Mason's Mailbag: Should the Broncos trade for Trent Williams?

To send questions, leave them in the comments section below or tweet them to me @MaseDenver with the #AskMase!

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Let’s start with three similar queries:

If wash was wiling to trade William’s for a 1st should Elway do it ? #askmase @MaseDenver

— Daniel (@DanielGonzalez8) September 20, 2019

https://twitter.com/mike_jesch/status/1174115946979581952

#AskMase who would you rather see Denver trade for?Trent Williams, Ramsey, or neither and why? https://t.co/iYeasgyaDF

— Aaron Tinnermeier (@hawkswag27) September 20, 2019

Of the two options — Trent Williams and Jalen Ramsey — I would consider a trade for Williams, but only if a) the cost is a third-round pick and b) the Broncos win their next two games, thus establishing themselves as a potential playoff team. With each week that passes, Williams becomes less valuable. Further, don’t forget that injuries have been an issue for Williams in recent years. He’s 31 and has not played a full 16-game season since 2013. He has missed an average of 3.3 games per year since 2016.

Remember this: If the Broncos lose Sunday and fall to 0-3, they’re in the company of 140 teams since 1990 that started 0-3. Just four of them rallied to make the playoffs, according to pro-football-reference.com, a meager 3.1 percent. It’s a bit better at 1-3; 30 of those 208 teams recovered to make the postseason (14.4 percent).

Still, if the Broncos are 0-3, it would be shortsighted to sacrifice Day 1 or Day 2 draft capital for a player with a lengthy injury history who would be on a one-year deal.

I wouldn’t even consider adding Ramsey. The Broncos’ locker room is still developing its corps of young leaders, and Ramsey’s presence could stunt their growth. This isn’t the locker room of Peyton Manning and DeMarcus Ware, future Hall of Famers with commanding personalities that could get the team in line.

https://twitter.com/andrewfromakron/status/1174077339107569664

There isn’t. Scangarello’s development as a play caller is a factor, but it’s not the only one; just look at how holding penalties have short-circuited drives over the last two games, costing the Broncos chances for first-half points.

“The penalties are killing us and those are things that need to be cleaned up,” Scangarello said Thursday.

But there are other errors, including DaeSean Hamilton drop in the end zone in the third quarter at Oakland was effectively a four-point play, as the Broncos settled for a Brandon McManus field goal one play later. There were also some bad situations in which players found themselves, e.g. Noah Fant one-on-one against Khalil Mack. Unless you’ve got a screen pass or some other quick-developing play, that’s the sort of matchup that cannot happen on a regular basis.

Scangarello deserves slack because he’s had just two games as an NFL offensive coordinator and is still learning what works and what doesn’t. Calling plays at this level is much different than at FCS for many reasons. None are more important than the wider range of talent at FCS, which means that successful tactical gambits work for bigger plays. In the NFL the talent disparity is smaller, and it’s harder to capitalize on a weak spot.

I’m not sure you want to hear the word “patience,” but that is what you need with a first-time NFL offensive coordinator. Give Scangarello time to learn the strengths and weaknesses of his offense. See how he adapts.

https://twitter.com/mikebirty/status/1173550686602219520

Blown coverage and a miscue at the line of scrimmage.

Let’s start with the work in the secondary. Without knowing the exact coverage, it seemed like Kareem Jackson and Isaac Yiadom expected some safety help, given their movement as Allen Robinson got upfield. But defensive coordinator Ed Donatell said the defenders needed to be deeper to keep Robinson from getting behind them.

“We were in zone coverage and we have to have more depth,” Donatell said. “Our whole back line has got to be deeper to make the ball go in front of us.”

Meanwhile, up front, Derek Wolfe and Von Miller got entangled, allowing Mitchell Trubisky time to settle and fire an unfettered throw. As Wolfe told Mile High Sports Radio, “On that last play, we let them extend it, because we got me and Von Miller, we got tripped up. [There was] miscommunication between us two, which doesn’t happen very often … we ran into each other and we tripped each other up.”

When the defense works, it’s a perfect blend of rush and coverage. On that play, both broke down, leading to the Bears turning fourth-and-15 into a game-winning field-goal opportunity.

https://twitter.com/Missy_Moo70/status/1174844172995457024?s=20

This isn’t as much bad technique as much as building a player up from zero, but for this, you need only to look at Alejandro Villanueva, the Steelers’ two-time All Pro who had been cut by the Eagles and spent his playing career at Army working at defensive lineman, left tackle and wide receiver (after being recruited to West Point as a tight end). With Villanueva, the Steelers had a raw lump of clay who was basically starting from zero and needed patience and the time required to refine his technique to where he could play. By his second season with the Steelers (2015), he was starting; by 2017, he was a Pro Bowler.

The hope with Bolles this season was that the arrival of Munchak would allow him to mash the reset button and start from zero. Unfortunately, the Broncos don’t have the luxury of letting him develop as a backup. Nevertheless, the progress of Villanueva, whose raw athleticism slightly exceeds that of Bolles, offers hope for a long-term turnaround. The question is, can the Broncos live with the many bumps along the way?

People may hate it, but at least it seems the Dolphins have a plan. What’s the Broncos plan? #AskMase

— Mike DeCicco (@MikeDeCicco) September 17, 2019

There was a plan, and here are some tenets of what it involved:

• Joe Flacco’s arrival would settle the offense. His experience in high-leverage games and his calm demeanor in the huddle was expected to inject maturity and presence that the team had lacked in the previous three seasons. His work could also allow Drew Lock to remain as a backup, learn the scheme and enter when he had reached a point in his development where he could withstand some early rough patches.
• Scangarello’s scheme, a descendant of the one Gary Kubiak installed in Baltimore in 2014, would bring out the best in the quarterback, effectively ending a four-year drop in production that saw him fall to the rear of the league’s middle tier of quarterbacks.
• Munchak’s coaching would improve the offensive line, particularly Bolles, and the arrival of rookie Dalton Risner at left guard would help Bolles get settled at left tackle. (That said, I have tried to ascertain instances in which a rookie offensive lineman was drafted to help a veteran playing next to him find his groove, and I can’t find one from my 21 seasons covering the NFL.)
• Key second-year players such as Royce Freeman, Courtland Sutton and Josey Jewell were expected to make the post-rookie leap that many players take.
• Vic Fangio’s defensive scheme would generate more takeaways and give Bradley Chubb and Von Miller a chance to be more versatile and handle coverage work, preventing teams from locking in on their intent pre-snap.
• Emmanuel Sanders and Phillip Lindsay would return to full health.

Some of these have happened. Others have yet to crystallize into in-game results.

These were core aspects of the Broncos’ plan for 2019. Obviously, the jury remains out, but if they drop to 0-3, the odds will be stacked against a turnaround resulting in a playoff spot.