To say the Denver Broncos have been a disappointment offensively in 2022 would be the understatement of the year. It wasn’t abnormal for people to think that it could take time for the Nathaniel Hackett offensive system and a new quarterback with new weapons to mesh. That was widely expected. But to see the Broncos be historically bad offensively?
That has blindsided everybody. Things have been so bad offensively that the Denver Broncos have changed play callers after nine games. They are trying anything and everything they can at this point just to be able to execute simple stuff on that side of the ball, and nothing is really going well.
What individual aspects of this offense stand out as the most disappointing through 10 games? Let’s take a look at the top four.
Denver Broncos running game has been horrendous in 2022
It’s no secret at this point that the Denver Broncos are struggling to find their footing in the running game. The Javonte Williams injury certainly has something to do with it, but the Broncos were struggling to run the ball even when Williams was healthy. This team still doesn’t have a single run of 20 yards or longer in the entire 2022 season.
Denver Broncos running game rankings through 10 games
- Yards: 25th
- Touchdowns: 28th
- Yards/Attempt: 28th
What was the point of the Denver Broncos bringing Melvin Gordon back into the fold as a free agent this offseason? Well, for one thing, they opted to completely pass on the running back class of 2022, which looks like a pretty obvious mistake in hindsight. For the longest time, I had personally advocated for the Broncos to take multiple backs in 2022 for a couple of reasons.
First of all, the team experienced unprecedented good luck when it comes to the health of their backs in 2021. Second, I didn’t love the idea of relying on Mike Boone as a potential key contributor to the offense given the injuries he dealt with in 2021.
Here we are 10 games into the 2022 season, and Javonte Williams is hurt, Mike Boone is hurt, Melvin Gordon has just been cut, and Latavius Murray (who is 32 going on 33) looks like he’ll be the team’s top back the rest of the way this season.
Where is the success in the wide-zone offense we had heard about and talked about all offseason? Why is nobody having success running the ball with this team? Even under Pat Shurmur, the Broncos ranked 10th in the NFL in yards per rushing attempt and a respectable 13th in yards last season.
This year’s running game has been horrific to watch, not explosive, not effective in the red zone, and the team has virtually no balance on that side of the ball because of it.
Denver Broncos handling of WR group after Tim Patrick injury was disappointing
When Tim Patrick went down in training camp with an ACL injury, many people in Broncos Country failed to see just how massive of a blow that was to the offense as a whole. Over the last couple of years, Tim Patrick has been a consistent source of offense for the Broncos, a player whose strong hands were taken for granted and someone who added a ton as a blocker in the running game as well.
The irony here is that the Broncos recognized Patrick’s importance to the roster as a whole by giving him a three-year contract just about a year ago worth $30 million in total money. That’s not a small chunk of change for anybody even though it’s a pretty good value for a receiver in today’s game with the pedigree of Tim Patrick.
When Patrick went down in training camp with an injury, the Broncos decided to do kind of what they’ve always done under George Paton, at least in many cases. Instead of going out and signing someone or trading for someone, Paton and this coaching staff went with the “next man up” mentality, obviously thinking that the healthy players on the roster and young guys behind them could pick up the slack.
Well, we’re all still waiting for that to happen.
I was clamoring for the Broncos to draft a receiver that could contribute offensively in 2022, and that didn’t really happen. Although Montrell Washington had an outstanding training camp, he’s almost been phased completely out of the offense at this point and is looking lost out there in the return game.
The Broncos had a couple of young rookies step up in camp like Jalen Virgil and Brandon Johnson, but those two have a combined one reception and two targets this season, both have which have come in the last two weeks.
Why was adding to the receiver room so important after Tim Patrick’s injury? You had the injury history of KJ Hamler and uncertainty of his ability to contribute this season, which as bitten the Broncos once again. You had Jerry Jeudy who missed 8 games last season due to injury and is now dealing with an ankle injury once again.
You also had Courtland Sutton, who received a contract extension in 2021 but was also coming off of a down year. That was chalked up to the quarterback play but Sutton has been arguably one of the biggest individual disappointments for the Broncos in 2022 so far. In the absence of Tim Patrick, the team hasn’t been able to consistently rely on anybody — Sutton included — as the weekly go-to target in the offense.
Not to say that they could have gone out and just gotten somebody to fill that void during training camp, but wide receivers have been readily available from teams across the league since early on in the 2022 offseason. Something should have been done and the offense is suffering as a result of the team’s lack of urgency to replace one of its best players at a premium position.
