Denver Broncos: Balance will be one of team’s keys in 2020
The Denver Broncos have not been a well-balanced team for the past several years and that needs to change in 2020.
The team has loaded up with offensive stars this offseason to place around Drew Lock and with defensive-minded head coach Vic Fangio ready to turn the defense into one of the league’s best, this could be a chance for the team to create some balance.
In recent years, the team has either been really good on defense, as it was during the Super Bowl 50 win, or really good on offense, dating back to the years when Peyton Manning first came aboard.
As this ESPN article by Aaron Schatz nicely illustrates, the Broncos have not been a well-balanced team since 2014 when Manning was still there and playing well. In 2012, the team second overall in offense and fifth in defense. The following season, they were the best offensive team but dropped to No. 15 in defense. In 2014, they ranked third in offense and fourth in defense.
As good as those teams were, they didn’t win a single Super Bowl.
It was the following season, in which the team dipped all the way to No. 25 in total offense, that a Super Bowl win was achieved. That was thanks to the league’s best defense and a Herculean effort by Von Miller in the Super Bowl.
In 2016, the Broncos were still the best defensive team in the league but the No. 28 offense was not good enough to get the team in the playoffs. Things really went sideways the next year as the Broncos ranked 31st in total offense.
Since the retirement of Manning, the Broncos have actually been quite respectable on defense, averaging an overall ranking of 7.25. But the offense has been another story. In that department, the Broncos have averaged an overall league rank of 24.75 since 2016.
The offense needs to be able to come alive this coming season, as discussed here. Though the defense in 2019 was a respectable 13th in the league, the offense sat at No. 26 despite the late-season efforts from Lock. Those numbers need to be higher and much closer together in 2020 in order to create the proper balance that helps build a contender.
The Broncos somehow rose to No. 18 in offense in 2018, but since 2015, the team has been 25th or worse on that side of the ball in every other season. That number must improve greatly this coming year.
If it does, there is plenty of reason to believe that under Fangio, the defense will be even better. The additions of A.J. Bouye and Jurrell Casey along with the return of a healthy Bradley Chubb make it an exciting defensive squad, capable of being one of the 10 best in the league.
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If the offense could get into the top 15, or better, then this Broncos team will turn more heads than just the ones in Broncos Country this season.