Denver Broncos: Preview

Edition #493

Good morning!

The closer this game gets, the more nervous I become. This is a game that we have to have. If we want to keep that playoff dream alive, we need to be facing off against the Eagles with two wins on the board. If we head into the Philadelphia game at 1-4, there’s a very good chance we hit the bye at 1-5. Only a handful of teams have made the playoffs after going 1-5 to start the year since the 1970 NFL-AFL merge. The 2018 Indianapolis Colts, the 1970 Cincinnati Bengals and the 2015 Kansas City Chiefs are all teams that started 1-5 and made the playoffs. Those 2015 Chiefs won 10 games in a row to finish their season. Let’s hope we don’t have to worry about winning 10 games in a row.

Not only is this a key game for the Jets, but it’s vital for Zach Wilson to build on his performance from a week ago. He bought himself more time with a career-best performance. That was the first game of his career where he threw multiple touchdowns without throwing an interception. In 2021 he had 3 games where he threw multiple touchdowns, but all came with an interception. In 2022 he did it twice, but again both games had an INT. A strong performance against Denver and he has momentum to remain the Jets starter the rest of the way. Here’s hoping.

The Jets announced they’d signed OL Xavier Newman to the practice squad and released OL Adam Pankey. Newman was undrafted out of Baylor and was signed by the Titans back in 2022.

Nathaniel Hackett confirmed that Sean Payton didn’t reach out to apologise or explain his comments, but he brushed it off saying: “Let’s put it this way, everyone, this game is about those guys out on that field. This game is not about me. It’s about me helping them during the week. But I just want the guys to go out there and play a great game. That’s what we’re looking for. What has happened is in the past, we all moved forward. Coaches definitely just focus on trying to get the guys in the best positions and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

He was also asked about Zach passing more and why they felt comfortable last week letting him rip it: “I would say we always want that. Again, when we look back at those first couple of games, we never got into a rhythm. So, we definitely wanted to do that in the beginning, getting a couple of those first downs and getting the guys in a rhythm, is why we were able to do what we did.”

Zach has shown a ton of growth in terms of accountability over the last few weeks, and at times last year, I thought he still sounded like a college kid, this year that tone, that understanding of the press and how your messages impact sentiment in the locker room, in the fanbase, in the media etc…well it’s jumped. He was asked to judge his performance: “I thought I did some good things. I think the offence did a lot of really good things in general, I think the guys around me did an unbelievable job making plays, I thought the o-line (offensive line) did an unbelievable job upfront of making plays. In the pocket, I thought we were clean all game and obviously the defense holding teams under 25 points is always going to be a good thing. But for me, I think I judge myself more on a play-to-play basis. Great, you threw one good throw on this play, but you can’t screw up the next one for whatever the look might have been. Every play there is harder looks than others, but I judge myself on each play, individually and how I can be better on each one.”

Jeff Ulbrich on Bryce Huff - "This is a guy that has the potential to play every single down. He's a tremendous asset for us ... we are so fortunate to have this guy because he is an elite rusher."

Some good news on the injury report, Tony Adams is set to return to that free safety role after registering a full practice. Wes Schweitzer will also be back, and that’s a good backup offensive lineman to have waiting in the wings. Echols is already ruled out, but everyone is watching for Reed. Saleh seemed confident he’d go, but he also said he was confident Duane Brown would go and he ended up on IR, so you know.

The Denver Broncos are not a very good football team. I’m sure they’re saying the same about us, but we have the statistics to prove it.

Today we’re going to take a quick look at the Broncos and where they’re struggling.

They are coming off a win against Chicago, but that win was gift-wrapped by a whole lot of incompetence. Justin Fields, who like Zach Wilson has struggled through the first two years of his career threw for over 300 yards and 4 touchdowns. That’s the kind of team we’re talking about.

There are several ghosts that we need to exercise against Denver.

Last year we walked away with an ugly 16-9 victory but it came at the ultimate cost. If you look closely, that game represented the start of the 2022 Jets’ downfall. Despite the 5-2 record, the Jets would win just two more games the rest of the way.

Breece Hall and Alijah Vera-Tucker were lost for the season and the Jets just unravelled from there. So this will be the perfect redemption opportunity for Hall, who could use the location as extra motivation to break out in a big way.

Denver Defense

If you’re a member of that Denver defence, you haven’t got a lot to hang your hat on right now. Here are some numbers for you: