5 Broncos players that shined in the crushing loss to the Seahawks

Nobody likes it when their team loses in Week 1 of the NFL season. Denver Broncos fans, after waiting all weekend for their team to finally play and start the Russell Wilson era, unfortunately, were the last ones to leave Week 1 totally disappointed. The Broncos’ new era was completely upstaged by the Seattle Seahawks, who were resilient and opportunistic in a 17-16 victory. There are no moral victories in the NFL, but luckily for the Denver Broncos, this is just Week 1.

There’s a lot of season left, and there were plenty of good, positive takeaways from this game that are more than just silver linings. The Broncos moved the ball almost at will all game, getting into scoring range on all but one drive the entire game (Corliss Waitman punted just one time). The defense, after a rough first half, was absolutely dominant in the second half, holding the Seahawks scoreless and forcing a turnover.

Let’s take a dive into some of the positive player performances from this crushing loss to the Seahawks, takeaways that can be meaningful moving forward.

Russell Wilson shined in Denver Broncos debut

Great news, Broncos fans — Russell Wilson is very good.

He completed 69 percent of his 42 passes against the Seattle Seahawks for 340 yards and a touchdown. Some of the incomplete passes he threw included a near-touchdown to Eric Saubert, a tough play but a ball that should be caught on an absolute dime from Wilson. Again, that play goes into the stat sheet as an incompletion and knocks Wilson’s completion rate lower, but at the same time, you can’t place the ball any better than he did.

Something similar happened when Wilson was able to hit Eric Tomlinson in stride in the end zone for what appeared to be a touchdown as the game was happening live, but upon further discussion, the officials correctly decided that Tomlinson had one toenail on the chalk. Another incomplete pass on a perfectly thrown ball that, with some better footwork from Tomlinson is a potential game-winning touchdown.

Wilson was on time and on target almost the entire game. Even with a couple of misfires, it’s clear that the Broncos have a star quarterback. The offense was humming all game. The Seahawks really had no answers for the Broncos throughout, even though they were able to get some pressure and make some nice plays defensively.

It was a great first performance as a Bronco from Wilson, whose accuracy and playmaking abilities were on display. He got everyone involved throughout the course of the game, did a great job of setting up screen plays, and looked like he’d been orchestrating this offense for years. Other than the timing of some of the play calls coming in resulting in delay of game penalties, I have zero complaints over Wilson in this game.

Bradley Chubb looks great for Broncos against Seahawks

All throughout the offseason, and really dating back the last couple of years, Denver Broncos fans have been hateful and vitriolic towards Bradley Chubb. Before the arrival of Russell Wilson, it was the fact that Josh Allen had blossomed into an MVP candidate for the Buffalo Bills that had Broncos fans in their feelings. The Broncos chose Chubb over Allen in the 2018 NFL Draft.

After the arrival of Russell Wilson, man Broncos fans were able to replace being upset about taking Chubb instead of Allen by being upset that Chubb was on the roster and not Von Miller, who the Broncos passed on in free agency.

The overall theme here is, Broncos fans have seemingly been looking for reasons not to like Bradley Chubb, who has been outstanding when healthy. Unfortunately, over the last few seasons, good and consistent health has been hard for Chubb to come by. He had a great offseason for the Broncos and after a slow first half for the entire defense, Chubb turned things on in the second half in a big way.

Chubb had himself not one but two sacks in this game, six total tackles, and a forced fumble on one of his sacks. Unfortunately, the ball bounced right into the lap of the tackle he beat, Charles Cross, on the strip-sack.

The Broncos got impact plays out of Chubb when they desperately needed them. Late in the game when you need a big stop on third down, Chubb comes up with a sack. Those strip-sacks won’t always end with the offense recovering the ball. The ball was just literally not bouncing the Broncos’ way in this game and it’s unfortunate, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that these big plays were made throughout the course of the game.

Chubb and his new teammate Randy Gregory each had a forced fumble in this game and they made their presence felt in the second half.

