Denver Broncos: Top performers against the Washington Redskins

Coaching

Yes, it’s the preseason.

Yes, teams take their starters out midway through the game.

But how about the coaching from the Denver Broncos?

Because of how badly Vance Joseph has been dumped on over the course of the last year, it’s important to give credit when it’s due.

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The decision to fire Mike McCoy before the 2017 season was over was at least a glimpse of Joseph’s good judgment, a move he said he took entirely upon himself to make.

The decision to fire McCoy came with the promotion of Bill Musgrave, whose play calling through three preseason games is better than anything we’ve seen in Denver dating back to even the Gary Kubiak times.

Part of it is personnel, but the Broncos’ offense is the most creative I’ve seen (and we’re not even to the regular season) since Adam Gase was calling the shots.

In addition to Musgrave’s playcalling, the Broncos appear on a significant rise as a special teams unit. Every area of special teams is vastly improved under new coordinator Tom McMahon, who has coached some of the best specialists in the league. Broncos coverage units have been lights out, there have been very few special teams penalties, no muffed punts or fumbled kickoffs, and the Broncos appear to have adjusted to the league’s new kickoff rule extremely well.

Hats off to McMahon.

Defensively, Joe Woods and the boys have dialed up some really nice pressure the past couple of weeks.

After struggling a bit against the Vikings, the Broncos went from 11 hits on the quarterback in the first two preseason games to a whopping 12 hits distributed between eight different players in Washington.

The Broncos have not even unleashed their full NASCAR package yet.

Joe Woods is going to be able to grow from last year’s experience (just 33 sacks, an unacceptable figure given the talent on the roster) and make big strides in year two as defensive coordinator.

Another coaching area that cannot be ignored is the job done by the offensive line coaches Chris Strausser and Sean Kugler.

The Broncos brought in Kugler to specifically coach the interior linemen with Strausser focused on the tackles, and those moves appear to be paying off in a big way.

The offensive line looks like one of the most improved units on the team along with quarterback, wide receiver, running back, and special teams.