The good news is that this is only the preseason. We are most definitely talkin’ ’bout practice. I’m not overly worried about the game going sideways. The only real concern it shows is a lack of overall depth on the roster in a cohesive way that the Denver Broncos will not likely ever need to lean on.
I think the hidden benefit of this game is that it is going to provide the team from every level of the roster with some much-needed focus and drive. The defense looked putrid throughout the game. The offense
did well enough with the 1s, but there was nothing productive from the 2s and 3s.
I’m not going to be bent, though. This is the preseason, and the Broncos weren’t doing much outside of vanilla calls throughout the game. I’ll be worried about the team if and when they look like this in the regular season (they will have many opportunities early in the season to look bad given how many quality teams they play in weeks 2 – 6).
Offense
The starting offense for the Broncos looks to be in pretty decent shape. With Bo Nix and most of the starters in, the offense drove for two scores with no real difficulty. With Harvey and Coleman having some level of running success, the drives were carried largely by the passing game.
Past that, the offense couldn’t get out of its own way. Penalties, missed opportunities, and a consistent lack of sound blocking kept the Broncos from making anything else useful happen throughout the game.
The good thing I walk away with about this offensive example is that we’ll see far more of the good and far less of the bad once the season starts. The offense wasn’t dialing up complicated play calls. Even the big pass to Waddle was a very normal route to the middle of the field that was created largely by the player, not by the scheme.
I honestly think Davis Webb and Sean Payton are going to have a lot of fun with this offense once the regular season gets here.
Quarterbacks
Bo Nix may not have played a lot of snaps, but it was so good to see him scanning deeper down the field consistently. There is a fable out there that he’s a short-throw quarterback, but we in Broncos Country know the truth: Nix loves pushing the ball down the field. Seeing him connect with Waddle was pretty electric. That connection is going to pay big dividends for the offense this season.
Jarrett Stidham looked pretty friggin’ bad to my eyes. He barely pushed the ball downfield outside of one throw for 25 yards. He threw a total rookie pick at the end of the quarter, just staring his target down the whole time and handing the ball to the Green Bay Packers. He had a receiver winning a route on a 3rd and long and threw far short.
I’m honestly disappointed that we didn’t see more of Sam Ehlinger in this game. He only threw two passes on the day, and this would have been a great opportunity to see what kind of spark he could bring as a backup quarterback. The coaches either kept him off the field to protect Stidham, or because Ehlinger just looks consistently worse in practices (if I were forced to bet, my money would be on the latter).
The offense had far too many penalties that dug too many deep holes for the Broncos on a day where it was already rough sledding. Adam Prentice, Frank Crum, Alex Palczewski, and Lucas Krull all contributed holds in the game, which I’m sure Payton will be highlighting in their reviews as things that will keep players from moving up the roster from wherever they may stand.
Line
The center situation is looking bad for the Broncos. Calvin Throckmorton handled most of the first half of snaps. Gavin Ortega had a bad snap that led to a fumble, which seemed to move the Broncos more into shotgun to ease up his job. Ortega got absolutely owned to give up a sack, which was very much on the offensive line, not the quarterback. My eyes are telling me the rookie needs to go back into the oven for a bit and that either Forsyth or Wattenberg need to get healthy in a hurry.
The only officially listed center that dressed for this game was Lecitus Smith, who only came in for 2 snaps.
Running Backs
RJ Harvey is a red zone weapon. He reeled in the first touchdown of the game toward the corner of the end zone from 21 yards out. He had but one run for 5 yards on the day to go with his 2 catches before the Broncos shut him down for the game.
Rookie Jonah Coleman got a few swings in the game as well, but didn’t amount to anything significant either running or receiving. He had 3 rushes for 9 measly yards and 1 catch for -2.
Jaleel McLaughlin starts poorly, trying to juke a guy in the backfield when he could have kept running to minimize the loss. He led the team with 4 runs going for 15 yards and also led the team in receptions with 3 for 9 yards…be still, my heart.
Late in the game, Cody Schrader did contribute some runs to rival McLaughlin with 4 runs for 15 yards as well and 1 catch for 5 yards. Even given what I’d call a good game for a guy way down the depth chart, I doubt it does much to move him up the depth chart. I think Badie’s already shown this coaching staff he’s the perfect “do it all decently” backup to keep on the roster in the regular season.
Receivers
Jaylen Waddle’s clutch catch on third down for 35 yards had me practically out of my seat (which is saying a lot for a preseason game). I’m so stoked to see more of Waddle in the regular season. He so easily created space for Nix to complete a pass deep downfield and then showed the stop-and-go talent that makes him a threat to house it on any play.
