The Denver Broncos are an ugly 1-4 this season, the fan base is fuming, and the team only has a couple of days before they have to travel to Arrowhead to play the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. With Week 6 already fast approaching for the Broncos, it's fair to wonder if the team will make any sweeping changes with a bit of a longer break between Week 6 and Week 7 against the Packers.
Nobody is really expecting the Broncos to win this game in Kansas City. This team is down bad right now, the fan base is over it, and it sounds like many in the locker room are expecting wholesale changes to be made. But which players, coaches, or executives could be on the hot seat? If the Broncos fall to 1-5 on the season, they will effectively have no shot at doing anything competitive this year. That's just the reality of the situation at hand.
Changes will be made, and I think a loss to Kansas City would put a number of folks on the hot seat. Let's take a look at five, specifically, and start with the obvious:
5 Denver Broncos on the hot seat if the team loses to the Chiefs
1. Vance Joseph, defensive coordinator
I think it's safe to say that Vance Joseph is probably already on the hot seat. The Denver Broncos have one of the worst defenses in the NFL right now, and they are trending toward having one of the worst defenses in NFL history. This level of incompetence has been the most significant contributor to the team being 1-4 and heading towards 1-5.
If Vance's seat isn't already hot, the team could potentially make a major change after Week 6's matchup in Kansas City. The most logical transition might be to have secondary coach Christian Parker call the plays, but the Broncos also have inside linebackers coach Greg Manusky who has called plays at the NFL level before as well.
2. George Paton, general manager
George Paton's seat is already getting hot. I don't think he's going to simply be "approaching" the hot seat if the Broncos lose to Kansas City, but a loss in prime time would only serve to highlight this roster's lack of talent or ability to even hang with the juggernaut that is the Kansas City Chiefs.
Beating the Chiefs is difficult enough. The Broncos haven't done it in eight years. Expecting a team to compete with them for the division right now is brutal.
But George Paton has now had three offseasons to put his thumbprint on the team, and what are the Broncos left with? They have major question marks all over the roster. The team's key free agency acquisitions are not working out. Many of the team's best draft picks are struggling badly with injuries. Paton's trade for Russell Wilson obviously was a necessary risk to take but crippled the team's draft capital and has not worked out at all to this point.
Paton also hired Nathaniel Hackett last year, and that's a decision that could ultimately spell his demise. Some irreparable damage was done last season.
3. Courtland Sutton, wide receiver
One of the veterans I am anticipating has one foot out the door right now is Courtland Sutton. I would imagine the Broncos will be receiving calls on Sutton in the coming weeks and if the team loses and moves to 1-5, I think Sutton is arguably the most likely offensive player to be getting moved at the NFL trade deadline (Oct. 31).
Sutton has simply not regained the form we saw him take back in 2019 when he looked like a bona fide WR1. He made the Pro Bowl that season with Joe Flacco, Brandon Allen, and Drew Lock throwing the passes. It's not that Sutton is not there physically -- he is, even after tearing his ACL in 2020 -- but we just haven't seen him reclaim that WR1 form where you can feed him the ball all game.
Maybe it's a coaching issue and not a Sutton issue. We might find out if he is, in fact, traded in the coming weeks.
The Broncos added Tre'Quan Smith to the practice squad recently, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was a bit of a precursor to a wide receiver trade. They like what they've got in young receivers like Brandon Johnson and Marvin Mims, but the Broncos could ultimately decide to make wholesale changes at receiver in the very near future, especially as Greg Dulcich hopefully comes back from injury and eats up targets.
4. Russell Wilson, QB
If the Broncos lose to the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night, I think Russell Wilson will start to shoulder more of the blame for the team's struggles. Russ is statistically playing great this season. He looks much more like the guy we once saw in Seattle. The problem is, Russ's margin for error is basically non-existent at this point, and we've seen that fleshed out in a handful of the team's games this season.
Go back to Week 2 vs. Washington when the Broncos were up by a score of 21-3. Russell Wilson fumbles the ball while trying to get out of the pocket and the Commanders recovered, eventually scored, and got right back in the game. Russ also threw an interception in that game on what appeared to be a communication issue with the receiver.
Go back just this past weekend against the Jets, where the Broncos took an extremely conservative approach with the football. We saw them do something very similar in Week 1 against the Raiders where it appeared as though they were trying to limit the effectiveness of the pass rush by limiting downfield passing attempts. They did just that, and it didn't really work in their favor.
Is the coaching staff putting enough trust in Russ to let it rip? If we don't see that in Week 6 against the Chiefs, I wonder if Russ might actually be on the hot seat.
5. Everyone on defense
I don't care if you're a starter or not, everyone on the Denver Broncos defense will be on the hot seat after this Kansas City game if the team falls to 1-5.
Starting with the defensive line, where the Denver Broncos have multiple high-priced free agents. These guys simply have to be more gap disciplined, and they have to stop allowing teams to gash them on the ground every single week. The defensive line play has been bad, but you could also say the linebackers are getting too easily washed out of plays as well.
Last year, we saw Josey Jewell and Alex Singleton flying to the football almost every single play. Where has that been this year? These guys are getting eaten up by blockers way too easily and it's resulted in the Broncos getting torched against the run pretty much weekly.
How about in the secondary? The Broncos' secondary has already gotten a bit of a makeover with the team straight-up cutting Essang Bassey. But players like Damarri Mathis and Kareem Jackson could be on the hot seat if things don't improve soon. What about Justin Simmons? Simmons has been hurt a bit, and played through it against the Jets, but he might be a victim of circumstance if the team can't find a way to beat the Chiefs.
Ultimately, I don't think anyone defensively should be safe if the Broncos can't beat Kansas City on Thursday night.