By: Adamo Marinelli
December 28th, 2018
For the first time since 1971-1972, the Denver Broncos have posted back-to-back losing seasons. In 2017, they started 3-1 and finished 5-11; in 2018 they started 2-0 and will finish 6-10 or 7-9 depending on if they beat the Chargers on December 30th.
In the 2017 offseason, the Broncos went out and signed QB Case Keenum to a 2 year, $36 million deal in hopes of solving their QB problems. They traded Trevor Siemian to Minnesota, Brock Osweiler to Miami and cut Paxton Lynch. Also, Chad Kelly, potentially the future QB of the organization, was cut after he was arrested for drunken misconduct in late October of 2018. So that leaves Case Keenum as the starter and Kevin Hogan as the backup.
Compared to Keenum's 2017 campaign with the Vikings, his 2018 campaign has been lacklustre with only 17 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, but he has played okay enough to give the Broncos a chance to compete this season. He is no franchise QB but he is a good transition QB. He has regressed back to his normal production of numbers. Last year with Minnesota was his good year. The numbers might not have looked that great on paper but keep in mind, Keenum’s offensive line went through a lot of changes throughout the year, he lost his favourite tight end targets in Jake Butt and Jeff Huereman to injury, Demaryius Thomas was traded away, Emmanuel Sanders got hurt and Courtland Sutton, Deshaun Hamilton, Philip Lindsay, Royce Freeman and Matt Lacosse are all rookies on the offence. Even Lindsay was injured on Christmas Eve against the Raiders; so Keenum did his best with what he had. He also threw most of the interceptions because Vance Joseph told him to take risks and throw the ball downfield. In the six games he played conservative, he threw no interceptions, had no turnovers and added five touchdowns. There were very few deep shots down the field during this conservative play but it was done when necessary. When he took risks, he had 12 TDs and 14 INTs but the play action worked better. He also set up the run game better when he was conservative because defences weren’t sure if the play would be a run or pass. If he threw it down the field, everyone would block up front and it would be an obvious pass, not run. Keenum also added two rush touchdowns and led two game-winning drives against the Raiders and Chargers and could have had three more against the Chiefs, Texans and Browns if it wasn’t for a crucial penalty or sack.
The quarterback wasn't the only problem this year for the Broncos. There were disputes over ownership and Pat Bowlen’s brother, Bill, is suing CEO Joe Ellis and two other trustees who Bill claims have been taking advantage of his brother, Pat Bowlen during his battle with Alzheimer’s. He claims they’ve been overusing their power, and he thinks Joe Ellis and company shouldn’t have that much power because the agreement was signed when Pat was in his battle against Alzheimer’s. Hence Bill thinks the agreement should be void, which is a recipe for disaster. If management is bad on your team, you cannot expect to win.
Also, the coaching staff didn’t have a great year. Vance Joseph, the head coach is now 11-20 with the Broncos, a franchise low record since Josh McDaniels went 11-17, in the 2009 season and the first 12 games of 2010. That is unacceptable for a second-year coach. Joseph is expected to be fired at the end of the 2018 campaign. The guys still respect Joseph and want to win for him, so expect a huge effort against the Chargers, but it’s too late, the damage is done; Joseph is coaching his last game as a Bronco. The OC and DC are questionable to return.
The OC Bill Musgrave is in his first year with the Broncos but his play calls weren't creative enough to use Keenum's excellent abilities outside the pocket with play actions and bootlegs. In his defence, the offensive line, wide receivers, and tight ends were all ravaged with injury, but the NFL is a performance league, and he hasn’t held up to par. The pass offence is middle of the pack being 17th in the NFL, but his rushing offence is top 10, thanks to Philip Lindsay and Royce Freeman. He has to keep running the ball to open up and effective passing game.
In the 2017 offseason, the Broncos went out and signed QB Case Keenum to a 2 year, $36 million deal in hopes of solving their QB problems. They traded Trevor Siemian to Minnesota, Brock Osweiler to Miami and cut Paxton Lynch. Also, Chad Kelly, potentially the future QB of the organization, was cut after he was arrested for drunken misconduct in late October of 2018. So that leaves Case Keenum as the starter and Kevin Hogan as the backup.
