO return for the Chiefs, which was returned 44 yards to the KC 44. KAD made the tackle on that play. Tycen Anderson had two ST tackles. Que Robinson had one. All other coverages were touchbacks or fair catches according to the play-by-play.
