The Denver Broncos are 3-10 after getting beat on Sunday by the Kansas City Chiefs, but the team took another “L” on Tuesday as their division rival Las Vegas Raiders poached a promising young player off the team’s practice squad. Former Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels, now the head coach of the Raiders, is adding former sixth-round pick Netane Muti to his offensive line mix, poaching the Fresno State product away from Denver.
This is not great for the Broncos.
On Sunday, Dalton Risner did not play due to injury and the Broncos were forced to turn to their backup options at the left guard position. Those backup options — Luke Wattenberg, Netane Muti, and Quinn Bailey — all got the chance to play against the Chiefs and it felt like really only Muti did well with the opportunity.
Broncos surprisingly let Netane Muti get poached by the Raiders
Wattenberg, a rookie out of Washington, got absolutely whooped a couple of times resulting in Russell Wilson getting sacked. Bailey didn’t do much better. Muti was wrongfully called for holding at one point in this one but this is a guy who was allegedly competing for the starting job back in training camp.
Now, he’s not even a guy you protect on your practice squad? This is such an odd loss for the Broncos, especially given how many injuries the team has had on the offensive side of the ball (and line, in particular) as well as how poorly the other guys played vs. Kansas City on Sunday and how well Muti played by comparison.
Broncos 6th round pick in 2020. Among the trio who played LG in place of Dalton Risner on Sunday. Extremely strong. Still only 23. #9sports https://t.co/zPBpticWrl
— Mike Klis (@mikeklis) December 13, 2022
This is just another roster move that people in Broncos Country simply won’t be able to get on board with. Coming out of Fresno State back in 2020, Muti was considered raw but extremely talented. Pro Football Focus even had him among their top 64 prospects despite all of the injury problems he had in college.
Muti didn’t bring those injury issues with him to the NFL and has been mostly available, and rather impressive when given opportunities out there. Apparently, he couldn’t string anything together consistently enough for the two coaching regimes in Denver. Now, we’ll watch him get opportunities from afar and he’ll be in silver and black instead of orange and blue.
You can’t help but wonder why the Broncos would let this happen. Is it because Muti was not a George Paton draft pick? Did they really not see the upside he showed in the opportunities he was given?
It may seem hyperbolic because this is a guard on the practice squad, but this kind of loss certainly doesn’t help morale in Broncos Country. Fans are already fed up with the state of the team and when someone goes out like Muti did on Sunday and plays well in a limited opportunity, you can’t help but be frustrated to see him get poached two days later…by a division rival, no less.
Russell Wilson gives glimpse of what is to come, or what could have been
Did Russell Wilson give the Denver Broncos and Broncos Country a glimpse of what is to come or a glimpse of what could have been vs. Kansas City?
The other question about this is — where is Tom Compton? Where is Billy Turner? These free agents the Broncos brought in during the offseason because of their ties to the coaching staff are not playing or contributing at all. At least Muti was available, and the Broncos let him be a little too available, I guess.