Broncos win, but to expect immediate offensive improvement was foolish

The Denver Broncos beat the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 17, but it was truly foolish to expect the team to have an immediate offensive improvement. Overall, the box score numbers would tell us that the offense had a solid day, and frankly, they did. QB Jarrett Stidham was only sacked twice as the Broncos won the time of possession battle, averaged 4.7 yards per play, and had 313 total yards of offense.

Stidham went 20/32 for 224 yards and one score. The Denver Broncos offense definitely featured more work in the middle of the field an in the intermediate passing game, and mind you, they did this without Courtland Sutton and Marvin Mims Jr. Of all players, Lil'Jordan Humphrey led the team in receiving yards.

Overall, the unit was not prolific in this game, and they only put up 16 points, but it was truly foolish to expect the offense to immediately look better with Jarrett Stidham's first start of the season. Broncos Country, let's use some common sense here;

Stidham is a backup QB in the NFL. He's been in the league for several years and has limited on-field action. He's played on multiple teams and clearly does not have the ability to be a long-term starter, but head coach Sean Payton spoke glowingly about Stidham in the offseason when the team signed him, and what Stidham does well as a passer translates better into Payton's offense.

However, Stidham didn't get any first-team reps in practice until this week, and as I mentioned before, both Sutton and MIms were out with injuries. If you thought that this offense would score four touchdowns and put up 450 yards of offense, well, that's your problem. If you watched the game, you'll have seen that the run game was solid and Stidham was able to operate the offense how it was meant to be run, which is something that Russell Wilson struggled with.

I think one thing that this fanbase struggles with is impatience. Next week, the Broncos travel to Las Vegas to play the Raiders, and the Raiders defense has played very well under interim HC Antonio Pierce, so I would not get your hopes up for that game either.

Let's face it; it was foolish to expect the Denver Broncos offense to look noticeably better in Jarrett Stidham's first start.