Denver Broncos: Biggest disappointments from loss to the Jets

Case Keenum

After a stellar regular season with the Minnesota Vikings in 2017, Case Keenum has regressed and is holding the Denver Broncos’ offense back similar to the quarterback play Denver wanted him to replace.

The Broncos paid Keenum $36 million over two seasons in hopes that his 2017 season was a sign of progress but so far, the results have been unimpressive to say the least.

Keenum has the worst NFL quarterback rating in the red zone. The Broncos’ offense is struggling badly to finish drives and he’s got at least one interception in every game so far this season, including three picks in the first game of the year, giving him seven overall.

Those seven interceptions would be much more digestible if Keenum were leading the Broncos to scoring drives in the meantime, but he’s not. They were 1-of-4 in the red zone on Sunday against the Jets, including having a couple of goal-to-go situations end with three points or less.

Keenum is not the sole reason for the Broncos’ lack of offensive success, but he’s doing a lot of things wrong. He’s holding the ball too long in the pocket, putting too much air under the ball when it should be on a rope, putting it on a rope when he should be putting air under it, and generally looking confused or not confident.

Those things were all on display in this game against the Jets where Keenum’s shortcomings were not because of a poor scheme but lack of execution or physical traits.

The Broncos obviously believed prior to the start of the season that Keenum had evolved into the type of player that could not only stabilize the organization for a bit, but was someone who could potentially develop into a franchise guy.

He’s looked more like the Jeff Fisher version of Keenum than anything else through five games.