After a near-disaster against the New York Jets in London, the Denver Broncos have an obvious area of the roster to address. And the sooner they can do it, the better.
The Broncos only scored 13 points against the Jets in Week 6, but to say they left a lot of meat on the bone would be an understatement. The offense was mostly outstanding in the first half against New York, but a number of big plays and strong drives were wiped away by penalties. The main culprit was left guard Matt Peart, an injury replacement for starter Ben Powers, who is going to be out until at least December.
The disastrous first start for Peart could be addressed by the Broncos making one obvious trade call from a team that already appears to be willing to sell: The Cleveland Browns.
Broncos need to call Browns about trading for starting guard Joel Bitonio
Considering the Broncos are going to be without Ben Powers for at least two months, we can assume they're going to need to get by for at least seven or eight more games without him. That's more than enough reason to swing a trade like this.
Ironically enough, the last time the Broncos were legitimate Super Bowl contenders, the idea of trading for a longtime Cleveland Browns offensive lineman came up as well. And it actually almost happened, but Joe Thomas didn't want to be traded away by the Browns.
What could have been...
The idea of trading for Joel Bitonio is similar in a lot of ways. Bitonio is a Browns lifer at this point. He doesn't necessarily even want to be traded and there were rumors about him possibly considering retirement this offseason. But at this point, the clock is ticking on Bitonio's career, and he's going to have to decide whether he wants to simply collect a check from the Browns or play for something meaningful.
There could be a similar situation with the Browns' other starting guard, Wyatt Teller. Both Bitonio and Teller are in the last years of their respective contracts, and because of the presence of players like Teven Jenkins and Zak Zinter, we could see Cleveland continue with its massive youth movement on both sides of the ball.
The Broncos could look at a number of different offensive linemen on teams with losing records around the league ahead of the trade deadline, and perhaps someone with prior guard/center experience would be their best bet. That way, when Ben Powers does come back, whoever the Broncos could potentially add now to fill in at left guard could slide over to center when the time comes.
One thing is certain, which is that the Broncos need to upgrade their offensive line immediately. What we saw from Matt Peart was not acceptable for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. If the Broncos allow someone like Peart to ruin their chance at contending this year, it will be an inexcusable mistake given what's potentially out there in a trade.