Lil’Jordan Humphrey perfectly runs a comeback route and gets a first down early. He had another catch later in the game totalling 32 yards on 2 out of 3 targets. This is the guy a player like Cameron Ross needs to outplay. Humphrey has been a staple for the Broncos for a few years now, and this coaching staff knows he can be relied on.
Rookies Dane Key and Cameron Ross accorded themselves well in this game. Key had a big catch for 35 yards. Ross made a 3rd and 11 conversion and had 2 catches on the day. I think both guys have a spot on the practice squad, if not the regular roster.
Justin Joly had a good game with a nice tall grab for 5 yards and a 3rd down conversion in traffic. He used his size perfectly in traffic, which is what you want to see from your tight ends. I’m excited to see him develop with the Broncos as the season wears on.
Defense
Green Bay took this vaunted Broncos defense out back to the wood shed and tanned the Broncos’ hide from the start of the game until the end. Every level of play from the Packers had success. The passing game worked. The run game worked. The Broncos lost the turnover battle.
Vance Joseph has plenty of film to work with for corrections this week. The Broncos looked mostly flat-footed far too often in coverage, giving up consistent cushions and seeming to be resigned to just being able to tackle quickly to function.
Front 7
The best player on the defense this game was Que Robinson. He drew a roughing the passer penalty for playing perfectly and hitting a quarterback as he was releasing the ball (someone mentioned it was for falling on the QB, but his weight was going sideways, which is what they are supposed to do). He gets home in the 3rd quarter with a big sack on 3rd down for a loss of 10 yards. He also had a tackle for loss and 2 credited quarterback hits on the day.
Alex Singleton doubled up on coverage in the red zone with a guy already covered. In doing so, he vacated the middle of the field for the Packers to get an easy touchdown right behind him.
Outside of Robinson, the lack of pass rush from the whole front was pretty impressive. Nik Bonitto had one good rush that I noticed, but was ineffective otherwise. Jonathan Cooper didn’t really show up even though he was on the field for 16 snaps. Justin Strnad played 17 snaps without impacting things as well. Neither Jonah Ellis nor Dondrea Tillman got home or even rushed a play as far as pass rush goes, though they both at least contributed some tackles.
Secondary
Riley Moss started the game off with perfect coverage in his receiver’s hip pocket for a pass breakup. I was bummed to see him coming off the field after what looked to me to be a fumble recovery. Moss has looked like absolute fire so far in the preseason.
Patrick Surtain almost gets a forced fumble. Later in the game, he got smoked on a crossing route on 4th and 1. It was pretty cool to see him lower the shoulder and absolutely blast a Packers receiver at the sideline who thought he could fight for yardage and instead found himself picking himself up off the ground asking for the plates on the truck that just ran him over.
Jahdae Barron came on a corner blitz on 3rd down and blasted Tyrod Taylor and also notched a tackle for loss on the day. I did note that he was in the game for more than half of the snaps and rarely got a look his way. He gave up one pass for about 11 yards, but was on top of the other couple targets, stopping the plays for little to no gain.
Kris Abrams-Draine got worked in this game. He gave up way too many passes with off coverage that was far too passive. Yes, the call may be to play off, but that doesn’t mean you should stay back and give up 5+ yards multiple times before you are close enough to make a tackle.
Brent Austin is another rookie that needs more development. He had terrible coverage, giving up a 30+ yard pass.
Reese Taylor didn’t want Austin to feel left out, so he also put some film out there on how not to cover on the outside.
Special Teams
Colby Katsis accounted pretty well for himself as a returner. He’s no Marvin Mims, but he had one kickoff return of 40 that looked excellent. Even if you take that away, he averaged 25+ yards per return on kickoffs, which isn’t too shabby, and 17 on his one punt return.
I liked the effort play of Sean Fresh Jr., who ran down the big return. I’m not sure if he has a spot on the roster at corner, but plays like that are going to solidify a spot for him on the practice squad.
Final Thoughts
This is a rough game and should bring some small level of worry to Broncos fans. The effort and execution as the game wore on was honestly garbage. This wasn’t representative of the standard this team is capable of, for sure.
The good thing is that we know this team is capable of far more; most of the game wasn’t our starting players, and the schemes in play on both sides of the ball were very vanilla. As the team rounds into form for their Week 1 matchup with the Chiefs, they are going to need to dial in quite a bit better if they want to start the season off with success.
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