The Denver Broncos: The Mile High Collapse

Coming into this season, there was finally hope in Denver, the most hope since they had Peyton Manning under center. The problem lingering in Denver ever since Manning retired was the QB position. Finally, they landed an elite QB. In the offseason, the Broncos gave up a king’s ransom to get Russell Wilson from Seattle. Wilson has been one of the best QBs in the league for the past decade. He carried his Seahawks even though his team often was lacking. But it was clear to everyone that Seattle had to press the restart button. So they shipped Wilson to Denver. And ironically, they’re doing miles better than the Broncos. They’ve defied all expectations but that’s for another article. This article is about the disaster of a season the Broncos have had. It started in Week 1 where they lost to Seattle.

 

New Head Coach Nathaniel Hackett made so many questionable decisions and that trend would continue all season. Their offense has been pathetic. In 9 of their 11 games, they’ve failed to score 20 points. Because of this, their record is a depressing 3-8. Their Week 5 game against the Colts sums up their season. It was a 12-9 loss in one of the most pitiful games in recent history. Scoring 9 points is inexcusable for this team. At least it was supposed to be. Their shining acquisition in Russell Wilson has been fairly pathetic. He only has 8 TD passes this season. This is not the Russell Wilson we saw in Seattle. He has an 82.3 QB rating which is the lowest of his career and the lowest completion % at an embarrassing 58.9%. This is very disappointing for a player of his caliber but it’s not all his fault.

 

His head coach has been terrible. He has obviously shown he can’t run an offense and he horribly underutilizes the run game. The leading rusher on this team is Latavius Murray with 301, which is unbelievably low. Murray averages 4 yards a carry, which is good, but only has 76 attempts all season. In comparison, Eagles RB Miles Sanders is one of the best RBs in the league. He has 177 attempts this season. And yes, Murray shared rushing responsibility with Melvin Gordon for most of the season. But Murray and Gordon’s combined attempts are 166. The Broncos need to run the ball to open up the passing game and put less pressure on Russell Wilson.

 

The one bright side to this season would be that they would get a high draft pick. But they traded their 1st round pick to Seattle, so they’re losing for nothing. This season is a lost cause so they have to look to next year. Their defense is elite, led by Justin Simmons and Patrick Surtain. That is the only good part of their team. So keeping that defensive core is so important. But more importantly, they need to fire Nathaniel Hackett. Hackett has been horrendous all season and the Broncos desperately need changes. The players need to live up to their name. Especially Russell Wilson. Wilson is not going anywhere so he has to show his Seattle form moving forward. The franchise depends on it.