Don't Underestimate the New-Age Denver Bronos

The 2020 NFL off-season was one of the most exciting off-seasons we’ve seen in a while. Free agency was active and exciting and the draft was absolutely amazing every single round. A lot of teams drastically improved this off-season including the Denver Broncos. The Raiders and Chargers are the main teams being discussed as potential challengers to the Chiefs in the AFC West, but I believe the Broncos may have the best chance to challenge the Chiefs for the division title. I also wouldn't be shocked to see the Broncos slide into the playoffs as a wild card team. The Broncos made a lot of improvements to their offense through the draft, but I want to talk about their defense first. The Broncos’ defense was solid last season, ranking 12th in total defense even without Bradley Chubb who went down with an injury and only played four games. They’ll get Chubb back who had twelve sacks as a rookie in 2019 and should have a huge impact as a pass rusher alongside Von Miller. They also traded for Jurrell Casey who has been a pro bowl defensive end for the Titans for the last five years. Those two guys are going to strengthen the Broncos’ front seven and improve their pass rush tremendously. I really like their front seven, but the secondary is a little shaky. They lost Chris Harris Jr. to the Chargers in free agency and didn’t replace him. This leaves them with an aging A.J Bouye and Bryce Callahan as their top two cornerbacks. Bouye and Callahan aren’t bad at all, but I wish they would’ve added an outside corner so Callahan can stay in the nickel spot where he’s was really solid last year. Although they have a not-so-stellar cornerback group, they do have a very nice duo at safety in Justin Simmons and Kareem Jackson. Simmons is one of the best young safeties in the league and will be a huge part of the secondary this season. All in all, I expect the Broncos’ defense to improve from last year and be one of the ten best defenses in the entire league. The Broncos’ retooled offense is the main reason why I’m so excited about this team this year. It seems as if they’ve finally found their franchise quarterback in Drew Lock who played well in the last five games last year and improved each start. Since they finally have a quarterback they believe in, they made a concerted effort to improve their offense this off-season and they did a great job of getting Lock a ton of weapons. In free agency, they added Melvin Gordon to split carries with Phillip Lindsay and in the draft, they got Jerry Jeudy, K.J Hamler, and Albert Okwuegbunam to and add more speed to their offense and give Lock more receiving options. Jeudy is a phenomenal route runner who will be a fantastic no. 2 receiver behind Courtland Sutton and Hamler has incredible speed and eats up open space like nobody else. At Penn State, cornerbacks routinely played off him about seven or eight yards and would prematurely open their hips because they didn’t have the speed to keep up with him. Having a guy as explosiveness as Hamler as your no. 3 receiver is a luxury most teams don’t have. Okwuegbunam won’t get a ton of targets because Noah Fant emerged as a potential star tight end towards the end of last season, but he had one of the fastest forty yard dash times in combine history and adds more speed to the Broncos’ offense. I can’t wait to watch the Broncos play this season because they have the explosiveness on offense to potentially go toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. If Drew Lock continues to develop and the defense improves just a little bit, I can easily see the Denver Broncos being a playoff team this year. Keep your eyes on this team and don’t underrate them because they are on the rise and might be a contender in the next few years.