The Denver Broncos just needed to find a winning quarterback, or so many of the team’s fans and supporters believed.
“We’re just a QB away”, was a common quote from Broncos fans across the last several years in which the team struggled and stumbled upon its own collective feet while missing the playoffs six years in a row.
That is why the reactions were so strong when the Broncos made the move to acquire Russell Wilson this offseason. Many fans within Broncos Country were ready to throw a party on that day in March as the team was almost instantly deemed a Super Bowl contender, just like that.
Some within the national media have even bought into that.
But it’s just not the case and it has only taken two games for the Broncos to prove that. As bad as the quarterback situation has been since the retirement of Peyton Manning, the biggest problem the Broncos have had since winning Super Bowl 50 is within its coaching staff.
Nathaniel Hackett has shown that not only has that not changed, it may have gotten even worse.
Hackett has shown himself to be clueless in situations and he just has not seemed ready for the responsibility of being an NFL head coach, which is a bit of a surprise considering he came from a coaching staff in Green Bay that was highly successful and he was working hand in hand with Aaron Rodgers.
But it’s not just the coaching. There are multiple reasons why this team has looked so poor this season and with the schedule ahead, it stands to get a lot worse.
It was believed that the Broncos just needed a top-tier quarterback because the rest of the roster was so strong. Truthfully, the roster doesn’t appear to be that strong through two games and the depth on the team is not there either.
The Broncos have a lot of high draft picks that simply don’t produce on a consistent basis and/or can’t stay on the field on a consistent basis.
Wilson, though still considered one of the game’s best, has been quite average for the Broncos so far. He hasn’t been bad, by any means, but he’s not setting the world on fire either. In two games, Wilson is completing just 58.9 percent of his throws for 559 yards with two touchdowns and a pick. He’s rushed for just five yards and been sacked five times.
Broncos Country is starving for better football, it’s been too long since it was good. But if things continue to go as they have gone the first two weeks of the season, that isn’t coming this year either.
Turns out the team needs a lot more than just a quarterback.