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.
Any cause for concern about our lack of pass-rush on Thursday? We’ll get exploited by the Bengals offense if we can’t get pressure on Joe Burrow. And if our offense struggles like it did late vs. the Chargers, I’m not sure we have the firepower to come back.
— Mike, Denver
Hey Mike, thanks for writing in and for getting us going on the holiday week.
Bottom line: Not really. The Broncos didn’t get to Herbert all that often. Next Gen Stats credited them with 11 pressures and a 30.6% rate, which is their third-lowest of the season after the New York Jets and Baltimore games. Part of the equation is that Los Angeles has a terrific pair of tackles in Rashawn Slater and rookie Joe Alt. Slater was really impressive against Nik Bonitto, in particular.
The Bengals are dangerous, no doubt about it, but their offensive line has not been their strong suit. The pressure rate against Burrow is middle of the pack and he’s been sacked 37 times, tied for ninth most in the NFL. Some of the more advanced metrics like ESPN’s win rates suggest that Burrow is doing good work to negate sub-par performance overall up front.
Obviously, Burrow and those receivers present plenty of challenges, but this should be a matchup where the Denver defensive front can make some hay.
Parker, our defense was completely exposed in the second half against the Chargers. Ladd McConkey seemed open every time they threw to him. Why didn’t we have Pat Surtain II shadow him?
— Marcus W., Brighton
Sean Payton has commented multiple times since the game ended on the frustrating nature of Denver’s coverage underneath. We’ll hear more from Vance Joseph and some of the players this week, but a lot of McConkey’s production, in particular, was on crossing routes. One area the Broncos have struggled defensively this season is when a lot is asked of their inside linebackers in coverage. They struggled against Baltimore, in particular, and, lo and behold, then against the other Harbaugh brother a few weeks later.
As for Surtain, the rate at which McConkey plays out of the slot makes that difficult. It’s tougher to press guys in there and you’re showing your hand in coverage if you’re putting Surtain over him all the time. Joseph’s also felt the need to adjust the way he deploys coverages some since Riley Moss has been out.
Speaking of coverage: How much fun is it going to be this weekend to watch Surtain and Ja’Marr Chase do battle? And Moss may be welcomed back from missing a month with the chore of dealing with Tee Higgins.
Why have we not had any update on Tyler Badie? Is he done for the season?
— Jess Medina Jr., Sublette, Kan.
After Badie’s back injury happened, Payton said he’d have a chance to play again this season. Since then, however, there’s been no sign that he’s going to return. He’s been working out consistently on the Broncos’ side field for the past several weeks, but Denver has not opened his 21-day practice window. Last year, they got OT Alex Palczewski back to practice for the final three weeks of the season even though it was pretty clear he wasn’t going to play unless injuries hit up front. They could do similar with Badie, but only if he’s ready to actually practice.
Always appreciate the opportunity to ask questions and it’s my favorite read every week. My question is around the Thursday flex. Was it a poor decision to take the short week in favor of the national spotlight? Or would it have been a stronger play to stick to the standard week to better prepare for the Chargers?
— Drew Darling, Olathe, Kan.
Hey Drew, thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated. Obviously after losing the game – and giving up a lead in the second half – it would be easy to say, “Oh, they shouldn’t have agreed to the flex.” But I think the rationale for it was sound across the board.
Denver still had a rest advantage against the Chargers given they’d played one game since their bye week, while L.A.’s was back in Week 5. Also, if you know you’re going to be a road underdog against a quality team (and you liked your short-week prep strategy early in the season going to New Orleans), why not try to muddy the game up, play it on a short week and take the full prep week out of the equation?
Those factors are on top of the main one Payton actually cited in his explanation of taking the short week and that’s that the original Thursday night game was Cincinnati and Cleveland. So under the original schedule, the Bengals would have had nine days between games and the Broncos six. Now it’s the opposite, so a six-day swing in rest.
I think it all made sense. The Broncos just didn’t make the first leg of it pay. Now the pressure’s on.
Now be honest now. Prior to the season did you believe the Broncos had enough talent and could make the playoffs?
— Ed Helinski, Auburn, N.Y.
Easiest answer of the year here, Ed. I did not. In fact, I believe my preseason prediction was for six wins. The one thing I wrote several times was that I thought they had real upward mobility from there if Bo Nix played well as a rookie, but wanted to see that in action before just assuming it would happen. Obviously, it has for big chunks of the season.
But I also definitely underestimated how much better the defensive front seven would be and the impact that Moss would have opposite Surtain.
All of that has added up to a surprising group and a compelling story. Now they’ve got a chance to make sure it extends past the first week of January.
Why did Sean Payton give up on the run game so quickly? We marched our way into the end zone of the first drive, but we only ended up with 21 carries all game.
— Mark, Arvada
Yeah, Mark, we’ve written about it quite a bit. Eleven carries for 73 yards and a touchdown on the first two drives, then 10 for 37 the final eight drives. It’s not the first time this has happened to Denver under Payton, either. Something similar happened in losses last year to Washington in Week 2 and the New York Jets in Week 5, where the run game was good early, Denver built a lead and then got away from it before losing.
Some of it is game-flow-driven. But sometimes when the Broncos build up a lead, Payton appears to shift into the mode of going for the jugular. That can be good, of course, but in games like Thursday night, it can mean getting away from what set the lead-up in the first place.
Parker, this is a two-parter. I used to understand the schedule: Six games in your own division, one game against each team in one division of your conference and one against each team of a division in the other conference. But now, with 17 games, how are the other three determined?
And the other part: It used to be AFC on CBS, NFC on FOX, interconference games at the home of the opposite conference. If Denver was playing Atlanta, CBS would cover if in Atlanta, Fox would cover if in Denver. Now I see two AFC teams playing on Fox. Can you wise me up? And, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
— Fred Waiss, Prairie du Chien, Wis.
Hey Fred, great questions. The final three games are basically picked from divisions you’re not on the books to play (two conference, one non-conference). The two conference games are split home and road and then the non-conference game is the swing game based on if the AFC or NFC has the extra home game that year.
Those three matchups are set according to division standing, so if you finish third, you play the third-place teams from those divisions.
The Broncos for 2025 play the AFC South and the NFC East and they’ll have three matchups set based on eventual division standings from the AFC North and NFC North (home games) and from the AFC East (road game).
As for the television stuff, some of that is just the array of broadcast partners has expanded — NFL Network, Amazon Prime and now Netflix debuting Wednesday. That means there are more streaming games that are just shown over the air in local markets and it also means there’s more flexing, which means more moving pieces on where those games end up on television.
Thanks, as always, for reading and for all of you who write into the mailbag. It is very much appreciated.
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