The Denver Broncos fought their way to a 21-17 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday in London. How should they adjust for after the bye week? Once again, the same issues plagued the Denver Broncos on Sunday. They had bad penalties, three and outs, missed throws from Russell Wilson, and occasional defensive breakdowns.
However, the offense was able to put up three touchdowns en route to 21 points, which was enough to take down the Jaguars. The team finally snapped their four-game losing streak, and Nathaniel Hackett saved his job for another week at least.
The team is now entering their bye week and has two weeks to get healthy and make adjustments for the next half of their schedule, which is brutal.
What are three things we need to see from the team after the bye week?
Three changes for the Denver Broncos after bye week
Bench Dalton Risner, keep Cushenberry out of the lineup
OK guys, I get that many of us are attached to Dalton Risner because of his hometown roots and his off-field activity, but the man is simply not a good player. He had another disaster of a game, constantly getting beat in protection and getting called for a penalty.
He is one of the main culprits for the Broncos’ poor offensive line play, and the team does have an opening to send him to the bench. Netane Muti should take over at the left guard position, as it can’t get much worse than what Risner has put on the field and Muti just might be better overall.
Lloyd Cushenberry is in a similar boat, but he left the game with an injury. If he needs to miss some time, Graham Glasgow, who took over for Cush when he left, did reasonably well at center. He played center for the Detroit Lions in 2018 and had his best season.
Even when Cushenberry gets healthy, if this is not a season-ending injury, he also needs to remain on the bench, and the team needs to either hand over the C1 duties to Graham Glasgow full-time, shuffle the offensive line, or insert rookie Luke Wattenberg at this spot.
Three changes for the Denver Broncos after bye week
Make Klint Kubiak the play-caller
This would be a hard thing to sell after a win and one of their best offensive outputs of the season, but Nathaniel Hackett needs to hand over the play-calling duties to Klint Kubiak, who called plays for the Vikings during the 2021 season.
No one else on the roster has experience calling plays on offense, and it’s a switch that needs to happen because Nathaniel Hackett still looks overwhelmed on the sideline and needs to continue to delegate to help this team improve.
He already brought in Jerry Rosburg earlier in the year to help with game management, and he now needs to humble up and give up play-calling duties. Kubiak would be able to spend more time with Russell Wilson, and I trust him as a coach more than I do Hackett.
I think this could spark more consistent offensive play, even if the Broncos were to somehow able to claw their way to an average offense, this team will win a ton of games in the second half. To me and many of us in the fanbase, this should have happened weeks ago.
Three changes for the Denver Broncos after bye week
Bring in help along the defensive line
Once again, the Broncos’ defensive line is the weak point of the defense. Sure, it’ll probably improve when Randy Gregory returns, and Baron Browning being out sure doesn’t help, but the rush defense was nonexistent today and has been bad for most of the season.
The Broncos rush defense has actually gotten worse this year. It ranks 20th in the NFL, allowing 122.6 yards per game. They’ve allowed the 6th most rushing yards, but the ESPN stats page I am referencing is not fully updated yet since week eight is not over, but they are still allowing a ton of yards on the ground.
This is an underrated issue that I do not think is being talked about since DJ Jones and Dre’Mont Jones are having great seasons, but the team is getting gashed on the ground. Travis Etienne rushed for a whopping 156 yards on just 24 carries, which is a 6.5 yards per carry average.
I and a few others who write for this website have been begging the Broncos to add another player along the defensive line. Outside of the Jones “brothers,” the team does not have another reliable defensive lineman on the roster.
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Ndamukong Suh, a quality veteran, would be a perfect fit for the Broncos’ defense, who is still largely one of the best in the NFL.