Compared to Keenum's 2017 campaign with the Vikings, his 2018 campaign has been lacklustre with only 17 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, but he has played okay enough to give the Broncos a chance to compete this season. He is no franchise QB but he is a good transition QB. He has regressed back to his normal production of numbers. Last year with Minnesota was his good year. The numbers might not have looked that great on paper but keep in mind, Keenum’s offensive line went through a lot of changes throughout the year, he lost his favourite tight end targets in Jake Butt and Jeff Huereman to injury, Demaryius Thomas was traded away, Emmanuel Sanders got hurt and Courtland Sutton, Deshaun Hamilton, Philip Lindsay, Royce Freeman and Matt Lacosse are all rookies on the offence. Even Lindsay was injured on Christmas Eve against the Raiders; so Keenum did his best with what he had. He also threw most of the interceptions because Vance Joseph told him to take risks and throw the ball downfield. In the six games he played conservative, he threw no interceptions, had no turnovers and added five touchdowns. There were very few deep shots down the field during this conservative play but it was done when necessary. When he took risks, he had 12 TDs and 14 INTs but the play action worked better. He also set up the run game better when he was conservative because defences weren’t sure if the play would be a run or pass. If he threw it down the field, everyone would block up front and it would be an obvious pass, not run. Keenum also added two rush touchdowns and led two game-winning drives against the Raiders and Chargers and could have had three more against the Chiefs, Texans and Browns if it wasn’t for a crucial penalty or sack.
The quarterback wasn't the only problem this year for the Broncos. There were disputes over ownership and Pat Bowlen’s brother, Bill, is suing CEO Joe Ellis and two other trustees who Bill claims have been taking advantage of his brother, Pat Bowlen during his battle with Alzheimer’s. He claims they’ve been overusing their power, and he thinks Joe Ellis and company shouldn’t have that much power because the agreement was signed when Pat was in his battle against Alzheimer’s. Hence Bill thinks the agreement should be void, which is a recipe for disaster. If management is bad on your team, you cannot expect to win.
Also, the coaching staff didn’t have a great year. Vance Joseph, the head coach is now 11-20 with the Broncos, a franchise low record since Josh McDaniels went 11-17, in the 2009 season and the first 12 games of 2010. That is unacceptable for a second-year coach. Joseph is expected to be fired at the end of the 2018 campaign. The guys still respect Joseph and want to win for him, so expect a huge effort against the Chargers, but it’s too late, the damage is done; Joseph is coaching his last game as a Bronco. The OC and DC are questionable to return.
The OC Bill Musgrave is in his first year with the Broncos but his play calls weren't creative enough to use Keenum's excellent abilities outside the pocket with play actions and bootlegs. In his defence, the offensive line, wide receivers, and tight ends were all ravaged with injury, but the NFL is a performance league, and he hasn’t held up to par. The pass offence is middle of the pack being 17th in the NFL, but his rushing offence is top 10, thanks to Philip Lindsay and Royce Freeman. He has to keep running the ball to open up and effective passing game.
The DC Joe Woods also seriously underperformed this year. Granted the secondary was really banged up, they had 12 starters in the secondary this year, third-most behind the Packers and the Eagles. Also apart from three games where the defence gave up 200+ rush yards in each game, the rush defence has been pretty good. The pass rush has been great too, the team has recorded 43 sacks, tied for 4th in the NFL and the secondary despite being banged up has played pretty well considering they played against pretty elite talent at the wide receiver position like Antonio Brown, Deandre Hopkins, Keenan Allen, Larry Fitzgerald, Tyreek Hill, etc. Covering tight ends though is something the Broncos cannot figure out how to do and it’s killing them: Will Dissly, Travis Kelce, Jared Cook, Antonio Gates, etc.
The Broncos have been riddled with injuries at a variety of different positions that negatively affected the outcome of this season.
Firstly, the Broncos lost three tight ends, which is three fewer weapons for Keenum to electrify this offence. Jake Butt was injured with a torn ACL in walkthroughs after the Broncos’ week three loss to the Ravens. He would have been a massive game changer in the passing game if he stayed healthy. Jeff Heureman, playing in his second season was also injured in the 24-17 win against the Steelers. He lifted the Broncos’ offence in both the passing and blocking game. It was unfortunate to see him get injured. Troy Fumagalli, drafted by the Broncos this year also was lost to an injury before the season started. It’s too bad. He would have had a great rookie season. This negatively impacts the Broncos’ pass game.