Denver Broncos made a huge mistake letting Mike Munchak out the door
Mike Munchak is still a Denver resident. Can the Broncos call him up and tell him they’re sorry? Can they get a mulligan on this one?
Letting go of Mike Munchak should have never been allowed by George Paton when he brought in Nathaniel Hackett as the team’s head coach. Hackett obviously sold Paton on a plan of innovation and quarterback-friendliness when he made his head coaching pitch, but that initial plan clearly included Green Bay assistant coach Adam Stenavich, the Packers‘ offensive line coach who was promoted to offensive coordinator and blocked from coming to Denver.
When Hackett lost out to Matt LaFleur on bringing in Stenavich, he should have been begging Munchak to stay on his staff. Perhaps Munchak didn’t want to work for Hackett, or maybe Hackett just really thought Butch Barry was going to be a better teacher for the offensive linemen than Munchak was.
Whatever the case, the Broncos clearly made an error by letting Munchak go and after taking the year off, hopefully he is amenable to coming back in 2023. The team has been so much worse on the offensive line in 2022, they have been one of the most penalized teams in the league, and they’ve regressed from what I thought was progression under Munchak’s watch.
Not only is it disappointing that the Broncos let go of Munchak, but they also had an opportunity to promote someone in-house with Chris Kuper, who played in the zone blocking scheme as a member of the Denver Broncos and was taken under Munchak’s wing. He’s now doing a tremendous job developing the offensive line for Kevin O’Connell’s Minnesota Vikings.
The offensive line has been such a problem area for the Broncos this season. Despite injuries taking their toll, this unit just doesn’t play disciplined, they don’t communicate well, and they’re costing the team when it comes to down-and-distance and efficiency on third down and in the red zone.
Early returns on Russell Wilson have been overly disappointing for Denver Broncos
To sit here and say that Russell Wilson’s impact on the team has been anything but disappointing would be a complete lie at this point. Broncos Country was ready to ride with Wilson all offseason, and the expectations for this team grew and grew every single day. Unfortunately, this season has been a disaster.
Wilson has dealt with some injuries on his own, but to think that the Broncos traded for Wilson, signed him to a massive contract extension, and handcuffed themselves to him for the next four years is a bit of a tough pill to swallow at the moment. Right now, the Broncos rank 32nd in the NFL in points per game. Their passing attack is abysmal. The team is currently projected to send a top-five pick to the Seattle Seahawks for Wilson. What makes things really tough is the fact that the Seahawks are having a ton of success this year by comparison to the Broncos, especially offensively.
The Broncos are making the easiest of concepts look difficult on that side of the ball.
Are there factors at play here besides just Russell Wilson? Yes, absolutely. But has a little fear set in that Wilson may not be the guy we saw all those years in Seattle? Yes, absolutely. That fear is starting to set in because the sample size of offensive incompetence is growing weekly. There have been some bright spots, including Wilson looking a bit better against the Raiders, but there are still missed opportunities weekly.
For Wilson, there’s been a lot to overcome. He’s not exactly to blame for all of the penalties of his offensive line. He’s not to blame for every blown assignment leading to sacks. But he is to blame for missing open receivers on well-designed plays. He is to blame for not seeing open guys and taking check-downs instead of properly going through his progressions.
The fact that these conversations are even happening right now is frustrating because this is not what the Broncos ordered when they made this trade. They were supposed to get a game-changing superstar at the position whose abilities made the offensive scheme irrelevant. Unfortunately, it looks like Wilson needs the right coach and play-caller in place to have success, and that doesn’t appear to be Nathaniel Hackett.
At this point, Broncos fans have no choice but to believe that the problem is not Russ. If Russ is the problem, the Broncos are married to that problem until 2025 at the very earliest, at least in terms of the financial aspect of things. There is no turning back now and if offensive scheme and play-calling are the primary issues and not Wilson, then the Broncos have to do everything in their power to make sure they get that right.
Denver Broncos 2023 mock draft after massive Bradley Chubb move
The Denver Broncos now have a completely different approach to the 2023 NFL Draft after the Bradley Chubb trade. Here's our latest 2023 mock draft.
Russell Wilson and the passing game have been arguably the biggest disappointment of the 2022 NFL season league-wide. With seven games remaining, Wilson must turn things around and prove that he’s worth the picks the Broncos traded and money they spent to get him.