Mason's Mailbag: Did lack of preseason play lead to Broncos' clunky Week 1 performance?

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Away we go …

How much impact do you think the lack of preseason play for the starters had? What with a new coaching staff, new QB, new players..don't you think we should've played them more in preseason? I felt like the Raiders game was a glorified preseason game that we gave up #AskMase

— 𝙴𝚜𝚜𝚘𝚑 #𝕁𝕦𝕡𝕚𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕀𝕍𝔾𝕒𝕟𝕘 (@ess0h) September 11, 2019

I wouldn’t say the Broncos gave up by any stretch of the imagination. I also don’t think another preseason game of work would have helped; the Falcons, Rams and Cardinals all leaned heavily on their reserves, so how good could the work have been? What would have helped would have been another round of joint practices, and Vic Fangio has expressed a desire to have more sessions with other teams next summer. It’s controlled and it’s practice, yes, but it’s also first-team-against-first-team work. In the joint practices with the Broncos, the 49ers utilized a handful of players who didn’t play in the subsequent preseason game.

Despite the numerous shortcomings Monday, I was encouraged by something: the fact that the Broncos committed seven penalties (six of which were accepted) and did not turn over the football, two areas that were notorious problems the last two seasons. Including declined and offsetting infractions, they averaged 9.3 penalties per game last year, 11.0 per game from Week 8 through the end of the season and an astonishing 12.8 per game during a season-ending four-game losing streak.

The skid stands, and is now at five regular-season games heading into the Chicago game. But if they prove over the next several weeks that Monday’s cleaner game in giveaways and  penalties is not an outlier, then they will be able to win the type of games they lost the last two years.

why did the Broncos run a gimmick play to begin the game at Oakland?

— aluckenthusiast (@aluckenthusiast) September 12, 2019

Sometimes, you want to take a chance at a big strike — especially with the opening play when you’re down 7-0. Rich Scangarello took that shot, and it failed. The Broncos want to take advantage of Fant’s size and speed, and I admire the creativity involved in using a tight end on a jet sweep. However, coming from out of a three-tight end formation that allowed the Raiders to compress their defenders may be an aspect of this play they want to tweak if they are to attempt it again.

“You live by the sword, you die by the sword,” he said Thursday. “I know this, I want to be a fearless play caller and I want our players to be fearless players and not be afraid to fail. You don’t want to fail. It’s part of the game. Obviously, I’d like to have it back, but there’s going to be scars when you take chances.”

I hope Scangarello will see fit to continue taking some tactical gambles. The offense needs to cultivate dynamism wherever possible — be it in play-calling or the skills of the players.

#AskMase did you ever figure out who tossed your Carolina car into the rubbish bin back at 760? You were pissed. Also do you think Risner is performing at/above/below his draft status so far (I know it’s way early)? https://t.co/xQC3UOJZfz

— Mile High Memories (@MileHighMems) September 11, 2019

I’ve let the first thing go. Life is too short to hold on to grudges that don’t provide motivational fuel — which is to say that the grudges one grasps should be rare and should only be the ones that make you better.

As for Risner, he’s playing above his draft status, although I think it was reasonable to have high expectations for him that went beyond what you would typically have for the No. 41 overall pick. The Broncos could have selected him with the No. 20 choice they acquired from Pittsburgh and it would have raised few eyebrows. Getting him at No. 41 was a coup.

What I respect about Risner is his intelligence, humility and self-awareness. He never fails to point out the areas in which he must improve. If you note the block that he made on Vontaze Burfict to spring Royce Freeman last Monday night, he’ll acknowledge it, but he will also note the other plays on which he felt he could have done better. He displayed those traits at the Senior Bowl, which was the first time I had a chance to be part of an interview with him. He’s the real deal as a player and as a person.

#askmase coach talk here or agreed? Because I’m discouraged that we looked so poor on D. We knew the O was putting up 14 and 21 with winning the TO games. But no pressure… if you can’t get it with four you get it with more. Right that down

— Adam Lucas (@Chefadaml) September 10, 2019

When the opposing quarterback gets the ball out in two or fewer seconds on half of his passes, you could rush six and it wouldn’t help as long as the protection scheme did its job. That said, the key to pressuring a quarterback who delivers the football quickly is to successfully attack from the interior. Even the best edge rushers typically require 2.5 seconds to knock the quarterback off the spot unless they are unblocked — which is often intentional given the design of a play, such as on a screen pass. The Broncos sustained scant pressure from their defensive line, which is something they must correct.

