The Broncos left Sunday with a win over the Arizona Cardinals, but not everybody in Denver came away looking better for it.
The team finally put together a game with both sides of the ball showing up, yet Sam Jane’s weekly stock report from the Denver Post still had a pair of clear fallers: J.K. Dobbins and Jahdae Barron.
Dobbins is the bigger head-scratcher. He spent the offseason talking like a player ready to cash in on a huge year, promising he’d stay healthy and backing it up with some sharp words for fans who doubted him on social media. So far, though, he’s been 0-for-2 on those promises.
Against Arizona, the running back seemed to lose ground to rookie Jonah Coleman, and it wasn’t a subtle shift. Coleman brought the kind of burst and power between the tackles that made the comparison tough on Dobbins, especially for anyone remembering the version of him from before last season’s injury.
Sean Payton has long liked Dobbins, and there’s no mystery about why: he runs hard, and it’s never easy to watch a tough back get pushed aside because of injury. But after the Lisfranc foot injury that ended his season last year, he doesn’t quite look like the same player.
The door isn’t closed on him getting back there, but the switch in usage makes sense right now.
Barron’s issues are a little different, but they’re becoming harder to ignore. Jane originally folded him into a note on tight end coverage, but the more accurate read is that the cornerback’s struggles are starting to pile up. Arizona tight end Trey McBride was the problem Sunday, piling up ten catches for 111 yards and a touchdown, and Barron was the primary defender on several of the biggest ones.
It’s not just one game, either. Barron also had rough moments against the Seattle Seahawks.
He’s missed tackles, drifted out of position, and even when he’s where he needs to be, he still hasn’t been making the plays. For a former first-round pick, that’s not what the Broncos signed up for.
Denver has given him time to sort things out, but if Payton finds the right running back or tight end at the right price, Barron could be part of a deadline trade. The Broncos have enough depth to consider it, though it wouldn’t come without risk.
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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 🡒]