The Broncos are suddenly in a spot where bigger conversations make sense. After last Sunday’s 30-16 win over the Arizona Cardinals, Denver is 5-2 and climbing near the top of the AFC. They also finally got past the 30-point mark on offense for the first time since Week 3 against the Los Angeles Rams.
A big part of that turnaround came from Bo Nix. The quarterback answered plenty of the noise around him with a sharp outing, including a 62-yard rush late in the second quarter that got Denver into the red zone.
Nix finished 15-of-29 for 222 yards and a touchdown pass to running back RJ Harvey. It was a much cleaner response after the criticism that followed Week 6, when he threw for just 107 yards in the win over the Seattle Seahawks.
That performance also put the Broncos back into the kind of discussion teams enter when the trade deadline starts getting close. One name floating around is Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor.
Mike brought up the buzz, though Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon has made it clear the team does not want to move him because he’s seen as a key piece of the future. Indianapolis did make two major trades on Monday, but Taylor appears to be staying put for now - even if, as the saying goes, everyone has a price.
From there, Eric and Randy weighed whether Denver should even be thinking that way. The question isn’t just whether the Broncos need a star running back, but whether the cost of landing one like Taylor would make sense at all.
And all of this lands with a huge divisional test ahead. Denver hosts the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, with the AFC West rival coming off one of the most disappointing games in the Patrick Mahomes era.
The Chiefs handled Denver 31-10 in the season opener, but the Broncos look different now. Jonah Coleman has started to look like one of the league’s elite, Sean Payton is taking on more play-calling responsibility, and Denver has had more time to settle in.
That sets up a heavyweight AFC West matchup that could easily end up as the game of the week.
In Other News...
Vance Joseph Is Forcing A Big Broncos Question Again
Vance Joseph has done enough in his second act in Denver to make people around the league look at him differently than they did a few years ago. After a rough two-year run as the Broncos head coach ended with an 11-21 record, he rebuilt his stock as Arizonas defensive coordinator and then came back under Sean Payton, where Denvers defense has been among the NFLs most reliable units in the past two seasons.
The Broncos have finished near the top of the league in points allowed again, with Josephs group also standing out in rushing defense and total yards allowed. That kind of production inevitably brings back the old question: whether Joseph is once again positioning himself for another shot at running a team, especially after he drew interest around the coaching carousel last offseason. [Read more 🡒]
Sean Payton Just Framed What Broncos Fans Should Expect On Offense
Sean Payton spent the week sketching out what the Broncos want their offense to look like, and it does not appear to revolve around turning Bo Nix into a bigger part of the run game. The head coach made clear that, for now, getting more quarterback carries is not among the immediate items on his list, which offers a pretty good window into how Denver is thinking about balance and durability as it shapes the attack.
There was a more encouraging note for one backfield piece, though, as Payton said Jonah Coleman should see more touches after what he has shown. For a Broncos offense still sorting out its identity, that kind of comment matters because it hints at where the staff wants to lean as the season moves along, even if the exact usage plan remains a little murky for the moment. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Just Helped Expose A Worrying Broncos Offensive Trend
The Broncos are still winning after Sean Payton took back play-calling duties in Week 5, but the change has not been as clean as the record suggests. Denver has gone 3-0 since the switch, yet there is a nagging offensive wrinkle underneath the wins, especially in the part of the field where drives are supposed to stay alive and good teams usually separate themselves.
The concern is showing up on third down, where Denver has looked far less efficient with Payton handling the calls than it did earlier in the season under Davis Webb. Even more troubling for the Broncos is the context around that slide, because the recent stretch has come against opponents that were supposed to be more manageable than the defenses Webb faced. The results are piling up in the standings, but the trend underneath them is hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]