Broncos must get wide receivers more involved

Still fighting for a playoff spot, it’s time for the Denver Broncos to find ways to stretch the field.

Watching the Broncos this season has been frustrating at times, to put it mildly. But one of the most frustrating aspects has been the team’s lack of big-play ability, particularly in the passing game.

During last week’s pathetic loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, the team was not able to get the ball in the hands of the wide receivers. Teddy Bridgewater almost refuses to throw a pass of over 10 yards and he checks the ball down to the running back or one of the tight ends more than just about any quarterback that has ever played.

The coaches new this was his game before the season even started, but still felt he was the best man for the job. But that’s another discussion for another time.

What Bridgewater must start to do is look to get the ball in the hands of Courtland Sutton, Tim Patrick and Jerry Jeudy much more often than he is.

Before the season, the Broncos were being looked at as having one of the league’s top receiving corps. Sutton and Jeudy are both former high draft picks and with the emerging Patrick, it seemed that the team’s quarterback had a great stock of weapons.

But that quarterback is not getting them the ball.

Against the Chiefs, Bridgewater completed just eight passes to wide receivers. That’s not going to get it done. But take a look at these stats:

Courtand Sutton: 47 receptions (3.91 receptions per game)

Tim Patrick: 40 receptions (3.33 receptions per game)

Jerry Jeudy: 28 receptions (4.66 receptions per game)

No wide receiver on the team is averaging more than five receptions per game. Beyond those three players, the Broncos have a total of 19 receptions made by other wide receivers on the team for the entire season.

This is an aspect of the team’s offense that must drastically improve.

Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur should have been using this past week to figure out how to make that happen. The Broncos are way to easy to defend, knowing that Bridgewater is not going to look too far down the field.

The Broncos are averaging just over 225 yards passing per game on the season. The Broncos recently gave healthy contract extensions to Sutton and Patrick, but both players need to become way more involved offensively.

If Vic Fangio is not going to bench Bridgewater in favor of Drew Lock, that’s fine. But his quarterback needs to be able to drive the ball down the field through the air and get the ball in the hands of the big offensive weapons on the team. If he can’t do that, the offense is going to stay stagnant, predictable, and low-scoring.

With all of the issues the Detroit Lions are experiencing in their secondary, the improvements need to start this Sunday. On a day where the team will honor the late Demaryius Thomas, there’s not a better time to right the wide receiver ship.