Denver Broncos Fanzone: Quick takes with Brandon Miller

On a new Broncos Fanzone, I sit down with Predominantly Orange writer Brandon Miller and get his takes.

The Denver Broncos are facing off against the New York Jets on a short week. After a rough loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the team must regroup quickly before they head over to the Garden State. The good news is that the Jets are 0-3 as well.

The bad news. Well, the Broncos are still dealing with big-time injuries. Jurrell Casey was just knocked out for the year with a bicep injury. Elijah Wilkinson has been placed on injured reserve. There are just no words to how many injuries this team has dealt with.

But the show must go on near the Big Apple. It is possible to get a win here. However, the Broncos are starting their third quarterback in as many weeks. But there are a few in Broncos Country that are excited about the Brett Rypien show. My hope is that he can keep the ship afloat until Drew Lock returns.

We can only hope. But we move on to our next guest on the Broncos Fanzone. I have sat down with Brandon Miller, who is one of the newer writers here at Predominantly Orange. Here is what he had to say about the state of the Broncos.

Ty: The Broncos suffered a tough loss to the Buccaneers. What do you believe went wrong in this game?

Brandon: In a word, everything. Everything went wrong in that game, but I’m not sure anything was ever going to go right. Some fans have an issue with using injuries as an excuse, but when you’re missing a significant portion of your cap & multiple starters on your team, you’re not in a great position.

If I had to point to one area, in particular, I would say the inability to get anything going on the ground really hurt us. Our RBs only carried the ball 11 times that game, which led to 30 passes from Jeff Driskel. You’re not going to win asking Jeff Driskel to pass the ball 30 times.

Ty: The injury bug has hit the team in the most unimaginable ways. Which loss do you think has made the most impact?

Brandon: It’s Drew Lock. We lost a lot of huge players, but the loss of Drew Lock has by far had the biggest impact. Drew is the guy who raises all boats, and we saw that at the end of last year. Losing him has hampered our offense down to a crawl, and even without Courtland Sutton, I think he has enough weapons to make a difference.

It also gives us less time to evaluate his game and how he’s improved because we’ve only seen him now for six full games. Drew is the only answer here, in my opinion.

Ty: As a Broncos fan, how did you first begin your journey to picking the team?

Brandon: I haven’t always been a die-hard Broncos fan, I actually used to not like football whatsoever. The major reason for this is the fact that my dad is a Chiefs fan, so I had to grow up watching him go crazy over the Chiefs.

I started becoming a fan during the Tebow era, as my mom and grandparents were already the Bronco fans in the family. Things just grew from there once Peyton Manning signed in Denver.

Ty: The Broncos travel to the Garden State to play the Jets. What must Denver do to get the win?

Brandon: We need to run. The Jets have given up an average of 133 yards on the ground to opposing teams. We need to take advantage of Melvin Gordon, and potentially Phillip Lindsay if he plays, to control the game and the clock.

You can’t ask Brett Rypien to win this game with his arm, even if the Jets defense is miserable. We also need to put pressure on Sam Darnold, which has been lacking in our games so far and may be tough to do with so many injuries, but it needs to happen for us to have a chance.

Ty: Which Broncos player do you believe will make the most impact on Thursday?

Brandon: I think Melvin Gordon has the potential to make the most impact against the Jets even if Lindsay plays. Not only can he gash them on the ground, but he can provide a reliable target for Rypien to throw to.

Rypien doesn’t have the strongest of arms, and can’t chuck it deep with ease. He needs short to intermediate throws to get the ball out quickly. This is the type of offense that Kyle Shanahan runs in San Francisco, and it proved to be effective against the Jets in week 2. We need the proven vet to make things easier on the unproven QB.

Thank you Brandon for taking the time out to chat with me. Here’s hoping for the win! Go Broncos!