Broncos' 3 Realistic Moves to Regain a Semblance of Relevancy
After a historically embarrassing loss to the Miami Dolphins, fans want the Denver Broncos to burn it all down, and rightfully so. The Broncos are going nowhere fast.
The Broncos brought in a Super Bowl-winning head coach with a history of success, only to have the same old problem. The team is stuck in Loserville, but what can be done?
There are several options on the table, but only a few realistic paths that the franchise can take this season.
Replace the Defensive Coordinator
Vance Joseph just became a defensive coordinator with a historically bad performance on the heels of two previously poor games. His track record before coming to the Broncos is not very good, so relieving him of his duties makes sense.
How to go about it is simple. The Broncos simply can’t replace Joseph with an outside coach because it would not be easy to install a new defensive scheme. Promoting up-and-coming secondary coach Christian Parker is an option, but there's some concern that it would stunt the growth of his promising career.
There is a simple solution. Promote Joe Vitt, who's in his 43rd season coaching in the NFL and has served as an interim head coach twice. Vitt has the qualifications, and he cannot be worse than Joseph.
In fact, Vitt would probably be much better. He could coach the defense for the rest of the season, and Sean Payton would benefit from showing the team he doesn’t accept incompetence by giving Joseph his walking papers.
Trade Players Ahead of the Deadline
It is pretty easy to scream, “Trade the entire team!” After that historic beatdown, few would argue, but there are really only five realistic options. There are several players whose contracts, and the dead money that comes with it, make them nearly impossible to trade. There are also young and soon-to-be core players who must stick around to become the nucleus of the team.
Finally, some players won’t bring anything of value in return because of injuries, poor play, or expiring contracts. That leaves only five players that can realistically be traded.
Those players are Garett Bolles, Randy Gregory, Courtland Sutton, Justin Simmons, and Jerry Jeudy. Frankly, Jeudy is the only player on this list that the Broncos would be tempted to keep.
Jeudy is a young player with a contract that is not prohibitive. He could fetch value, but will that value be more than his worth to the team in 2023 and 2024?
Bolles will not bring as much value as most would think. He has a history of subpar performance, and a team making a playoff run would need to be desperate for a left tackle to give up more than a fourth-round selection.
Gregory is an intriguing trade because he could make an impact on a new team. His problem is he isn’t motivated. If he went to a winner, he would likely become motivated again. His value to the Broncos is small, but to another team, it could be high.
Sutton and Simmons are good players, and both could bring value in trade. The Broncos could shop both for a third and second-round pick, respectively, and get both.
None of these players should be in this franchise's future plans. It makes sense to jettison them all except for Jeudy. But if the price is right, Jeudy should be sent packing as well.
Stick with Russell Wilson
Based on his contract alone, Wilson is going to stick around for a while. The Broncos' first real 'out' isn’t until 2025, and cutting him then would still be a tough pill to swallow. The team could inactivate him for the rest of 2023 and save some of the guarantees, but that is highly unlikely.
Wilson has not played horribly this season and does appear to be back on the right path. He still has some work to do, but he needs players around him who are talented and possess a winning mentality. Currently, that is not the case.
With the extra draft capital and the cap savings from trading players by the deadline, the Broncos could conceivably rebuild a respectable team in short order. Then, when the 2025 season concludes, the franchise could move on from Wilson and replace him with their hand-picked, drafted option at quarterback.
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