The Denver Broncos will be undergoing some serious changes between now and the 2023 season, given how the 2022 season has gone so far. General manager George Paton likely thought that he had put together a bit of a juggernaut with the 2022 Denver Broncos.
On paper, the team was loaded on both sides of the ball. Now, between devastatingly incompetent coaching and horrible injury luck, the team is likely looking towards 2023 to reset themselves.
Most of the issues with the team are on the offensive side of the ball, so it does give George Paton and his staff a clear direction to take. They’ll also likely be undergoing a second head coaching search in as many years.
However, the main theme of the 2023 offseason should be putting the offense in a better position and truly scheming around Russell Wilson’s strengths. What are some underrated issues that the team needs to fix heading into 2023?
Three underrated issues for the Broncos to fix for 2023
Finding a legitimate backup quarterback
I’m not sure what George Paton was thinking when he put the backup QB situation in the hands of Josh Johnson and Brett Rypien. Josh Johnson is a decade plus veteran of the NFL who is well into his 30s. He’s been in and out of the league for years and was typically signed off the street when a team needed an emergency fix at the position.
Never did he really show any sort of consistency you’d prefer to see in a solid backup QB. Brett Rypien went undrafted out of Boise State a few years ago and seems to be well-liked within the organization, and he’s also been praised for his football knowledge, but his on-field performances have been brutally awful, and aren’t even worthy of being a QB2 in the NFL.
He’s got a 58.9 career passer rating in the NFL with two touchdown passes and five interceptions. Being that Russell Wilson has been banged up this year and did miss a game, which would now make it two seasons in a row he’s missed time, it would be wise to try and sign a legitimate backup QB in case Wilson’s body is indeed beginning to break down.
Baker Mayfield would make perfect sense to me as someone who could fill this spot. He’ll likely do what Mitchell Trubisky did last year and settle as a backup somewhere before trying to win a starting job in the future.