The Broncos head into Week 2 with plenty to clean up, and the matchup with Jacksonville brings a few sharp questions with it.
Start with the offense, because that’s where the most obvious fixes have to happen. The Broncos’ game plan against the Chiefs never seemed to match what the defense was showing.
Steve Spagnuolo does what he does best out of nickel and dime looks, and Denver kept walking right into it by staying in shotgun, leaning on 11 personnel, and rarely putting Bo Nix under center. That handed Kansas City a chance to attack from a comfort zone while keeping Nix and the offense on their heels.
The imbalance was just as glaring. Denver ran only six designed plays on the ground in the first half, with its running backs totaling 10 carries.
From those spread-out shotgun looks, the Broncos threw it 32 times, and four of those dropbacks ended in sacks. Nix finished 17-of-28 for 131 yards and a touchdown, but he also had an interception and three fumbles, with one lost.
For a quarterback who had seven career fumbles in 34 regular-season starts before that game, it was a massive outlier.
There was also the situational football side of it, and that part was hard to ignore. On a key 3rd-and-1 midway through the second quarter, Denver lined up in an empty shotgun set, making it nearly impossible to disguise a run.
Kansas City played it exactly that way, collapsed the play, and forced the punt. It was the kind of call that made the Broncos’ offense look like it had no identity at all, even though the preseason suggested otherwise.
That’s why Sunday feels like a test for the play-calling more than anything else. Against Jacksonville, the Broncos should be looking to lean on heavier personnel, build the run game with multiple tight ends on the field, and then use play action to create bigger plays for Courtland Sutton, Jaylen Waddle, Pat Bryant, and Evan Engram. If Denver wants to control the clock and keep Trevor Lawrence on the sideline, the offense has to look a lot more like the one it showed in August.
Nix is right in the middle of all of it. He deserves some grace after last week because the setup around him was rough from the start.
The protection wasn’t clean, the receivers dropped passes, and penalties showed up at bad times. Add in his first game back since fracturing his ankle and the fact that he barely played in the preseason, and the rust showed fast.
The interception on Denver’s third offensive snap set the tone, and the three fumbles were a sign he was still catching up to live NFL speed.
Even so, the Broncos need a much better version of their quarterback this week. Jacksonville brings a good defense and an efficient offense, so Denver can’t afford another shaky start if it wants to get back to .500. Nix doesn’t have to do it alone, but if he settles in at home, the rest of the offense should follow.
There’s also a little extra edge to this matchup because of what happened last season. Before Denver met Jacksonville in Week 16, Sean Payton referred to the Jaguars as a “small-market” team. After the Jaguars beat the Broncos, Liam Coen fired back from the podium with this line: "Just thankful that a small-market team like us can come into a place like Mile High and get it done," Coen said after beating the Broncos.
Payton later told Coen at the owners meetings that he had not forgotten it. "I talked to Sean at the owners meetings, and he gave me a little love for it, but he said, 'I'm coming for you this year,'" Coen said on Wednesday with a smile.
"But it's great. It's all in competition, and I've learned so much football from Sean Payton.
He's allowed me in his building in New Orleans and I got to talk to him a ton."
Coen clearly respects Payton, but that didn’t stop him from taking his shot last year. Now Payton gets another crack at Jacksonville, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if that old exchange is still sitting somewhere in the back of his mind.
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