By Jordan Long
The Denver Broncos season ended just like it started, with a loss. Denver was defeated by the Las Vegas Raiders 32-31. Denver finishes the season at 5-11, the 4th straight season with a losing record missing the playoffs for the 5th straight year.
The Broncos season started with 3 straight losses before defeating the New York Jets in week 4, 37-28. Denver won in week 6 by beating the New England Patriots. At 2-3, it looked like the Broncos could turn their season around. Unfortunately, it didn’t. The Broncos went 3-8 the rest of the way. Denver endured two more 2 game losing streaks and a 3 game skid to end the year.
The Broncos year could have ended differently. Of their 11 defeats, 6 of them were by 7 points or less. If those games turned out differently, the Broncos may have ended the season at 11-5. Denver couldn’t finish games off. They had their chances but the defense let them down even though defense was the strength of this team.
The Broncos had trouble stopping teams from gaining yards. Denver gave up 367.9 yards per game, 21st in the NFL. When it came to pass defense, Denver allowed 237.9 passing yards per game, 15th in the NFL.
Their biggest problem on defense was stopping the run. Teams used the running game to open the passing game. Denver couldn’t tackle running backs and when teams had the running game going, it tired the defense out. Opponents’ controlled the clock. Rival teams ran the ball for an average of 130 yards per game. That also helped teams score points. The defense gave up 27.9 points per game. Those defensive numbers are part of why Denver struggled.
The Broncos offense was one of the youngest units in the league. They even had a new offensive coordinator in Pat Shurmur who was hopefully going to be creative with his play calls and use the running backs more in the passing game.
Unfortunately, the Broncos’ offense wasn’t great this season. Denver was 23rd in the NFL for total yards, averaging 335.6 yards per game. Denver anticipated the passing game would be much improved from last year with quarterback Drew Lock. Denver passed the ball for 215.7 yards per game but had trouble scoring, averaging 20.2 points per game. Barely averaging 20 points per game will not win many games in the NFL.
The bright spot in Denver was the running game. The offensive line created holes for the running backs to run through. Those were large gains ending up in 119.9 rush yards per game.
With the Broncos in the offseason, Denver will need to improve this team once again so they can make it back to the playoffs in 2021. Denver must decide what they will do at quarterback. Drew Lock finished his 2nd season. There were times where he was patient and found his open receivers for them to have a large gain. Other passes he locked onto one receiver and those were either batted down or intercepted instead of looking for his check-down wide-out. Lock tried tossing the ball way downfield for the “homerun” play and most of the time those were overthrows. Lock finished with 2,933 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions.
The Broncos must decide if he is still the future. They could always draft one or sign a veteran quarterback in free agency. These could be Dak Prescott, Ryan Fitzpatrick, or Jacoby Brissett. Prescott would want to be a starter and Denver may not land him. Plus his injury history might scare the Broncos away from him. Fitzpatrick and Brissett are backups. They would push Lock to earn the starting job in training camp and preseason games. At least Lock would have a competition to prove he is the starting quarterback.
On defense, there are two key decisions. The Broncos would like to sign safety Justin Simmons to a long-term contract. They placed the franchise tag on him last year. It is possible if they can’t come to a deal, they could once again give him the tag. Simmons is the leader of the defense. The Broncos also need to keep defensive end Shelby Harris. He is a free agent. Harris wants to stay in Denver. Harris is the Broncos’ top defensive end to put pressure on the quarterbacks and knock the football down. It will come down to money for him to stay in Denver. If another team offers him more money and it’s for 3 or 4 years, it would be difficult for Harris to turn that down.
Once those moves are completed, Denver will look at other areas to enhance the team. Both sides of the ball need fixing. Once free agency is done, the next order of business is the NFL Draft where Denver selects 9th in the 1st-round. The Broncos have a lot of work to do. Hopefully, they can find ways to once again become a winning football team, even if it isn’t the playoffs in 2021.
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