Fangio Addresses the Mounting Drops of Broncos Rookie TE Noah Fant
Noah Fant was targeted five times on Thursday night vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. The Denver Broncos' rookie tight end hauled in one of them for just seven yards.
Three of the four Fant didn't haul in were drops. Egregious ones.
QB Joe Flacco played trash football but the one impressive throw he had of the night was an excellent dart to Fant down the left seam, threading the needle through the coverage but the rookie couldn't haul it in, seeing the ball go straight through his hands.
After the game, head coach Vic Fangio couldn't quite put his finger on what's going on with Fant but he made it clear publicly that he still has faith in the first-rounder.
“I can’t give you an exact answer to it," Fangio said Thursday night. "When that’s happening it’s usually more than just one thing, but he’s growing through being a rookie, but I still believe in him. I think he’ll be a good tight end in the league.”
It's been slow going for Fant. Through seven games, he's got 15 receptions for 159 yards and a touchdown.
I would attribute Fant's drops more to the overall energy of the Broncos' offense than any over-arching indictment on his future as a player. The offense was atrocious. Embarrassing, converting just 1-of-13 third-down attempts.
Flacco doesn't really have the right to call anyone out at this point, as he's been arguably as complicit for the team's five losses as any individual player, but with 12 years in the NFL under his belt, he's been through a lot of situations and did what he could to console Fant and keep his chin up.
“I went up to him and just kind of dapped him up," Flacco said from the podium post-game. "You could tell he kind of had his head down a little bit. Listen, this is a team sport and we are all in this together. We are all one so the last thing you want is for guys to be feeling on gameday like they need to hang their head or they should feel bad about how they’re playing. That’s just not how it is. We all make mistakes. I made plenty of mine tonight and it’s all about having each other’s backs. That’s what good teams do and that’s how you pick each other up out of these things and you allow yourself to play a good game because you know we all have each other’s backs.”
The Broncos are nowhere close to being a 'good team' but kudos to Flacco for trying to reach out to his rookie tight end. Noah Fant is going to be fine.
The team just needs to get him a better quarterback who can energize the offense. Will that cure 100% of drops? No.
But with how bad Denver's QB play has been, it can't get any worse. There's nowhere to go but up if the Broncos bit the bullet and replace the slumping Flacco.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
