Denver Broncos could have more success under Scangarello

The Denver Broncos are going to be running Rich Scangarello’s offense that he ran in San Francisco. They should have tremendous success.

Rookie quarterback Drew Lock has worked with former NFL quarterback and “quarterback guru” Jordan Palmer, and his familiarity with the things that were worked on is coming into play with the Denver Broncos.

Lock told the media today, after a session of rookie minicamp, that he is familiar with some of the things that were taught today.

As for when Lock will be the man under center for the Broncos remains to be seen. However, a similarity between the 49ers offense of 2018 and whenever Lock is the starting quarterback is that both teams will have had a young guy in the huddle.

In Scangarello’s offense during the 2018 season, the San Francisco 49ers rolled with Nick Mullens after Jimmy Garoppolo went down with a torn ACL.

During the season, according to NextGenStats, Mullens’ passer ratings were as follows:

Behind the line of scrimmage, left to right: 99.3, 100.0, and 95.5.
1-10 yards past the line of scrimmage: 94.8, 75.8, and 123.8.
10-20 yards past the line of scrimmage: 53.1, 104.2, and 141.4.
20+ yards past the line of scrimmage: 65.3, 32.6, and 47.9.

This is obviously a different team than the San Francisco 49ers and passer ratings do not tell the whole story. However, it is a small glimpse of what could happen with Joe Flacco—and eventually Drew Lock.

With Scangarello coming to Denver, he brings the same formula he used in San Francisco with the 49ers.

In 2018, the San Francisco 49ers ran plays from the shotgun 56 percent of the time and 44 percent under center. The Denver Broncos finished the season with those numbers as well.

While in the shotgun, San Francisco ran the football 18 percent of the time while running the football 61% of the time while when the quarterback was under center.

Per footballoutsiders.com, the 49ers ran play action 26 percent of the time and gained 9.1 yards per play action play. The Denver Broncos ran play action 25 percent of the time and gained 7.6 yards per play.

The 49ers were—and still are—a young offense under Scanagarello. With youth comes inexperience. The Broncos have a young nucleus as well, but have a more experienced quarterback in Joe Flacco and a wide receiver who has been around a while and shouldn’t have an issue learning Scangarello’s offense (Emmanuel Sanders).

There are obviously some similarities between the Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers of last season. There are also some differences. But how close the two teams were in some of these categories makes me believe that the Broncos are going to be even better in 2019 than San Francisco was under Scangarello in 2018.