SAD NEWS ; See how The Broncos hurt themselves in the offseason
The Denver Broncos find themselves in an 0-2 hole yet again this season, the same hole they were in a year ago at this time. Sean Payton has historically not been nearly as good in the month of September as he has been as the season progressed, but the Broncos starting off winless and scoring just 26 total points in the process (four of which came off of safeties) has been extremely upsetting for the fan base.
Even though struggles were to be expected with a rookie quarterback, there are other areas of the team that the Broncos perhaps attacked incorrectly in the 2024 offseason that are already costing the team in the early portion of the regular season.
What moves (or non-moves) may have been mistakes for head coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton?
3 moves looking like big mistakes for the Broncos early in 2024
1. Trading WR Jerry Jeudy to the Browns
Through the first two games of the 2024 season, at least, it sure looks like the Denver Broncos made a mistake trading away Jerry Jeudy to the Cleveland Browns while clinging on to Courtland Sutton for dear life.
Maybe Jeudy didn’t want to be in Denver, which frankly would be understandable at this point. Whatever the case, there are currently a couple of issues with this particular move. First of all, the promise of getting Marvin Mims more involved in the offense has been a complete lie at this point as Mims played 12 snaps in Week 1 against the Seahawks and just nine snaps in Week 2 against the Steelers. He’s barely getting involved.
The other major issue here is that Jeudy has been the most effective player for the Browns in their passing game, averaging over 12 yards per catch and making plays after the catch, making contested catches, and making plays deep downfield.
So far, the decision to trade Jeudy is looking like a massive mistake for the Broncos who have struggled with YAC, dropped passes, and separation from the wide receiver position through the first two weeks.
2. Not doing anything to upgrade tight end
The Broncos came away from the 2024 offseason just rolling with the same group of tight ends they had in the 2023 season, plus the “addition” of Greg Dulcich who was injured almost all of last year.
This decision has turned out to be another bust so far this year which the Broncos have borderline admitted with their addition of veteran Donald Parham to the practice squad. The tight end position has done virtually nothing through the first two weeks of the season except be a liability in the passing game with Greg Dulcich dropping multiple passes, Nate Adkins dropping one of Bo Nix’s better downfield throws of the year, and Adam Trautman doing nothing to help in the passing game.
There were plenty of tight ends available to the Broncos this offseason through free agency but they decided just to re-sign Trautman and roll the dice on Dulcich and Lucas Krull, who has been inactive the first two weeks of the season.
3. Not getting better options at off-ball linebacker
One of the key areas of weakness for the Broncos on the roster in 2024 was the off-ball linebacker position next to Alex Singleton. Unfortunately, 2023 third-round pick Drew Sanders was injured before the NFL Draft, and even though his status was unknown going into the offseason program, the Broncos still didn’t do enough to upgrade at linebacker.
Whether it was through free agency or the draft, the team’s biggest move ended up being signing Cody Barton, who has started the last two years for the Commanders and Seahawks. Barton was supposedly in a competition this offseason with Jonas Griffith, but Griffith seemed to lose that competition quickly and was placed on IR after camp.
Barton has been splitting snaps so far this season with Kristian Welch, a player who was cut by the Packers before the season. The Broncos picked up Welch who must have impressed in their joint practice/training camp matchup, but the fact that Welch has already been taking snaps from Barton is a sign that the Broncos whiffed on that offseason move and the situation surrounding that position as a whole.
