The Denver Broncos travel to Florida to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a pivotal Week 3 game for Sean Payton as they try to get into the win column for the first time this season.
It won't be an easy task whatsoever as Tampa Bay is clicking on all cylinders early to start the season.
The Broncos' offense is struggling due to many factors, and they have another tough challenge against Todd Bowles and his stingy defense. It'll be extremely tough for Bo Nix on Sunday afternoon to get the offense to look good and this is the main reason why.
The main reason why the Buccaneers defense is a clear mismatch against the Broncos offense
Next Gen Stats/NFL Pro had an interesting insight and statistic about the Buccaneers defense and how it'll play a huge factor against the Broncos' offense:
"The Buccaneers have blitzed at the 5th-highest rate (34%) this season and have also mixed things up with the highest rate of creepers (12%) and the 4th-highest rate of defensive linemen dropping into coverage (35%)."
Denver will be facing a defense that can confuse the offense at a high rate and disguise their coverages with defensive linemen dropping into coverage.
Nix is already having a tough time executing the offense with the lack of explosive playmakers and no run-game. It'll be even harder against the Buccaneers as he's continuing to see different coverages and looks from different defensive personnel groupings.
There can be an argument made that Nix is doing more than what he should be because of the lack of execution around him on every offensive play.
For example, the Denver pass blockers have allowed the 8th-highest rate of unblocked pressures at 21%.
That does not bode well for the Broncos because whenever Tampa has been blitzing, the Buccaneers have produced at a substantially better rate. When sending four or fewer rushers, their pressure rate was 26.2% (ranked 22nd), while sending five or more was 48.4% (ranked 7th).
Another insight that caught my attention was about Nix and the depth of his dropbacks in his rookie season.
Through the first two weeks of the season, Nix has averaged the deepest dropback depth at 9.1 yards.
Next Gen Stats/NFL Pro provide their explanation about it:
"Deeper dropbacks create a shorter path for edge rushers to the quarterback so as a result, the Broncos tackles average time to pressure has decreased from 3.01 seconds in 2023 down to 2.86 seconds this season. The Broncos have increased their average offensive line width from 5.9 yards in 2023 (27th-widest) to 6.4 yards this season (9th-widest)."
An interesting perspective to read and analyze as Nix looks to improve and develop under Payton and take another step forward against the Buccaneers in Week 3.
If the playmakers and offensive line can execute at a higher rate against Tampa and get the run game going, Nix will have an easier path to success against a great Buccaneers defense.