Secondly, the Broncos lost 3 offensive linemen in a matter of weeks: centre Matt Paradis, guard Max Garcia and guard Ronald Leary. This caused the Broncos to have plenty of scrambling on the offensive line. They moved guard Connor McGovern to play centre, moved Garret Bolles to right guard from tackle, moved Billy Turner to left guard (Turner is the team’s 3rd LG this season), they kept Jared Veldheer as right tackle, and added Elijah Wilkinson as right guard in an all-important, must-win game for the Broncos against the Chargers. The new offensive line played amazing, allowing 0 sacks against the two-headed pass rush monster on the Chargers: Melvin Engram and Joey Bosa. They kicked it right into high gear when it mattered. They played their hearts out. They also allowed only 3 sacks in the next game, 2 against Pittsburgh and 1 against the Bengals. Despite injury all season long, they played well. There were a few games where they allowed 4-5 sacks, and there was 1 costly sack against Cleveland that ended the game but other than that, the line played great.
After Demaryius Thomas was traded, Emmanuel Sanders was the only main veteran wide receiver left on the team. After he was injured in practice on December 5th before the week 14 game against the 49ers, the team’s starting wide receivers were all rookies: Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick as wideouts and Daesean Hamilton played in the slot. The production was great before Thomas got traded, even after Thomas was traded and it was just Sanders leading all the rookies because teams didn’t know if the Broncos would run or pass the ball which helped their young pass game and young run game under Freeman and Lindsay be very effective. Once Thomas and Sanders were out of the picture, teams knew the Broncos would be run heavy and were able to load the box and stop Lindsay in his tracks. Lindsay had less than 100 yards and no touchdowns in the game against the 49ers and Browns. However, he was better against the Raiders, before he left the game with a moderately severe wrist injury. It will require surgery and 3-4 months of rehab, the undrafted free agent will miss the regular season finale and his first Pro Bowl.
Not to mention, the Broncos’ secondary was very injured this year. Chris Harris Jr. got hurt with a fractured fibula on the Bengals’ first offensive drive. This was the worst of the many injuries in the secondary; he was the glue holding the secondary together. When he was not on the field, the Broncos secondary deteriorated a lot. The Broncos have been injury riddled in the secondary, they’ve had over 13 starters in their secondary due to all the injuries, only behind the Eagles with 14. Including Chris Harris, they’ve had: Bradley Roby, Isaac Yiadom, Brendan Langley, Adam Jones, Justin Simmons (a safety who had to move to nickel corner with all the injuries), Will Parks, Darian Stewart, Dymonte Thomas, Shamarko Thomas, Craig Mager, Jamar Taylor and Horace Richardson. That is a lot of players to start in one season. The Broncos after parting ways with DC Wade Phillips and cornerbacks Aqib Talib and T.J. Ward have seen their “No Fly Zone” defence which helped Peyton Manning’s electrifying offence win Super Bowl 50 turn into a defence that has been walked all over for the most part this year. The Broncos are not playing with enough confidence as they used to and they do not have enough star-power at the position like when they did with Talib, Harris Jr., Ward playing together, says Louis Riddick, an ESPN analysis and a former NFL defensive back. Teams like the Chiefs, Buccaneers and Saints have also allowed an average of 300+ receiving yards per game for the majority of the season like the Broncos, but in an offensive heavy league in 2018, who can blame these secondaries, especially when riddled with injury. “I think (offences) are being aggressive,” [Vance] Joseph said. “Offensive football, right now, is hard to stop.” 10 teams, including the Broncos, have an opponents passer rating of over 100 all season long. Denver’s run defence played excellent all year except for 3 200+ rush yard games from a single running back (Kareem Hunt, Isaiah Crowell and Todd Gurley) and their pass rush is tied for fifth in the NFL with Baltimore, Green Bay and Arizona with 43 sacks on the season. Von Miller has 14.5 of those sacks and needs two more to reach 100 regular season sacks and rookie Bradley Chubb has 12, he needs three more to break the single-season rookie sack record. But with may mobile QBs like Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson, your team needs a secondary to compete, no matter how good your run defence or pass rush is.
The Broncos also had a lot of rookies like Courtland Sutton, Deshaun Hamilton, Philip Lindsay, Royce Freeman and Matt Lacosse and new players from other teams coming in free agency. A young team with a lot of rookies not only makes it hard to develop chemistry on offence and defence but it also decreases play efficiency. Teammates of 5 years on defence would know who covers who and what happens if there is a cross route or a switch. A QB and a WR who’ve been on the same team for five years know what the other person will do, the quarterback knows the route the receiver will do and can take more risks when throwing him the ball, the QB also knows if the receiver will change routes and the receiver will know if the quarterback throws him the ball earlier or later and if the QB changes up the play call. It’s hard to do this on a team mainly built around rookies on both offence and defence. The Broncos have the 5th most rookies in the league on their team. Same applies with traded players from other teams.
