What Broncos' lauded 2018 draft class must do for team to turn corner in 2019

The Denver Broncos are hoping for a turnaround season in 2019. After snapping the longest streak in American professional sports of not having back-to-back losing seasons since 1971-72, the once-proud franchise is looking to retake the mantle of being a perennial power in the AFC.

Moving on from the staff of Vance Joseph to Vic Fangio, and surrounding him with a group of both established (Mike Munchak and Ed Donatell), as well as up-and-comers (Rich Scangarello and T.C. McCartney) on the coaching staff, things appear to be heading in the right direction for a team that was falling behind their historic standards.

While correcting the coaching staff will go a long way towards the Broncos stopping their slide into mediocrity, that is only a piece of the pie in regards to fielding a consistently good team in the NFL. In this league, great players make great coaches.

The Broncos do have their great players, of course. From Von Miller to Chris Harris, Jr., there have been studs to lean on, but it takes a rounded out roster of solid talent to compete in the grind that is the NFL regular season.

Unfortunately for the Broncos, since the Super Bowl 50 victory, this team had not been able to find and develop talent to take over for players that departed via free agency or age. There are a multitude of reasons for this slide but looking at where this team is today — a team hoping to just merely contend for a playoff spot — the finger can fall pretty squarely on the quarterback bust that was first-round pick Paxton Lynch, as well as the entirety of the 2017 class that is trending towards being historically bad in terms of return on investment.

GM John Elway deserves his fair share of blame for the Broncos’ fall from grace over the recent years (just as much as he deserves credit for the Super Bowl runs from 2012 to 2015) but things really do seem to be looking up in Dove Valley. Despite being saddled with one of the toughest schedules in the NFL this season in arguably the toughest AFC division with two of the three best teams in the entire Conference, the Broncos feel like they have direction once again.

There are a lot of things stacked against this team and its quest to return to the playoffs and compete in the AFC West again. If they are to truly contend and jump-start their turnaround, a lot will come down to just how quickly the 2018 draft class can perform.

For as horrid as the 2017 class was, the 2018 draft crop was the first building block class in the Broncos’ quest to return to greatness. Bradley Chubb, Courtland Sutton, Royce Freeman, Josey Jewell, DaeSean Hamilton, Troy Fumagalli, and Sam Jones, as well as hometown and undrafted darling Phillip Lindsay, all seem to have a chance to fulfill meaningful roles this upcoming season, either building off promising flashes from last season or showing spurts of potential over this past training camp and preseason.

Bradley Chubb, OLB

Chubb is the obvious star of this class and rightfully so, given his fifth overall draft pedigree. It seemed extremely unlikely that arguably the best player at such a valued position of edge rusher could fall past teams such as the Giants picking second (taking Saquon Barkley) or the Browns with their second top-four pick (taking Denzel Ward).

The Broncos were in need of quarterback or offensive line help, but selecting a blue-chip edge rusher was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Whether the ‘thunder’ to Von’s ‘lightening’, or the ‘Superman’ to Von’s ‘Batman’, Chubb has drawn rave reviews all camp from the Broncos' blunt head coach, as well as new defensive coordinator Donatell. Coming off of a 12-sack rookie season and dominating in practice to preseason games, Chubb appears to be an emerging star in the league and ready to help the Broncos make a bid for having the best pass rush duo in the league, and perhaps even the best defense.

Chubb is already really good, obviously, but taking that next step and becoming a true game-changer opposite Miller could elevate this team to legitimate contenders for a Wildcard berth.

Courtland Sutton, WR

The Broncos have not really had issues on defense since the Super Bowl victory. Sure, it fell off last season with a vanilla scheme and issues in the back seven, but the defense was far from the problem ailing the team. The offense, however, has been an issue since before the Super Bowl.

Many will point to the quarterback position and offensive line as being the main culprits in holding back the offense, but the playmakers outside of Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders have been sub-par at best. In a league evolving to become more of a ‘get your playmakers the ball in space fast’ game, the additions of Sutton, and Hamilton will all really need to take a step forward this season to help compliment the strong defense and provide Scangrello and new quarterback Joe Flacco more options for moving the ball through the air.

After showing flashes last season as the X receiver behind Demaryius Thomas, Sutton flashed. However, after the Broncos elected to trade their long-time star receiver to allow more opportunities for the youth to gain experience in a lost season, Sutton was completely neutralized after Sanders went down with injury down the stretch.

While more of a boundary player using solid burst and great size and physicality at the catch point, Sutton flashed Alshon Jeffery/Allen Robinson potential. This summer has been hit-and-miss for Sutton, but if the team is to contend, he must take a step forward, becoming more of a weapon in the short and intermediate areas of the field, improving on his limited route proficiency, and becoming more consistent in hauling in the football.

Sanders is WR1, but Sutton must step up to provide the Broncos a size option on the boundary and in the red zone.

Isaac Yiadom, CB

The era of the No Fly Zone is ‘done’ in Denver. With Father Time taking no prisoners, the faces and names have changed. While Chris Harris, Jr. still remains, the demands for solid corner play in the NFL are at an all-time high given more and more receivers take the field and passing volume continues to grow in today’s spread influenced league.

The Broncos took a stab in 2018 in adding talent to the secondary drafting Isaac Yiadom with the compensatory pick earned from letting Russell Okung walk. There were some initial concerns with Yiadom given his struggles in preseason last year, but he flashed well down the stretch for Denver filling in for Harris after he went down for the season.

Even more impressive, he played well despite playing through a shoulder injury that required offseason surgery. There were some concerns for Yiadom even still entering this season given his grabbiness in space, questions in his off technique as opposed to the press-man system he was drafted for, as well as lack of ball skills shown during college, a skill demanded for this scheme.

So far, Yiadom has squashed these concerns and is looking like not only a solid player for the Broncos in sub-packages, but perhaps a player trending up to being a viable boundary cornerback in the NFL. In this system, as was shown against the Niners, he will have ample chances to show he has improved his ball skills and create turnovers on defense.

DaeSean Hamilton, WR

Under-utilized last season, DaeSean Hamilton really only was given a chance to impact the pass game after Sanders went down, posting 25 receptions, 182 yards, and two touchdowns over the last four weeks of the season. Hamilton may not possess the size and power at the catch point in jump-ball situations like Sutton, nor does he have the explosiveness down the field or after the catch ability like Sanders, he is a very smooth and savvy separator in the short-to-intermediate areas of the field from the slot or Z receiver spot.

Given that in today’s league a team really needs four to five complimentary receivers on an offense and based on how he has flashed with the first team, Hamilton could be heading towards a solid season as the Broncos’ WR3.

Royce Freeman & Phillip Lindsay, RBs

The run game doesn’t really ‘need’ to improve over last season, but consistent health and hopefully an added dimension should really help the Broncos’ second-year running back duo of Royce Freeman and Phillip Lindsay. The Broncos’ O-line, for all their pass blocking and penalty woes, was in fact one of the best run-blocking units in the NFL last season, opening up holes for the run game with the sixth-best 'adjusted line yards' at 4.75 yards according to Football Outsiders analytics.

Furthermore, while Lindsay was undoubtedly the offense’s MVP, Freeman was able to accumulate his rushing stats despite facing the second-highest rate of attempts with eight or more defenders in the box in 36.15% of his rushes.

The Broncos’ are shifting to a new scheme for run blocking with more zone concepts going forward under Scangarello (there will still be some power run calls, though). The Broncos should be able to run the ball again at a high clip if both Lindsay and Freeman can stay healthy, but where they must show improvement is the pass game.

Again pointing towards the evolution of offenses in the NFL, running backs must take part in the pass game to help offenses in today’s league. The days of the between-the-tackles bangers as the best backs in the league, such as Adrian Peterson, are over. Instead, backs who bring it not only as a runner but as a receiver are a must.

Saquon Barkley, Ezekiel Elliott, Todd Gurley, Christian McCaffrey, and Alvin Kamara all exemplify this. Given how much the backs have been targeted and the language coming from Scangarello, both Freeman and Lindsay must show they have the chops to be viable options in the pass game.

Josey Jewell, LB

The Broncos’ defense has been far from the problem, but if there is any position that has drawn disappointment from Broncos Country it is the off-ball linebackers. The heavy usage of man coverage and putting the linebackers in bad situations was an issue over the recent seasons, but overall that position has been average at best for Denver.

Many had hoped the likes of Devin White or Devin Bush could correct the issue this past draft, but the dice fell a different way. Instead, the Broncos will rely on the underrated Todd Davis and 2018 draft pick Josey Jewell.

Jewell filled in for Brandon Marshall last season after Marshall suffered a lingering knee injury. Jewell was up and down in his limited action, unsurprisingly for a day-three draft pick.

What was surprising, though, was Jewell struggling how he did. Lauded as an instinctual player with solid play against the run, Jewell bit often on play-action and struggled to disengage from blockers and play the run in the box effectively.

Jewell is smaller with limited burst in space, but this transition to a more zone-based scheme under Fangio should help. However, Jewell must show better in the box and in his ability to process offenses and his run fits in order to not be a liability on defense this season.

It was only one play, but the Niners' first play of the third preseason game perfectly exemplified these concerns with Jewell from last season and going forward, as he misread the play and ran himself out of position to make the tackle in what appeared to be his gap.

Troy Fumagalli, TE

Hopefully, the Broncos won’t need the likes of Fumagalli or Sam Jones this season, but given how injuries tend to stack up in the NFL, both are very likely to see some action. Famagalli missed the entirety of last season recovering from a sports hernia surgery, and has shown some ability in camp and preseason, but he is most likely a tight end three for a good tight end room in the NFL.

Lacking juice to threaten down the seam or after the catch as well as struggles inline as a blocker, Fumagalli is best in finding soft spots in zone coverage and being a short pass game outlet. Best-case, he can provide depth behind the likes of starting Y tight end Jeff Heuerman and Y tight end Noah Fant, and play special teams.

Sam Jones, OG

Jones is less likely to see snaps than Fumagalli, but given how the Broncos’ interior O-line dropped like flies last season as well as the struggles of Connor McGovern in snapping the ball and the lingering issues from Ron Leary’s Achilles injury and persistent knee soreness, Jones may be thrust into action at some point.

The sixth-round pick is more likely to be in plans for the future as he continues his transition in both body and technique from college to the NFL, but the Broncos need depth on the offensive line and Jones’ projected ability along the interior may be called upon.

Note: You may ask yourself, where is sixth-rounder Keishawn Bierria? The same question pops up every time he takes the field.

His play has been unnoticeable and non-descript. He’s a long shot to even make the team in year two.

Bottom line

The Broncos’ 2018 class was almost immediately lauded as one of the best in the league coming out of the draft, and the early returns from last season’s rookies were very good. However, given the depredations of the Vance Joseph era, the selection of Paxton Lynch, and the entirety of disappointment that is the 2017 draft class, the 2018 class is going to have to take another step forward this season if the Broncos are to turn things around.

Even if 2019 ends up being a transitional season for Denver, the 2018 class is a building block core that can help propel the Broncos into relevance in the future. It’s not really fair to put so much hope and expectations onto such young players but the state of the Broncos leaves no other options.

If the team is to contend this season and turn things around quickly, the 2018 draft class must step up and help the team win games starting Week 1 at Oakland.

Follow Nick on Twitter @NickKendellMHH.