Broncos Roundtable: What was the worst move Denver made in the offseason?

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — What a long week it’s been in Denver.

After playing their best half of football in the first 30 minutes against the Vikings on Sunday, the Broncos turned around and played their worst half of football as they blew the game.

Since they’ve had to live with the awful taste in their mouth that they’re the only team in the last five years to lose a game when leading by 20 or more points at halftime. All the other 99 teams in that same position had won. Not the 1 percent Denver was hoping to join.

In honor of the best and worst half, the DNVR Broncos Crew breaks down some of the best and worst of the season so far.

WHO HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST SURPRISE THIS SEASON?

Ryan

Mike Purcell — He was an afterthought when he was signed. He was an afterthought when training camp began. He was an afterthought when the season began.

Then, all of the sudden, he became the savior of the Broncos defense.

After the Jacksonville game, when Leonard Fournette single-handedly beat the Broncos, the team ranked an abysmal 30th in the league in net rush yards per game. Since Purcell, along with A.J. Johnson, entered the lineup, the team has moved all the way up to 11th in that category.

While Johnson, the SEC’s all-time leader in tackles, had a bit of fanfare when he was signed, Purcell was a complete unknown. Hell, most people didn’t even know he was a local product until halfway through training camp.

Add another feather in the cap for John Elway finding diamonds in the rough.

Zac

Alexander Johnson — Dalton Risner may be the people’s choice here, but I expected him to be Denver’s best offensive lineman this year. So he’s been no surprise to me.

Instead, this goes to the man no one predicted would be playing this good, despite Vic Fangio saying he wasn’t surprised at how well the inside linebacker’s played. If Fangio knew Johnson was this good, he wouldn’t have waited until the fifth game of the season to give the 6-foot-2, 255-pound backer his first-career defensive snap.

Yet despite only playing in 60 percent of the team’s games on defense, Johnson’s third on the team in tackles and has contributed in nearly every statistical category, including interceptions, sacks, quarterback hits, pass deflections, tackles for loss, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries.

And he’s been instrumental in turning Denver’s run defense from one of the worst in the league to one of the best.

Additionally, since the “Dino,” as he’s been nicknamed, has taken over, all of the loud roars surrounding Devin Bush and how the Broncos should have drafted him in the first round have magically vanished.

Mase

Davontae Harris — There is a case to be made for Johnson, but consider this for Harris: The Bengals, the NFL’s caboose, said he was not good enough for their roster. Fortunately, Harris possesses maturity beyond his age, an admirable positive attitude and a willingness to ask questions and learn from proven standouts like Chris Harris Jr. and Justin Simmons.

The rookie cornerback has endured some bumps, including a late removal from the lineup last week as the Vikings picked on him. But he has been resilient throughout the year. At minimum, the Broncos have found a valuable No. 3 or 4 cornerback who is a quality special-teams contributor. The “Wichita Kid” has made good.

WHAT WAS THE WORST MOVE THE BRONCOS MADE THIS OFFSEASON?

Ryan

Trading for Joe Flacco — The Broncos really thought they did it. They really thought the Ravens messed up. They really thought they saw something that nobody else saw. So they traded a fourth-round pick for Joe Flacco.

The most concerning thing about this move stems from what we learned at the combine. Sources within the organization made it clear to us that not only did the Broncos think they had found a multi-year solution in Flacco, but that they believed he could be a “top 10” quarterback in the league in 2019.

In hindsight, that was flat-out delusional. Flacco was not just bad, he was an active deterrent to the Broncos chances of winning week in and week out. His leadership was lackluster at best, and his lack of fire and urgency was just hard to watch.

Zac

Signing Ja’Wuan James — The honest-to-goodness truth here is there are many right answers to this question. And that’s not good.

Joe Flacco, Bryce Callahan, Theo Riddick and James are all finalists here. But James takes the cake.

The Broncos’ biggest free-agent acquisition has played a total of 32 snaps this season. Sure, injuries happen. But with James, it was bound to happen. This year. Throughout his entire NFL career, the 6-foot-6 tackle has missed at least half a season every odd year. With it being 2019, he was due. And he’s delivered as he’ll miss at least half the season due to injury.

Additionally, even if James was healthy, he’s graded out as an average tackle through his career. Yet the Broncos made him the highest-paid right tackle in NFL history at the time they signed him.

