Glaring hole rears ugly head for Broncos in brutal loss vs. Chiefs

The Broncos lost arguably their most gut-wrenching game since Super Bowl 48 on Sunday, a 16-14 defeat in Kansas City. The Broncos, for 59:59, played winning football and were on track to win the game. The Broncos, who have not won a game in Kansas City since 2015, were a field goal away from being victorious in Kansas City against the 8-0 defending champion Chiefs. However, the Broncos now head back to Denver with a loss.

There are plenty of areas to place blame after the Broncos' loss last week: place kick protection, allowing Patrick Mahomes to avoid several sacks, timely and costly defensive penalties, and letting Travis Kelce look like he is 28 again, wherever it might be. However, there is one place where blame can be squarely placed, and you could argue there is no better person to receive blame for the loss: general manager George Paton.

Broncos GM George Paton should have been more aggressive in upgrading his roster

Following their dominant win over the Carolina Panthers, the Broncos were sitting pretty at 5-3, and seemed to be in a strong position to make the 2024 playoffs. Basically every other team in professional sports, when presented with the chance to make the playoffs after a decade long absence, would make some form of move at the trading deadline to ensure that their chances are at a high. I mean, even the Jets went out and made a splash to bring in Davante Adams, and they're now in a worse spot than they were without him. As for the Broncos, well... they did nothing.

George Paton seemingly was not an observer of the trading deadline, had no idea it was happening, or even worse, made the willing and conscious choice not to pursue a weapon for the Broncos.

Courtland Sutton played a strong game on Sunday, and once again showed out for the Broncos in Kansas City. Rookies Davaughn Vele and Audris Estime had solid and strong showings but were not nearly enough to make a major difference for the Broncos. They used a new style of play to try and get Marvin Mims open, but seemingly nothing worked, and his one or two chances with some semblance of space were met with Mims going down on first contact and no defenders made to miss.

The Broncos have no weapons on offense outside of Sutton, and this is not a shock or new news. Somehow, Paton saw this and said "Cool!" Paton did not add to the Broncos, and the one-dimensional nature of their offense is a major reason they were not able to get much going on Sunday afternoon. In a very realistic world, the Broncos might be 6-4, with a serious chance to sweep the Chiefs in 2024, and one of the AFC's most legit playoff contenders. Instead, in the final year of his contract of all else, George Paton's Broncos are now 5-5, again mediocre, and could find themselves slipping in the AFC playoff picture before too long.