Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag weekly during the season and periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question.
After the first four games of the season, what overall letter grade would you give the Broncos? And why?
— Ed Helinski, Auburn, N.Y.
Thanks for getting us going this week, Ed. I hadn’t thought about it in those overall terms so far. Let’s say in the B- or C+ range. Looking at the first four games, I’d have guessed 1-3 before the season. In fact, I think I did for The Post’s preview magazine. So just by that mark alone, 2-2 is slightly above expectations in a broad sense.
The 2-0 road trip can’t be considered anything other than impressive, no matter what the wins looked like. Tampa Bay and the Jets are teams that should be in the mix for the postseason and after the 0-2 start it could have gone sideways fast for Denver. Instead at 2-2, the Broncos are in an area where anything’s possible. Parity in the NFL is insane. Only 10 of 32 teams are 3-1 or 4-0, but there are 13 alone at 2-2. That includes the two divisional teams Denver plays at home the next two Sundays in Las Vegas and the Los Angeles Chargers. Big opportunities coming up.
Vance Joseph’s defense gets top marks so far, special teams gets a good grade, too, and the offense is off to a much slower start. Think Sean Payton ever thought he’d coach a team that’s No. 28 in scoring offense and No. 3 in scoring defense?
Nothing’s a finished product, of course. The defense has to show it can withstand early-season injuries over more than just a couple of weeks. The offense has seen its engine, the offensive line, start to find a rhythm after a really poor start. The biggest single question is whether Bo Nix starts to find a sustainable groove. If the rookie does, this team can be dangerous. If he struggles, the long-term outlook might not suffer but it’s going to put the Broncos in a mode this fall where they have to ace every close-game test in order to be in playoff contention.
Overall, consider it a relatively promising start. This is going to sound worse than I mean it, but it reminds me a little bit of 2022 in that the defense got off to a roaring start and you were just waiting for the offense to come around. It never did, the defense finally buckled and the season went off the rails. This offense doesn’t need to score 30 a game, but the Broncos have to be a lot better than their current No. 31 on both third down and red zone touchdown rate.
Parker, it felt like in Week 3 our offense started flowing like a capable offense for the first time in ages. I know it was rainy, but why were so many of our plays just short dump-off passes behind the line of …read more
Source:: The Denver Post – Sports