Hey Mase,

What are the big differences, if any, between how the Broncos do things and other organizations (like the Panthers)? What are some of the organizational strategies that make the Broncos, the Broncos? What quirks do we have in comparison to other teams ?

Love

The Count

I can only go by the Broncos and Panthers from my personal experience, but one thing you gather in this small NFL world is that everyone goes about things just a little differently. And sometimes, an organization’s entire philosophy can change just because a coach walks in the door and says, “No, we’re going to do this my way, which isn’t how you’ve been doing it.” The most prominent example of that came with Josh McDaniels in 2009. Daily schedules changed. Media could no longer shoot video and photos of training camp after the individual periods of practice; this ended up becoming the team’s standard philosophy and endures to this day. The travel schedule changed; the Broncos would arrive later on the day before the game than they did under Mike Shanahan. In 2011, John Fox would put the Broncos back on a travel schedule similar to that of Shanahan.

Some organizations shower their staff in swag. In Carolina, I would arrive for training camp at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C. and walk to a locker-room stall jammed with two polo shirts, two pairs of sneakers and a pair of shower thongs, multiple pairs of socks, two windbreakers, a full sweatsuit, several pairs of T-shirts and shorts for workouts and for wearing to practice, two new pairs of khaki shorts and a leather belt. It was Christmas in July. A decade later, I still have a good chunk of the gear and wear it around the house, although some items — like the shoes and socks — have long since worn out. Some other organizations don’t give out much at all. The Broncos fall somewhere in between.

Some teams like to travel “lean and mean” — i.e. essential personnel only. The Panthers were one of those when I worked there. The team flew on an Airbus A320, a narrow-body plain with six seats in each coach-class row. If you weren’t absolutely needed, you weren’t on the flight. The Broncos, on the other hand, typically fly a larger plane — most often a 767, a wide-body plane with eight seats per row. In addition to players, coaches, staff and radio/TV broadcasters, a chunk of seats are reserved for sponsors and others with business connections to the team.

While NFL teams compete on the field, they borrow liberally from each other off of it. Representatives of each department typically convene for annual meetings — e.g. public-relations meetings, IT meetings, marketing meetings, et. al. to share best practices. Still, this only goes so far; what works in marketing and promotions in Atlanta might flop in Arizona.

As for quirks, that’s tougher to gauge. Because organizations pilfer ideas from each other more often than before, they’re generally more homogenized than at any other point in the league’s history. There are some outliers — the Raiders and Bengals immediately jump to mind. With the Bengals in particular, you need only to glance at their website to see that they have a different point of emphasis than most teams. The Bengals are another organization that operates lean and without bloat. Their focus is football, football, football, with most of their content written by a long-time beat writer, Geoff Hobson, who covered the team at local newspapers. It’s an old-school approach. It’s one that seems to be going out of style, but that I favor.

But plenty of other teams think of their website as more of a front porch of the organization for the 355 days a year when the team doesn’t have a home game, and they use it to promote team initiatives, take fans backstage and to make fans feel good about their emotional investment in the club.

Some organizations have owners who meddle. Others have owners who put trust in their employees and departments, understanding that their expertise in a specific area is why they are with the club. That is one area that the Panthers and Broncos had in common during my stints there. Pat Bowlen created an organization in which you felt like you could flourish, and much of the success the Broncos had since 1984 in myriad ways stems from that.

As for the Panthers, I now look back at my time there through a different prism since the malfeasance committed by their former owner, Jerry Richardson, came to light. He was, as we later learned, an irredeemable person. To call him sexist and racist only scratches the surface. His actions will always disgust me to no end. Fortunately, he’s no longer there, although a grotesque statue of him outside Bank of America Stadium remains. Sadly, that remains a permanent reminder of someone from whom that organization has justifiably detached itself in every other conceivable way.

When will reporters get mics for the press conference? Loving the YouTube content from the Broncos but you can never hear the questions during the conferences. #AskMase

— iStayWrecked (@iiStaywrecked) September 12, 2019

I don’t know, and in my new capacity, that’s not my problem anymore.

That said, there are some press conferences for which microphones are passed from a member of the team’s public-relations staff to a media member who has gotten their attention. This is the structure for postgame press conferences at home and major offseason pressers for occurrences such as the NFL Draft, big free-agent signings and head-coaching hires. That is a similar structure to large press conferences at major NFL events (Super Bowls, owners’ meetings, etc.) and gatherings of a similar scale for other major professional and college sports.

The day-to-day briefings are less structured, and unless they have someone holding up a boom mic to capture us hollering questions, you’re not going to have ideal sound.