Outside of showing up for the game, the Denver Broncos did virtually nothing correct in Week 1, a blowout loss against the Kansas City Chiefs. The lone bright side here is that the team has started slow each year of the Sean Payton era, so a loss in Week 1 isn't unusual.
In fact, quarterback Bo Nix has not played well in September, either, so perhaps this can be chalked up to another typical slow start. Either way, it revealed some major issues that need to be corrected for Week 2 and beyond.
If not, we could soon be talking about this team not being close to good enough to make the playoffs. Besides the obvious issue that came from Week 1, what are the others?
Denver Broncos need to re-group on offense and get down to the basics on defense
Tackling, tackling, tackling!
The Broncos, according to Next Gen Stats, allowed 248 extra yards due to missed tackles on Monday night, which was the most in their database, and the team's missed tackle percentage of 29.8 was the worst in a single game since 2018.
Denver's tackling was, inarguably, a historically bad showing. If you want to find the bright side here, the Broncos may have been a 'average tackling' performance away from actually winning. The Broncos allowed at least two touchdowns solely due to not finishing the play, as Rashee Rice and Kenneth Walker both took advantage of the Broncos poor tackling on Chiefs' touchdown plays.
There really isn't anything more to analyze here - the Broncos tackled poorly, and it needs to be fixed in Week 2 and beyond. Sure, no team is going to miss zero tackles, but what we saw on Monday was a beyond horrific performance, and it probably made you want to rip your hair out.
Prioritize the run more
The Broncos ran the ball just 11 total times with their running backs. J.K. Dobbins had 11 carries, and RJ Harvey had three. They gained a total of 54 yards on those carries, which actually works out to a very solid 4.9 yards per carry.
So why didn't the Broncos run it more?
This was Davis Webb's first time calling plays in the regular season, and it just so happened to be in a major primetime window against one of the better defensive coordinators in the sport. Webb deserves some grace here, even with how bad it looked. This really doesn't go beyond prioritizing the run more - call more run plays!
Dobbins is one of the more efficient running backs in the league, and it's been that way his entire career. Harvey also has the skill set to rip-off explosive runs if he finds open space, and I can't imagine that Jonah Coleman would be an incompetent back despite being a rookie.
With the Jacksonville Jaguars' high-flying offense coming to town, one huge advantage the Broncos can seek to attain is winning the time of possession battle, which does keep the MVP-caliber Trevor Lawrence off the field.
One obvious way to do that is to extend drives with the run game - it keeps the clock moving and would logically give Nix more space to thrive in the passing game.
Actually feature Jaylen Waddle
Just like we all predicted, stud receiver Jaylen Waddle had three targets, one reception, and two yards. There are certain players across the league who possess 'force the ball to them' skill sets. The Chiefs did this with Walker, and it paid off.
Why didn't the Broncos do this with Waddle? His ability to thrive across the middle of the field, and his short-area quickness, among other things, make him a perfect player to get the ball to seven times a game. Perhaps the game just got away from Webb, but no matter what the legitimate issue was, there needs to be more of an emphasis on getting Waddle the ball, period.
He can line up all across the formation, so the Broncos aren't going to be handicapped in the types of plays they can run with Waddle. In Week 2 and beyond, Waddle has to become a central piece of this operation.
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