Furthermore, the Broncos have also had very tough schedules the past two seasons. In 2017, they had the toughest strength of schedule, being at .573, meaning the teams they played in 2016 had a combined record which had a winning percentage of .573. In 2018, it was their strength of schedule was top 5, at .519, which is a disadvantage for the Broncos.
Also, the Broncos lost some games they could have and should have won, some to inferior competition. They beat the Steelers in amazing fashion, had extraordinary comeback wins against the Raiders in week two and the Chargers, a hard-fought win against the Seahawks and a blowout win against the Cardinals and Bengals, but the win column should be bigger. They lost to the Chiefs twice, and they had a chance to win both of those games. The first game, they shouldn’t have blown a 10 point fourth quarter lead by playing defence with a huge cushion from the line of scrimmage, which isn’t good when playing a QB like Mahomes who can throw the ball fast. However, the Broncos had the chance to win it, but Keenum overthrew Thomas on a 3 and 10 from around the Chiefs 25 which fell incomplete. The Broncos failed a hook and ladder on the next play. The Broncos also could’ve won the second matchup against the Chiefs, but too many penalties throughout the game, but the Broncos down by 7 in their final drive and the Broncos couldn’t get into the end zone. The Broncos also should have beat the Rams. They lost 23-20, but the Broncos had a touchdown called back because Sanders was down at the 1-yard line. It was the wrong call -the refs have been terrible against Denver all year making ridiculous calls like this one - but its okay, just punch it in with Lindsay. However, on top of that, the refs threw a 15-yard flag for taunting because Emmanuel Sanders was throwing his hands up in celebration. Even though his hands were gesturing towards the defender, he didn’t mean any harm, that is a weak call. Surprise, Broncos had to settle for a field goal on that drive. Those 4 extra points off that denied touchdown would have given the Broncos a win. Also, they should have beat the Texans, but Vance Joseph’s inability to manage a game clock is another problem. Late in the first half, Vance Joseph attempted a 62-yard field goal to tie the game 13-13. Brendan McManus missed and the Texans with 18 seconds and two timeouts left drove an incredible 11 yards to get into field goal range before they extended the lead 16-10 at the half. Then at the end of the game, Joseph’s incompetence was as bright as day: he had a first down at the Texans’ 36-yard line with 44 seconds to go in the game, down 19-17 with two timeouts. Instead of running several plays, at least two run and a pass to make the field goal easy for McManus, who’s already missed one today, he decides to run only 1 play, wasting 30 seconds of clock, a play which Lindsay gained a mere four yards. With three seconds left, McManus missed a game-winning 51-yard field goal. He probably could have hit that, but shame on Joseph for not getting closer. Finally, they should have beat the 49ers but they just didn’t show up to play and tight end George Kittle owned them going for 210 yards and a receiving touchdown. The same thing happened with the Raiders on Christmas Eve, the Broncos were simply outplayed. And in Cleveland, the Broncos were penalised way too excessively, which ultimately cost them the game after a Jabrill Peppers sack on a Broncos 4th down from midfield to end it officially. Same deal with the Ravens, the refs were terrible as they have been all year against the Broncos. Lindsay being ejected for jumping into a pile to grab a fumble was called “punching” and a blocked kick touchdown return was called back because of an illegal block in the back, which was nowhere near the play is absolute malarkey. The Jets, mainly Isaiah Crowell just outplayed Denver. The Broncos had no answer for him: he rushed for 219 yards and a touchdown on the ground. In the regular season finale against the Chargers, expect the Broncos to play hard and play spoiler to the Chargers’ hopes of getting the AFC’s first seed.
Despite it has been another rough season for the Denver Broncos, because of injuries, bad referees and bad play calling and time management, it is also their second consecutive losing season; last year they finished 5-11 and this year they are 6-9 so far (the Broncos haven’t had consecutive losing seasons since 1971-1972), the Broncos can expect improvement with all their injured players being back to start the 2019 season. Also, Vance Joseph is expected to be fired at the end of this season, with Joe Woods and Bill Musgrave, so change is coming soon in Denver.
