ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — In the first half of the 2022 season, the Denver Broncos had one of the worst offenses in the NFL.
Nathaniel Hackett and Russell Wilson’s unit, which was supposed to be leaps and bounds better than the offenses that have been in the Mile High City since Peyton Manning, has been nothing short of disappointing.
Through nine weeks of the season, Denver is averaging only 15.1 points per game, which is the third-worst in the NFL, only ahead of the Colts and the Steelers, teams who are both starting young quarterbacks.
“No. 1 most important thing is third down. I think that’s been the major Achilles heel for us,” Hackett said on Monday, when asked what the biggest issue has been for the offense. “We’ve had some decent drives and then those three and outs all the sudden show up and it’s really because we haven’t been able to convert on those manageable situations. So we have to be better from that standpoint.”
Despite the numerous struggles, however, the Broncos won’t be making any major changes to their offense coming out of their Bye Week.
“Right now, we look back at that Jacksonville game, I think we got into a good rhythm, I thought there were some really good things we were doing. We want to build off that,” Hackett said on Monday, when asked if they’ll be any changes made to Denver’s offensive approach. “We’ll make some adjustments within how we operate and how we do different things on the field and off, but nothing wild, just want to be sure we’re continuing to evaluate everything and building off this past game.”
Those adjustments will not include making any changes to the offense staff, the head coach stated.
“Right now, we’re just kind of evaluating everything as we move forward, we always want to try and get better,” Hackett added, after stating he won’t be making any changes to his staff. “I’m always looking at myself No. 1 and make sure I’m helping the team get into a good position to be successful and then just with all of the players and all of the coaches, just making sure that we’re efficient.”
One of the major reasons the Broncos won’t be making any major changes on offense, according to Hackett, is the way they finished out their previous game against the Jaguars in London. Just before the Bye Week, Hackett and Wilson guided Denver’s offense on two of the best, if not the best, drives of the season in the second half against Jacksonville.
The Broncos moved the ball 98 yards for a touchdown to start the second half and then finished the second half with an 80-yard game-winning touchdown drive. Those two drives were the main reason Denver topped 20 points for just the second time this season.
From Hackett’s viewpoint, the Broncos’ offense isn’t just close to clicking, it’s close to winning games.
“There’s been opportunities there,” Hackett said, when asked what the most correctable things are for the offense. “I think it’s about believing in it. Trusting it. And trusting the players. Players trusting players. Players trusting coaches. Coaches trusting players. And building off that. Because these past games we haven’t won, we’ve been right there. It’s one or two plays. If we can just correct those one or two plays, we’ll have a different outcome. And when we start correcting even more of those things, and getting better at those things, it’ll be an even better output. So we just have to continually get better at those basic fundamentals.”
Thanks in large part to Denver’s defense, which is giving up the second-fewest points per game (16.5) in the NFL, the Broncos have only one game in which they’ve lost by more than one possession. Denver’s other four losses have been by an average of only 3.5 points per game.
Hackett believes the Broncos’ offense just need to win one or two more plays a game in order to start rolling, not make one or two coaching changes to get them on track.