Through 10 games, by bringing home $17 million in cash this year, James is earning over $500,000—half a million dollars—for every snap he’s played this season.

The cherry on top is he’s missed multiple games despite being medically cleared. Denver should have known about all of this, too, as Chris Kuper, the team’s new assistant offensive line coach, was with him in Miami the past three years.

Mase

Trading for Joe Flacco — There are good cases to be made for James and Callahan. But consider the fallout from targeting Flacco:

1. With an initial salary-cap charge of $18.5 million, the Broncos were limited in their pursuits of other positions of need. Signing a true “bridge” quarterback such as Ryan Fitzpatrick — or simply retaining Case Keenum — might have given them comparable production. Considering that the Broncos still owed Keenum $7 million in the wake of his trade, the Broncos have $25.5 million committed to Keenum and Flacco. (Remember, the Flacco restructure has no real effect on the cap economics because of cap-space carryover.) The Broncos are paying premium money for lower-tier production; Flacco’s passer rating of 85.1 is 25th of 34 QBs with at least 125 attempts. Trading Keenum and adding Fitzpatrick (whose cap charge in Miami is $5.5 million) could have saved the Broncos $13 million. That is money they could have used to improve multiple positions such as slot receiver, where the Titans signed Adam Humphries for a $5 million cap charge in 2019.
2.  With the potential for Flacco being a multi-year solution, it was more palatable to place Drew Lock on injured reserve in the wake of his thumb injury. With a quarterback who was a clear bridge to Lock, and nothing more, the Broncos might have thought twice before putting Lock on IR and delaying his practice return.
3. Flacco wasn’t the right quarterback for where the Broncos were going. A young, energetic core did not necessarily need a young QB. But it needed someone whose fire burns on the surface a bit. “Joe Cool” could be the right leader for some teams, but the spark ignited by Brandon Allen shows that Flacco was not right guy for this one. And after four sub-par seasons in Baltimore immediately preceding this one, his skills were not enough to compensate for what he didn’t bring.
4. The public narrative of the Broncos not being able to identify a viable quarterback in the post-Peyton Manning era remains intact. It will remain an issue until the Broncos can succeed at finding a capable long-term starter.

RESULT VS. BILLS (-4)

Ryan

Broncos 16, Bills 10 — The Broncos really can’t gain much from winning this game, so it just feels like, naturally, they will.

The truth is that the Buffalo offense is very lackluster, and the Broncos defense, save for last week’s second half, is a force.

I have a hard time seeing how the Bills will generate offense, and I think a special touchdown like a return or an interception, propels the Broncos to the empty win.

Zac

Bills 17, Broncos 13 — There’s something happening with this team. From exploding to a 20-0 halftime lead over a great Vikings team last week to Von Miller organizing a unique and special dinner on Sunday night, it feels like the team is starting to fire.

Unfortunately, as the second half of Sunday’s game showed, the team may be firing, but certainly not on all cylinders.

The way Denver’s defense has played for most of the past six weeks will keep them competitive against the majority of the teams in the NFL. But until their quarterback situation is truly figured out, it’s hard to pick them to beat any team on the road, especially a 7-3 Bills team with one of the best defenses in the land.

They key in this game will be to limit Josh Allen on the ground and for Courtland Sutton to have yet another monster game. The combination of those will give Denver their best shot at pulling out the road upset.

Mase

Broncos 13, Bills 10 — In a duel of quarterbacking Allens, it would come as no surprise if the difference in the game was which one made the more critical mistake.

While Josh Allen has not thrown an interception in five games, he also fumbles at an unacceptably high rate. He has one fumble every 37.5 plays (rushing attempts, passing attempts and times sacked), which is the fifth-worst fumble rate among QBs with at least 100 plays this season. (Only Daniel Jones, Gardner Minshew, Flacco and Keenum were worse).

Between the potential raw weather conditions and the proficiency of Buffalo’s defense at all three levels, this game represents the sternest test for Brandon Allen so far. His costly mistakes have been few, but he did throw nearly twice as many touchdowns as interceptions in four preseasons of play.

The guess here is that the Broncos do a better job capitalizing on a potential Josh Allen mistake, and that will be the difference as they pull the upset.