It was a long day for the Denver Broncos at home during a tough loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.
I wrote earlier in the week that this was a must-win game for the Broncos. So now that they have lost a third consecutive game, what does it all mean? It should mean that some big changes are in store.
This team is not properly equipped to contend at this point this season. Not only are they not equipped to contend for a Super Bowl, but they are not equipped to really contend for anything.
That is all the more frustrating when you think about the fact that the Kansas City Chiefs are not playing very well and the Los Angeles Chargers were dominated by the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.
A win against the Raiders would have put them in a tie for first place in the division. Instead, they are down at the bottom and the way they are playing, that is where they will end up at the end of the season.
While many of these changes probably won’t happen soon, it’s time for the Broncos to get the wheels in motion on several potential changes.
Get rid of the entire coaching staff
Yes, the entire coaching staff. All of them. Vic Fangio, Pat Shurmur, Tom McMahon, they all need to go. The team is just not headed in the right direction and on top of the fact that it never seems ready to play, the coaches don’t put their players in a position to succeed.
Fangio is not a good head coach, period. But he could always fall back on his defensive prowess. However, his defense this year is just bad. In the last three games, all losses, the Broncos have given up an average of 28 points per game.
That’s just too many.
I talked about some possible coaching candidates to replace Fangio and though he might get to the end of this campaign, he just needs to go barring something drastic changing in his preparation.
If you have never seen a Broncos game with Fangio as the head coach before this one, all you need to see is how he used his two challenges to know that his decision-making abilities leave much to be desired.
Personally, I’m tired of him and it’s likely that most of Broncos Country would agree.
Drew Lock in, Teddy Bridgewater out
Teddy Bridgewater has not played bad through six games, but he wasn’t great against the Raiders. Though much blame can be placed on the offensive line for failing to properly handle the Vegas pass rush all day, you can easily see the limitations that Bridgewater has as a quarterback.
He’s going to get the job done when everything is going great, but when you need to get a play out of your quarterback and have him put the team on his back, Teddy is just not going to do that.
He’s not the future of this organization and though Drew Lock may not be either, it’s time to go to Lock. The Broncos face the Cleveland Browns next week on Thursday Night Football so it would be ill-advised to make that move now, but if Bridgewater doesn’t play at a high level in that game, it would make sense to turn to Lock with 10 days to prepare for the Washington Football Team.
The Broncos can’t expect things to get better with the schedule that lies ahead. They got off to a 3-0 start against three of the league’s worst teams. It’s time for some major changes or there won’t be many more wins this season.