Who are the announcers and referees for Broncos vs. Seahawks today?
Some nice bonuses for any NFL game is having a top-tier announcing crew and a great officiating crew. Who is announcing and referring the Broncos and Seahawks game? Unfortunately, the down side of both the announcer and referee is that some can negatively impact the game. Officials are human, and they make mistakes across all sports.
The Denver Broncos, like any other professional sports team, has benefitted from some shaky officiating calls and have also been impacted negatively by those same calls. According to Sharp Football Analysis, Brad Allen is going to be the head official for the Denver Broncos Week 1 game versus the Seattle Seahawks.
Here are some penalty trends with Brad Allen, also from Sharp Football Analysis:
"Former ACC ref who is unique in that he transitioned immediately from college football directly to a head NFL referee.
- Joe Gibbs
Allen averaged 11.94 penalties per game in 2022, tying him for fourth overall in the NFL.
Brad Allen has been a solid home field referee since 2016.
Home teams with Brad Allen are 65-47-1 SU (60%) & 61-49-3 ATS (57%) since 2016
Home underdogs are 24-14-1 ATS (65%) since 2016
Called only 41.8% of penalties on home teams in 2022
61-52 Under (54%) in past 7 seasons
27-15 Under (65%) in Divisional games
Led the NFL in false start penalties in 2022
Ranked second overall in defensive holding penalties per game in 2022"
Everything here seems to indicate the Seahawks may have the officiating advantage, as the site notes. Could this be another wrinkle in the gameplan for the Denver Broncos? Hopefully if Sean Payton and his coaching staff have done their job, Denver won't have to worry a ton about being called for penalties.
According to Yahoo Sports, the announcing crew for Denver's game will be Spero Dedes, Adam Archuleta, and Aditi Kinkhabwala. Kind of like with an NFL roster, the broadcast crews that are seen as better and more entertaining are usually given the most competitive games, and the other crews are sometimes given less than exciting matchups.
The Denver Broncos are also playing on the west coast in Week 1, so it's far away from the more ideal and center-stage east coast time zone. In just a few hours, the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks will kick off Week 1 of their 2024 seasons. It's the third time that these two teams have met to open a season since 2018, when Russell Wilson was still a Seahawk.