Jensen’s Judgment: The 2-1 Broncos Have a Major Problem They Can’t Ignore

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

The Denver Broncos' uncanny penchant for storming back late in games to emerge victorious is impressive, but as a rule or a model, it's just as likely to blow up in their face on a week-to-week basis. Sunday night's 30-26 win over the Los Angeles Rams was a wild romp, but it was as unlikely as it was entertaining.

This team has now started all three of its games off painfully slow, but in the last two, the Broncos have been able to bounce back in the clutch to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. It's an admirable quality to have in the ol' back pocket, but as excited as Sean Payton likely is by his team's consecutive wins over high-quality opponents, he should be equally alarmed by the slow starts.

Let's examine what the culprits may be to divine the potential solutions to Denver's first-half struggles.

More Execution Than Play-Calling

Davis Webb is complicit in these slow starts, especially in the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams games, but player execution shoulders most of the blame. Whether it's the jumpy quarterback play of Bo Nix, the offensive line's inability to generate any push in the run game, or the receivers struggling to separate and sometimes catch the ball, it's a unit-wide problem.

As the game marches on, though, Nix begins to settle down and get into the flow of things, and his teammates follow. That's the thing about leadership: whether it's good or bad, it tends to transfer to everyone else through osmosis.

Calming Nix Down

Bo Nix lines up under center against the Rams. | Dustin Bradford / IMAGO / Icon Sportswire

Early in games, Nix is clearly amped up and excited. That's football. It is exciting. But it's also Nix's job to keep a poised lid on that excitement.

Intensity is required at quarterback, but so too is poise. Alas, Nix is the farthest thing from poised when the game is young.

Nix has happy feet, which leads to a poor technical foundation in his drop-backs. That leads to a lack of patience, where he's far too quick to bail a cleanly protected pocket.

Sometimes, it's no skin off the offense's teeth, as Nix is great when he's on the move, but not early in games when he's still so jumpy. As the game marches on, though, he seems to settle down and find his groove — and that's when things suddenly start to click and the offense finds its rhythm.

Payton and Webb have to get to the bottom of this issue with Nix. It's as if he doesn't settle down and get comfortable until the Broncos are in a two-score hole.

There are ways the Broncos could work to manufacture some of the late-game conditions early on, like having Nix run a high-tempo attack out of the no-huddle offense. He has always looked more comfortable in high-tempo situations, so it might be wise to work some of that in early in games, though it doesn't mean the coaches should completely abandon the huddle.

Pepper it in strategically and scheme Nix some quicker, easy completions to get him in rhythm. I can only see it helping the third-year quarterback.

Unrealistic Defensive Expectations

Matthew Stafford. — Matthew Stafford throws a dime under pressure from Brandon Jones. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Unfortunately, when it takes two-plus quarters for any offensive rhythm to take shape, the Broncos find themselves in a deep hole that Nix has to dig out of. The Broncos' defense is good, but against top-tier opponents, it will never shut them out completely.

It turns out, quality football teams find ways to score points early in games, in the middle of games, and at the end of games. The Broncos' bend-don't-break defense has done an admirable job of preventing games from getting out of hand while Nix and the offense go three-and-out for two quarters, but it won't always pan out that way.

Against the Los Angeles Rams, the Broncos' defense was on the field for a whopping 86 plays. The players get tired, and that can only lead to disaster. That could, in part, explain why Patrick Surtain II struggled so much against Davante Adams on Sunday night; he was running a track meet.

Credit to the Broncos' defense for hanging tough, but Week 1 was a great reminder that expecting Vance Joseph's unit to never break in the face of unrelenting snaps is simply unrealistic. They need breathers, too. Football is a complementary game, and the defense has shouldered way too much of the burden, which could put undue stress on the unit and lead to less than ideal outcomes.

Fix the Run Game, Fix the Quarterback

Bo Nix hands off to J.K. Dobbins. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Broncos' ground attack has suffered, at times, from a lack of commitment on Webb's part and a lack of execution by the players. However, even when Webb has stuck with the run early, the Broncos have been inefficient.

It's a combination of factors — everything from play design, to the offensive line not getting push, to the running backs not hitting the holes with burst. The injury problems the Broncos have already faced at running back haven't helped, but there's a lot more to why this offense has averaged a paltry 81 yards per game on the ground.

That ranks Denver's ground attack in the bottom three of the NFL.

J.K. Dobbins hasn't looked like the player who dominated for 10 games last season. He's been indecisive and lacking burst. RJ Harvey hasn't been on the field enough to really measure how he's shaping up in Year 2, and Jonah Coleman is already on injured reserve.

The Broncos' offensive line needs to step it up. With two All-Pros leading the way, this unit has been disappointingly ineffective in run blocking.

Left tackle Garett Bolles and right guard Quinn Meinerz haven't been the problem, but on a unit of five, they can't independently make up for faux pas at left guard, center, and right tackle, as we've seen for three straight weeks. Ben Powers may be one of the NFL's best pulling guards, but we're not seeing his power translate on a down-to-down basis.

Center Luke Wattenberg has been regularly stood up by opposing defensive tackles, while right tackle Mike McGlinchey has been a sieve overall. It's disappointing, given this unit's experience together and the coaching continuity of run game coordinator and O-line czar Zach Strief. The Broncos returned the same starting five for the third straight season.

So what's changed?

I'm not a big believer in coincidence, but the only new wrinkle is Webb as the offensive coordinator and play-caller. It may be that the O-line just needs more time to gel around his blocking concepts — I don't know.

What I do know is that the Broncos aren't playing like the best O-line in football, regardless of what the metrics said in 2024 and 2025. Far from it.

If Payton, Webb, and Strief can fix this run game, it can only help settle Nix into the flow of the game faster, create more favorable third-down opportunities, and keep the offense on the field longer. That leads to points. This has to be priority No. 1 for the Broncos because of the trickle-down implications.

The Takeaway

Better late than never, sure. The Mile High Magic that Nix and company have been able to conjure so consistently is remarkable, but it should be viewed as an arrow in the quiver, not the only weapon in the Broncos' arsenal.

We haven't seen the big Year-3 leap from Nix that Webb forecasted this past summer. Now, much of that has to do with the quality of opponents the Broncos have faced and the stiff schedule the NFL gave them to kick off this season, but it's far from the only factor.

The buck stops with Payton. And if he can get to the bottom of this issue — which has been a lingering factor dating back to early last season — the Broncos will become scary-good.

This team has scratched the surface of greatness. When Payton cracks the early-game code, though, the Broncos will break into the NFL's elite — becoming a true juggernaut that strikes fear in the hearts of all opponents.

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