Player grades for Broncos' preseason Game 3 revealed

Which Broncos graded out well vs. the Niners on Monday Night Football?

This was not a good showing by the majority of the Denver Broncos. The Broncos had some players really show up, but not many of them. 

The first-team defense really shut down the San Francisco 49ers, but the first-string offense could not get a running game going. After that, it was a lot of mess with little beauty mixed in.

The following grades reflect the players' individual performance, based on a grading scale designed by myself that has been refined over the last five years. It measures a player's impact on a given play and evaluates whether the player is doing what they're supposed to be doing or not. 

There are seven players with good grades, seven I'll highlight with bad grades and seven others in between that I want to talk about for one reason or another. 

The Good

Bradley Chubb, OLB: 97.9

Chubb absolutely dominated Niners' left tackle Joe Staley. He got multiple pressures, one of which led to an interception, and a strip-sack. 

Chubb's run defense was solid, but there were two reps that could have gone a little better for him, but that is nitpicking. Those two plays kept his grade from being a perfect 100.

Shelby Harris, DL: 93.7

Harris was dominant vs. the Niners, and his play has really helped out others in that front seven. He is getting great push in the run game, when he isn’t breaking through to the backfield, and getting great push in the pass game. 

One of his best plays came from reading a screen and bringing down the back for a loss. If he keeps it up, he is in for a big payday.

Isaac Yiadom, CB: 88.6

This was the first game where Yiadom went without a huge mistake on the field. He was in the right place and made a play on the ball for an interception, picking off Jimmy Garoppolo, and looked strong with his coverage. 

Yiadom is really stepping up his game and showing a lot of growth from where he was a year ago. Denver just needs to continue seeing him build on his game.

George Aston, FB: 85.2

The backup fullback actually played really well out there. Aston did have a few missed blocks, but not many. He was reliable as a lead-blocker, and has flashed potential for more in previous games. 

With Andy Janovich out, it’ll be interesting to see whether Aston can show even more with the extra reps.

Noah Fant, TE: 83.8

While he didn’t quite have the impact as a receiver with two catches on three targets, Fant did show up as a blocker. For a guy who has been knocked for his blocking, he really stood out for that very reason. Was it perfect? 

No. The technique wasn’t great and he lost his rep a couple of times. What Fant did, though, was show some technical growth as a blocker and gave maximum effort and ended up being effective for the majority of his blocking reps.

Drew Lock, QB: 81.2

The best quarterback out there for both sides, Lock has shown tremendous growth each week of the preseason and is on the right track to being something in the NFL. There was one play where he made a poor decision on third down, but got bailed out by a defensive pass interference call. 

That play showed Lock still can be over-aggressive and needs to learn to take what is given in certain situations, like hitting the open receiver for the first down. To end the first half, Lock was also rushing his performance and that can lead to bad mistakes. 

The game is obviously slowing down for him, but we need to see him not rush his play. Still, there is a lot of promise in Lock.

De’Vante Bausby, CB: 78.5

Bausby was solid all game, but his best play came on reading a quick pass and jumping the route. Unfortunately, he was unable to come away with the interception, which is concerning because he has had multiple dropped interceptions in practice, and if he did pick that off, good chance he takes it to the house. 

The former AAF stud has shown why the Broncos picked him up.

The Bad

Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Trey Johnson, CB: 17.8

Being in the wrong place, looking soft in coverage and as a tackler and just getting bullied. It is a good question to ask about why he's still on the team and getting as much time as he is. Johnson has not put together anything more than a bad game so far, and practices haven’t been much better.

Garett Bolles, LT: 21.6

What a mess of a game for Bolles. Between letting a defender run right by him on a sweep run, to giving up multiple pressures, Bolles was absolutely controlled by Solomon Thomas for the game. 

He had a bad holding penalty to negate a big play after he lost the rep early and turned to holding. There is a bad track record with Bolles, as he doesn’t have recovery ability for early rep losses and that results in holding. 

