5 Lessons the Broncos can Learn & Apply From Super Bowl LIV

The Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl Champions, as much as that sickens we denizens of Broncos Country.

The Chiefs managed to beat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV to walk away with their second Lombardi Trophy for the franchise. It was a good game and both sides had their shining moments. It's unfortunate that the 49ers couldn’t walk away with the win as Denver Broncos fans now have to deal with the fallout for the next year at least.

What makes it worse for the Broncos is having to be in the same division as the Super Bowl Champions. The Broncos have to come up with ways to beat that team and the new star quarterback in the NFL — Patrick Mahomes.

That is no easy task for any team, but the 49ers did show some ways to, at least somewhat, slow Mahomes and company down defensively. San Francisco also proved that you need to have the offensive firepower to keep up with the Chiefs because even in slowing down that offense, they still put up 31 points.

This was a Super Bowl that the Broncos' coaches and front office should have been playing close attention to because there are multiple lessons the team can take away and use going forward. Here are five.

1. Creative Play-Calling to Utilize Personnel Strengths

Watching both of the player-callers do their thing in the Super Bowl was a thing of beauty. Both sides had creative calls that leveraged the strengths of the players to their maximum. As a result, both sides had a number of big plays because of these designs and calls.

Denver has struggled with being creative, and when they have been creative, they've struggled to execute. In this day and age, you can’t be bland and call basic concepts and designs. There has to be an element of creativity to catch defenses off-guard.

Once the designs all drawn up, the Broncos will need to make sure they're installed and can be run correctly. Denver has to do this if they hope to try and keep up with the Chiefs' offense.

Hopefully, the hiring of OC Pat Shurmur can lead to some improved creativity with better execution, hopefully due to improved installation.

2. Speed is Nice, but it Isn’t Everything

Do you feel the need for speed? Most Broncos fans do, but the team needs more than raw speed and that was laid bare in the Super Bowl. Yes, Tyreek Hill is fast, but speed isn’t all he brings to the table. Sammy Watkins isn’t the fastest, neither are Deebo Samuel, Emmanuel Sanders, Kendrick Bourne, or the tight ends and running backs who suited up on Sunday. .

Each one of those players brings something else to the table besides just speed. This also plays into another lesson that the Broncos can take from the game. Speed is nice to have as it does help the offense, but the Chiefs didn’t win and these players didn't have good performances just as a result of speed.

Don’t get me wrong, the Broncos do need to add speed, but they have to do so with a receiver that offers more than just speed. Is the receiver a great route-runner that sells fakes so well like Sanders? Does the receiver vary his speed and use burst for separation like Hill does? Is that receiver super quick through his routes? Can he make would-be tacklers miss and pick up yards after the catch quickly like Watkins can?

Denver needs more than just speed to add to its offense. Speed is nice, but players who just bring speed often fail at the NFL level. They have to offer more to the offense than just a fast 9-route.

3. Complementary Skill-Sets at Receiver is a Must

This is the other lesson that combines with the previous one. Speed isn’t everything, and you have to have complementary skills catching the ball. Both the Chiefs and 49ers offer up examples of having just that and seeing success. There 's Watkins, Hill, Travis Kelce, Damien Williams on one side, and Sanders, Samuel, George Kittle, Bourne, and Kyle Juszczyk on the other.

Both offenses were able to use the versatility of their play-makers to move the ball and put points on the board. The Broncos lack depth at receiver, but they also lack a versatile skill-set to really take advantage of the spacing from pat Shurmur’s offense.

The Broncos have two explosive players already in Courtland Sutton and Noah Fant, but they need to finalize their arsenal of weapons with an improved No. 2 and 3 receiver that bring something both unique and complementary to the table. Tim Patrick is very similar to Sutton, for example, and is fine as a WR4 option for the offense.

DaeSean Hamilton is a good route runner and can be effective for the Broncos underneath and from out of the slot. However, over 40% of his yards in 2019 came in the final two games of the season, which is why the Broncos can't rely on him as the No. 3 receiver going forward. Adding competition will be paramount. Let them battle for the job.

If you want a high-powered passing attack like Kansas City's, or very effective passing attack like the 49ers', get complementary weapons.

What happens next for the Broncos in free agency and the draft? Don't miss out on any news and analysis! Take a second and sign up for our free newsletter and get breaking Broncos news delivered to your inbox daily!

4. Trust Your QB to be a Playmaker

This is a lesson to be learned from the champions more so than the 49ers and goes beyond just the Super Bowl. Andy Reid has the utmost trust in Mahomes to make plays and put points on the board no matter what the score is. Having that kind of trust from your coaches is felt by quarterbacks.

At times this past year, there seemed to be an institutional lack of trust in the Broncos' quarterbacks to make a play happen. This may be part of the reason for the change at offensive coordinator, among many other reasons. Every coach with the Broncos, especially Vic Fangio and Pat Shurmur, need to have faith in Drew Lock next season.

Trust him to go out there and make some magic instead of getting conservative after a mistake or overthinking a situation. The best way to bounce back after a passing mistake is to go out there and throw it some more. Lock can make plays happen, so the coaches need to trust him next season and let the chips fall.

5. The Value of Interior Disruptors

The final lesson the Broncos can take away is one that I have been banging the table for. Both Super Bowl teams have great interior disruptors and both teams saw a lot of success as a result. What made them even more effective was the outside pass rushers both teams had.

Arik Armstead and DeForest Buckner on one side gave the Chiefs' interior O-line trouble throughout the game and made things easier for Nick Bosa outside. The interior disruptors got a lot of pressure on Mahomes which helped their defense win a lot of plays. They played at a championship level, though others on their team didn’t.

On Kansas City's side, there was Chris Jones, who statistically may not stand out with only one pressure, but he was receiving double and triple teams from basically start to finish by the 49ers' interior. Even with that, he still caused a lot of disruption by moving Jimmy Garoppolo off his spot and forcing him to throw with a bad base. Jones also forced runs to go away from him and helped open up lanes for his teammates to get into the backfield as well.

Here's the good news. Both Jones and Armstead are set to be unrestricted free agents this year and both teams are in a somewhat tight spot salary cap-wise. The Broncos, if they wanted, could target either and throw money at them as they have plenty of cash and cap.

Both of those players had a huge Super Bowl, which was preceded by a tremendous season, respectively, so it isn’t only a one-game sample size. Jones and Armstead help the guys on the edge get better matchups because of the amount of focus they take.

Either one of them would be tremendous for the Broncos to add because of the help they'd provide for Von Miller and Bradley Chubb. Adding an interior disruptor is a must for the Broncos to take the defense to another level.

Follow Erick on Twitter @ErickTrickel and @MileHighHuddle.