Parker, our backs are to the wall now. Win and we’re in. With that, I have a couple of questions. Can we trust Riley Moss after his rough game against the Bengals? He did not look 100% out there. And what’s going on with the defense? We gave up over 30 points in three of the last four games.
— Reggie L., Denver
Hey Reggie, thanks for writing in and getting us going this week. Hard to believe we’ve reached the end of the regular season already. Seems like we just were fielding questions about Riley Moss and whether he’d win the starting job in training camp, what the 53-man roster would look like, etc.
The Broncos, of course, are very much hoping it’s not the last game on the docket for them. In order to keep playing — and certainly to upset Buffalo in the Wild Card round if they make it — they’ll need Moss and the defense.
Sean Payton made what I thought was a pretty fair point on his conference call Monday: It’s one thing to criticize some of the way the defense has played in recent weeks but quite another when talking about the Bengals on Saturday night. Against the Los Angeles Chargers, guys were running wide-open. Obviously, they had a bad night at the office even in a Week 13 win against Cleveland. The Bengals, though, are among the most dangerous offenses in football and playing as well as anybody on that side right now. As good as Joe Burrow and those receivers are, it didn’t feel like a bad defensive outing. The early fourth-down stops, the two overtime stops — one aided by the short missed field goal — the seven sacks despite Burrow’s career-low 2.23 seconds average time-to-throw. Cincinnati’s just really good offensively. Tee Higgins is a huge part of that and he got the best of Moss, no doubt about it.
As long as Moss is feeling good physically, though, the Broncos should trust him going forward. He’s got real ability and, just as important in this case, he seems to have the right mentality for handling failure and bouncing back.
It’s time to get the tarot cards, crystal ball or Ouija board out to get some insight about the Chiefs game. What vibes are you getting?
— Ed Helinski, Auburn, N.Y.
Hey Ed, thanks for all the great questions this year. The vibes weren’t great after the game, to be sure. But that’s also natural after a tough loss and the sense of missed opportunity in letting two clinching chances get by. If — and it’s still a big if — Denver misses the playoffs, I think the Chargers loss will rank higher on the frustration scale than Cincinnati. But no doubt the Broncos had many chances to win Saturday night.
Payton said this week he likes this team’s grit and toughness and all year the group’s thought of itself as resilient. At the same time, it’ll be a different level of pressure on Sunday, especially if the Bengals beat Pittsburgh on Saturday night.
The bet here is that they handle it well and have a good week of preparation. They’re substantial favorites at home against a Kansas City team that has no incentive to play its best players. They should win and get in. A slow start or something fluky early in the game, though, and Empower Field’s going to get tight in a hurry.
Denver’s O-line is suspect as the running game never does well. Maybe it’s not the running backs? And just curious, who would the Broncos have picked if Bo Nix was not available? Maybe they would have stuck with the other two quarterbacks they have.
— Andy Banta, Bismarck, N.D.
Hey Andy, thanks for the questions. The offensive line hasn’t been perfect, but I’d push back against the notion that it’s suspect. All kinds of numbers and the eye test suggest it’s one of the best pass-blocking units in football. They’re not quite as good in the run game, but overall if you ask players and coaches or look at analytics, overall you won’t get much criticism with the way the front line’s played this year.
As for the draft, look at the way Payton’s talked about Brock Bowers before each of the games Denver played against Las Vegas this year. He’s a special talent, he was a known special talent all the way through the draft process and he never would have lasted until No. 13 had it not been what’s already shaping up to be a terrific quarterback class. Heck, redraft tomorrow and he probably wouldn’t last until No. 13. Denver also could have taken an edge rusher — remember, every defensive player was still on the board when they picked at No. 12 — like Jared Verse or Laiatu Latu.
A general observation here: It’s been a really good year for rookies. You can’t say enough about the quarterback class already, which now features five starters and three in playoff contention, four pass-catchers that have gone over 1,000 yards — highlighted by a record-setting debut for Bowers, who has a ridiculous 108 catches for 1,144 going into Week 18 — a terrific corner duo in Philadelphia in Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, a terrific front-seven duo for the Los Angeles Rams in Verse and Braden Fiske, a Day 3 1,000-yard rusher in Tampa Bay’s Bucky Irving. On and on. The class is already littered with real contributors.
Hey Parker, do you think Bo Nix and Troy Franklin will ever connect on that deep throw?
— Mark, Arvada
Hey Mark, you’d have to think eventually right? Franklin’s got legitimate speed and has shown the ability to separate. He’s dropped a couple and Nix has missed him a couple of times — including in overtime against the Bengals.
Franklin’s never going to be a physically imposing receiver, but continuing to add strength will help him get off the line of scrimmage smoother and, thus, perhaps improve timing and rhythm. The natural wonder here is why the chemistry hasn’t come along more considering the production between the two in 2022-23 at Oregon, but the NFL is a whole different ball of wax. Payton pointed that out when they drafted Franklin and it’s proven to be true.
I do not have the NFL Network and had to listen to the Broncos-Bengals game on the radio. I know the NFL makes an exception for the Denver area, but I would argue that Bronco fans in Colorado Springs and Pueblo are just as ardent Bronco fans as the people in Denver. We deserve better.
— Mike, Pueblo
You’ll get no argument from me, Mike. The more the league expands to streaming services and other platforms for broadcasting games, the tougher it gets for a considerable slice of fans to find games regularly.
There’s no going back, though. Look at the price tags Netflix and Amazon are willing to put on games and what the streaming numbers look like, and it’s all dollar signs for the league.
What area should the Broncos concentrate on in the 2025 draft?
— Max Clark, Beavercreek, Ohio
Hey, alright, a couple of 2025 questions to commemorate the turning of the calendar and close out the mailbag this week. Thanks, Max.
Some of the eventual draft needs are going to depend on the decisions Denver makes after the season and in free agency. Defensive tackle is a great example. They could re-sign D.J. Jones and run back the really solid group from this year. They could let him walk and bank on Malcolm Roach, Eyioma Uwazurike and young players to step up. They could address the position in free agency if they like some of the veteran options.
But also, look at the draft and you’ll see guys like Michigan’s Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant along with a bunch of others dotting early draft rankings. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler and ESPN’s Jordan Reid each had six interior defensive linemen in their most recent top 50s. Payton and general manager George Paton use the way they see the draft — strengths, weaknesses, their needs, other teams’ needs — to plot their course for free agency and the draft. In terms of premium positions like disruptive interior players, edge rushers, quarterbacks, etc., good players don’t last long in the draft.
Though defensive tackle is a good example and one the Broncos certainly could address early, the still-early prevailing sentiment is that they’ll try to load up around Nix. Not at the expense of everything else, of course, but Nix is cheap, Denver’s showed promise this year and they’ve got an obvious lack of difference-making talent at the offensive skill positions.
Penn State tight end Tyler Warren seems like he’d be a great pickup for us in the draft. We’ve always had success when we have a strong tight end with good hands, like Shannon Sharpe and Julius Thomas. Bo Nix needs another weapon and this is who I think it should be. What say you?
— Adam, Aurora
Agreed, Adam. I haven’t done a ton of homework on particular players yet, but Warren’s got obvious production and when you watch him, he looks like the kind of guy Payton’s made a ton of hay with in the past. Same goes for Michigan’s Colston Loveland, who’s considered a bit more of an all-around guy but still has pass-catching ability.
It’s an admittedly silly thing to do with a whole lot of time between now and the draft, but what the heck, let’s throw in an early 2025 prediction to celebrate the new year: The Broncos will get a tight end and a running back in the first three rounds of the draft and it won’t be a surprise if they use their first two picks to do it.