Andrew Beck was another standout for the Denver Broncos in Week 1

The Denver Broncos entered this game without arguably their favorite option at the tight end position — rookie Greg Dulcich, who is on IR with a hamstring injury — but the tight ends were heavily utilized all throughout the game. One of the guys that was kept at the position somewhat surprisingly on the final 53-man roster was Andrew Beck, who doubles as the team’s fullback.

Beck made one of the best catches of the entire game and really turned some heads with his performance throughout.

Although the one-handed catch will make the highlight reels, it was Beck’s blocking that’s going to keep him on the field as the regular season progresses. When the Broncos went with a fullback in their 21 personnel, Beck’s blocking was superb and he made some key blocks to keep the Broncos’ offense moving throughout the game.

It should come as no coincidence that Beck looks much better in this type of offense. When the Broncos initially claimed Beck off of waivers in 2019, he was joining the Rich Scangarello offense, an iteration of the offense we’re now seeing with Nathaniel Hackett. He showed himself to be a viable weapon in the passing game back in 2019 and his role could be resurrected here in 2022.

One of the plays that didn’t count was a brilliantly designed shovel pass for a touchdown to Beck. Unfortunately, Courtland Sutton was called for a penalty before the snap, but Beck would have scored easily and once again would have proven his worth for the offense in another fun way.

Beck has not had a target since 2019 and was targeted three times (four if you count the play that didn’t end up counting) against the Seahawks with two receptions for 52 yards. He deserves a ton of credit not only for his involvement in the passing game but also for how good his blocking was throughout.

Pat Surtain II made life very tough for DK Metcalf

It was another banner night for the Denver Broncos’ young superstar cornerback Pat Surtain II. Entering this season, there were some who felt that Surtain looked like the team’s best player — period — out on the field at training camp. His debut for the 2022 season was highly anticipated, and it’s safe to say that Surtain did not disappoint.

Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf was matched up against Surtain for most of the game, and he ended up catching all seven of the passes thrown his direction. Wait, how could Surtain have possibly had a good game if Metcalf caught all seven of his targets? Well, those seven receptions went for a whopping 36 yards, just 5.14 yards per reception.

One of Metcalf’s best plays in this game came on a 15-yard reception against Surtain in which Surtain had absolutely perfect coverage. Metcalf was simply able to go up and snatch the ball out of the air like a rebound in basketball. Great coverage, but a better catch. Outside of that 15-yard reception, we’re talking about Metcalf catching six passes for 21 yards and also fumbling after he caught one of them.

Simply put: Surtain is incredible. The Broncos have a superstar on their hands here and he did his part in this game. He’ll get another fun matchup in Week 2 against Houston Texans receiver Brandin Cooks, who is pretty much a lock for 100 yards a game these days. We’ll see if Surtain can find a way to slow him down just like he has pretty much everyone else he’s gone up against.

Jerry Jeudy has a big Week 1 performance for the Broncos

The 2021 season almost felt like a complete loss as far as Jerry Jeudy is concerned. The former first-round pick looked like he was going to be heavily involved in the weekly gameplan after Week 1 against the Giants, but he was unfortunately hurt in that game.

After his return from injury, Jeudy was relegated to essentially just running in motion most of the games behind the line of scrimmage. One of the best in the NFL at creating separation in his route and also at creating yardage after the catch was essentially a decoy. Perhaps no player on the Broncos’ roster was happier to get Nathaniel Hackett and Russell Wilson in the fold than Jerry Jeudy.

Jeudy had no touchdowns in 2021. He had no games of 100 yards receiving. His longest play was 40 yards. He was able to check off all of those boxes in this game against the Seattle Seahawks.

• 100 yards? Check
• Touchdown? Check
• Big play? Check

Jeudy didn’t have the highest volume of targets in this game, but he certainly made the most of his opportunities. Other than a drop late in the fourth quarter, you couldn’t really have hoped for a better debut from the former first-round pick. Jeudy is at a critical point in his NFL career with so many receivers getting paid massive contracts around the league. If he can put together a Pro Bowl type of season, he’s going to be a very rich man in short order.

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It was a great game to open the season from Jeudy, and I hope we get to see even more of him going forward. The Broncos got him involved to the tune of seven total targets, but I think we can expect that number to increase after his brilliant running after the catch on multiple occasions against the Seahawks.