Denver Broncos 5 bold predictions in Week 1 vs. Seattle Seahawks

Denver Broncos bold prediction vs. Seahawks no. 4: 5 different players have sacks

At this point, would this even be considered a “bold” prediction? I would say it is ever-so-slightly across the border. Getting five sacks against any NFL team is difficult. If you were somehow able to average five sacks per game, you’d be going down in the history books as arguably the best pass rush unit ever.

So, getting five sacks in itself would be a remarkable accomplishment, but I’m calling a bolder shot here and saying that five different Broncos players register a sack against the Seahawks. This is absolutely an area where Geno Smith has consistently struggled. Perhaps he’s developed a willingness to take sacks because he doesn’t want to throw as many interceptions as he did early on in his NFL career.

Smith is no statue out there, but he’s certainly taken a lot of sacks. He has a career sack percentage of 8.6 and last year in his spot starts for the Seahawks, his sack percentage was 12.0. For some context there, Justin Fields was ranked 33rd last year among QBs that played in at least half their team’s games last season with a sack percentage of 11.8.

It’s safe to say that when Geno Smith dropped back, he was part of the reason why pass rushers got home. At an average of four sacks per game played last year, again, I don’t think predicting five sacks is overly outlandish given the players the Broncos have on their defensive front.

Here are the five different players I’m going to say will have a sack against Smith in this game:

• Randy Gregory
• Bradley Chubb
• Baron Browning
• Dre’Mont Jones
• Jonas Griffith

I think you could throw any number of wild cards in there, but I’m going with the strongest candidates. Could we see a defensive back in the mix there? What about Josey Jewell? A different defensive lineman? The possibilities are endless. Given this group of pass rushers, it’s going to be tough going into games this season and not projecting all these players to come away with a sack.