Denver Broncos: Dalton Risner showing maturity early

Following the most recent loss on Sunday, Denver Broncos rookie offensive lineman Dalton Risner showed some maturity and took blame for the loss.

In the National Football League, it takes everybody on the field to win games. Occasionally, we hear players and/or coaches say they need to do better. That is exactly what Denver Broncos rookie offensive lineman Dalton Risner did while defending his quarterback, Brandon Allen.

Risner said that the team has to “go back to the drawing board and figure out what we did wrong. That starts with me. I didn’t have my best game; I’ve got to do better.”

Risner is obviously still learning the game, as all rookies are. The one thing that stands out the most to me about Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills as it relates to Risner is his personal foul penalty he had early in the first quarter.

Risner added an extra push to a Bills defender when the Bills player was already on the ground.15-yard penalty. Unnecessary roughness. Completely avoidable. There have been plenty of instances where the Denver Broncos shoot themselves in the foot with penalties. This was another one of those times.

Risner also said that quarterback Brandon Allen has been giving the team his all week in and week out. Unfortunately, Allen’s stats have shown that he has been getting worse every week.

However, as Ty Walden points out, teams are able to do well against Allen due to the fact that they keep getting more and more film of Allen to go off of.

Of course, that is the case for a lot of teams, but it seems to have more of an effect on the younger, less experienced players. That makes sense.

This team is young. With rookie coaches and rookie players at some key positions, there is bound to be some mistakes. There are also things that will happen that will allow the team to figure out who the right players are for the team are.

Drew Lock, the quarterback the Denver Broncos chose in the second round of the 2019 draft, is expected to come off of injured reserve very soon and start the final few games for the team. It will be interesting to see how the players respond to his presence on the field when it is time.

All I know is that the Broncos are not good enough to overcome costly penalties that are easily avoidable, like the one Risner committed early on Sunday.