This is something we should be seeing improvements in by now with Mike Munchak, but that has not been the case. Denver needs Bolles to step it up and really put it all together.

Josh Watson, LB: 25.5

What saves Watson was his play from the edge, because his play from off-ball linebacker was a mess. He gave little effort on a long touchdown run as he tried to backpedal from a block instead of flipping his body to pursue. Additionally, he plugged the wrong lanes time and time again and was lost in coverage.

Elijah Wilkinson, OT: 28.7

Someone needs to clean up Wilkinson's stance — it's ugly and leads to mistakes. He opens his hips up early, which gives the defender an advantage to beat him. There were also issues of no push on the ground, and really poor technique with his hands.

Chaz Green, OL: 34.8

Surprisingly not the worst tackle like he has been in previous weeks. Still, he was bad and has shown that he should not be playing left tackle in the NFL. 

For some reason, the Broncos have kept him at left tackle, which he is too slow to handle instead of getting him looks on the right side or inside where he may perform better.

Josey Jewell, LB: 37.2

Jewell started the game and looked like he didn’t belong on the field. He was clogging the wrong running lanes, looked like his instincts were not there and looked like he was guessing, and slow in coverage. 

Bradley Chubb and Isaac Yiadom did bail him out on one play where the running back had him beat, but Chubb hit the quarterback causing a bad throw which Yiadom intercepted. If not for Chubb, that was a huge play for the Niners. 

It was his first game since he got hurt, and still working back, but his play in coverage has been a concern for a long time.

Ja'Wuan James, RT: 47.1

It was a very disappointing game from James who gave up multiple pressures and missed multiple blocks on the run game. On one run play he was pulling for a screen and ran right by a defender, who went on to make the tackle, only to whiff on a block because he lunged to land his hit. Being a veteran, James should have shown much better than he did, but there were to many plays of him blocking nothing.

Other notable performances

Demarcus Walker, DE: 28.7

Walker was dominated for the majority of the game. There were one or two positive plays, but they were not great plays by any means. As a run defender, he was constantly pushed out of place and bullied, which is something that has been a concern going back to college. He is fighting for a roster spot, but out of three games, two of them have been bad showing.

Austin Schlottmann, OG: 37.6

With Ron Leary out, Austin Schlottmann got the nod at right guard over Don Barclay. When Barclay played there he was solid, which Schlottmann was not. Watching Schlottmann play with the starters, it was clear he does not belong there. He has been fine as a depth piece, but he was outmatched and made mistake after mistake.

Connor McGovern, C: 42.9

There were six bad plays from McGovern, and the rest were actually good reps. The bad reps, though, were pretty bad. He gave up pressures, and just let defenders blow by him in the running game. Still, need to shore up the snapping issues, and cut back on the mistakes or at least dampen their blow to the offense.

Dalton Risner, LG: 51.8

There were two really bad plays from Risner, and a couple others that were not so good. Outside of those, though, he was pretty much himself from the previous games. Every player is going to have a down game, but can Risner rebound? That will be a big question for the rookie, and I think he will answer it in a good way.

Jake Rodgers, OL: 58.7

Rodgers had a good game against Seattle, but followed that up with an okay game. He did give up a couple pressures and struggled some in the run game against the Niners. However, among the backup tackles he was the best looking of them, which is a cause for concern.

Devontae Booker, RB: 71.9

It was not a good game from the Broncos' running backs, but that isn’t so much the fault of them as it is the offensive line. Could Booker have been better? Sure, but he made a lot of nothing a couple times and was pretty reliable with the ball. 

Joe Flacco, QB: 73.6

A couple missed open receivers and a couple badly placed throws hurt what was otherwise a good showing from Flacco. He dealt with the pressure allowed by the O-line, and looked good when making throws on the run. You can see the reason for optimism, but also see that there are so many doubters about the offense led by him.

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