Broncos will need an all hands on deck approach on defense in Week 6

The Denver Broncos face the Seattle Seahawks in Week 6, and, as of now, it's the only Thursday Night Football game of the season for the Broncos.

Denver is 3-2 on the season despite playing one of the toughest schedules in the NFL to date, and avoiding a 3-3 start would be massive, as this team would manage to get out of this six-game stretch with a very encouraging 4-2 record, all things considered.

But this Week 6 game might end up being the toughest one to date for the Broncos, and they'll absolutely need an all hands on deck approach from the defense.

Denver Broncos could be down three key secondary starters versus the Seahawks

As of now, cornerback Patrick Surtain II and safety Talanoa Hufanga are both out with ankle injuries, and cornerback Riley Moss is questionable after being listed as limited all week:

There isn't a guarantee that Moss plays in Week 6, and even if he does, the Broncos secondary is likely going to look like this:

Riley Moss
Brandon Jones
Devon Key
Jahdae Barron

Ja'Quan McMillian is also the starter in the team's nickel packages. The main issue with the Seahawks and why this could be a bad matchup is the one-man wrecking crew of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the reigning Offensive Player of the Year and someone who already has 583 receiving yards through five games.

The one good thing here is that is nearly is a one-man show in Seattle. 'JSN,' as he's called, has 583 of the Seahawks 1,191 receiving yards this year. He's accounted for nearly 50 percent of their passing output this year. Cooper Kupp is the next closest receiver on their team, as he has 129 yards on 11 receptions.

Smith-Njigba has been targeted 50 times in five games, so it's likely he will see another 10 targets. And even with Smith-Njigba being so much of the Seahawks offense, you really wouldn't think that the unit would rank 8th in points per game, but they do.

While this is much easier said than done, the Broncos secondary needs to find a way to simply limit his impact on the game - it feels rather impossible for the Broncos to totally wipe him out from the gameplan, as he's been over 100 yards in four of five games this year, and his 'lowest' total of the year was a 76-yard performance in Week 5.

With Surtain out, the Broncos may not be able to plan as much man coverage, so this could create some unique looks on the backend of the defense. You could realistically think that the Broncos are going to have a lot of safety help heading near JSN, and you could also perhaps trust the other defensive backs to not get burned by the Seahawks other receivers and simply put multiple bodies on Smith-Njigba throughout the evening.

And this even spills down into the pass rush, as if the rush can get home, the Broncos will force quarterback Sam Darnold into some quick decisions, which could yield better results for Vance Joseph's unit.

Games in the NFL are won and lost in the trenches, so if the pass rush is able to get pressure on Darnold, this would take a massive load off the shoulders of the secondary. But, either way, this is very clearly an all hands on deck approach in Week 6.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow