Game overview:
The final score accurately reflected the game here. It wasn’t really a game at all. The Broncos 1st-team played for a good amount of time in the 1st-half, up against the Packers B/C team...and it was ‘no contest’.
The Broncos, in my estimation, have played the best-looking football, on both sides of the ball, in the 2024 preseason so far. They are not the best team overall...just the best-looking in execution and energy this preseason. Big credit to Sean Payton for this turnaround. I’m a Payton critic, for the most part...but there’s no denying what he’s done.
*I stopped typing at this point of reflection and went out and bet $3 on Sean Payton to be Coach of the Year at +2500, to add to my betting portfolio. Just a small amount because I hate betting on award things. I have small bets on Payton and Brian Callahan for that award at +2500 each....maybe +3000 or more on Callahan, I can’t remember.
Denver is going to be a nuisance to the Chiefs in 2024...and will really challenge them in 2025+, at their current trajectory. Denver needs another year or two of roster manipulation to really hit their stride. They’re scrappy good now...but they need to get better to compete toe-to-toe with the likes of KC.
I don’t have much to note on the Packers here, except to say...they have a very good team with a deep roster -- and that depth got squashed here by Denver, which is another feather in the Broncos’ cap of a great 2024 preseason, because Green Bay has a good backup group. Green Bay and Denver are teams of the future, and the Pack is already here/there...Denver is trying to get to where GB was at last year.
Scouting Notes from the game:
-- Broncos QB report...
Another preseason game, another week where it looks like Bo Nix (8-9 for 80 yards, 1 TD/0 INTs) was the answer to the April 2024 question of: Who is the best QB prospect from the 2024 NFL Draft?
Nix is running this offense like a 5+ year veteran. He’s making great reads. He’s getting the ball out quickly with great mechanics. His ball placement is so good for a rookie debuting. He’s obviously going to start Week 1.
Jarrett Stidham (7-11 for 65 yards, 0 TD/1 INT) will likely stay on as the #2...but at a renegotiated rate. Zach Wilson (2-6 for 29 yards, 1 TD/0 INT) may hang on as a #3.
Back to Nix...he looks so good; it’s making me a bit squeamish on my Seattle DST for Weeks 1-2 bravado. I think it will be OK because any rookie in a debut is clunky, and Seattle will show him the best defense he would have faced for real...but Nix is so controlled, it may not be the big DST opportunity that I hoped...may just be ‘OK’.
We can just go with the Saints DST for Week 1 and then make it up for Week 2+ from there at DST. We’re gonna be streaming DSTs one way or the other, whether after Wk1 or after Wk2.
-- Broncos RB report...
It’s gonna be a committee approach here, just like Sean Payton used to run with the Saints back in the day...somewhat by design, and somewhat forced by the incomplete/flawed/specialty pieces he has.
Javonte Williams (3-17-0, 1-15-0/1) still looks like he’s been zapped of his former powers post-ACL two years ago. If he lost weight to get quicker this year...I don’t see the ‘quicker’ part. He looks like every dull, midland RB trying to make an NFL roster...like he did last year. He’s the lead back of a trio+ committee.
If that’s true about Javonte, then the door really is opening for Jaleel McLaughlin (3-17-0, 1-4-0/1) to see more touches in the committee. McLaughlin has the juice that Javonte doesn’t. On one of the early scoring drives, it was McLaughlin in for goal line carries...not Javonte. I think Payton sees them as similar things at his disposal, but his heart is with McLaughlin because of Jaleel’s grind/story.
Williams-McLaughlin worked as the main back here. We didn’t see the other RBs until Nix/the 1st-team left.
Samaje Perine (5-16-0, 1-5-0/2) was in the game next and worked A LOT with the 2nd-team (not the 1st-team). I’m left asking...’why’? Does Perine need the work? Being showcased for trade, I bet.
Audric Estime (4-14-0) worked as the 4th back in...and he’s OK. Just a version of Javonte...big, solid, unexciting, useful, inexperienced.
To my crazy scouting eye, the Denver RB who actually looks like he has the most juice was in the game as the #5...UDFA rookie Blake Watson (6-20-0). Two weeks in a row he has captured my attention...but he’s working deep down on the depth chart late in games. He’s likely going to try be put on the practice squad...especially if Perine makes the roster.
-- Packers excellent RB Emanuel Wilson (13-41-0, 1-11-0/2) did the best he could against the buzzsaw Broncos 1st-team defense, and he had some nice moments but overall output was ‘meh’.
Just watching him here was a reminder – he is so good, a star potential talent...even on his most basic of carries. He’s the best RB on the Broncos, if he were there today.
One the ‘special’ talents in the NFL that is totally buried under his depth chart and the bias against UDFA players. If Green Bay really ‘saw it’ with Wilson, they would’ve never drafted MarShawn Lloyd.
I pray Green Bay cuts Wilson and tries to put him on the practice squad...no way he wouldn’t get claimed by another team. Wilson could be the #1 RB in a few places for Week 1, if he landed there...like Carolina, with Jon Brooks still out...but knowing the NFL, Wilson will just sail through waivers at the 53-man cuts and revert to the GB practice squad.
-- Broncos WR report...
Tim Patrick (4-30-1/4) was ‘the guy’ for Bo Nix here, not sure it’s ‘a tell’ or not...but it was available and/or worked in this game. Patrick is working as a starter. He’s making the team and starting, it looks like.
Courtland Sutton (1-23-0/1) looks fine here and is the de facto #1 from everything we can tell, but it’s not clear cut nor foreshadowing him as any WR1 hope. This looks like an ensemble with Nix not over-leaning on any one guy. Patrick is listed as a slot WR, so maybe Patrick is the one to shoot for FF? But Patrick as a slot doesn’t make a ton of sense to me either.
Josh Reynolds (0-0-0/0) seems to be the lead for the other starting WR in the trio.
Sutton-Patrick-Reynolds starting trio does not evoke tingles up and down my spine in excitement...so, Bo Nix is thriving right away with this!?!?
Marvin Mims (0-0-0/1)? I don’t think he was even in with Nix...and if he was, I didn’t notice him...that’s not a good sign.
Troy Franklin (0-0-0/0)? He may be more buried than Mims.
A lot of two WR/two TE sets coming? But the TEs here are more boring than their WRs.
-- Packers QB report...
The Packers entire offense (and defense) was up against a buzzsaw with the Broncos 1st-teams playing for a while against GB’s B/C-team. That being said, I thought both the Packers backup QB did a decent job in context.
Sean Clifford (6-10 for 43 yards, 0 TD/1 INT) stylistically looks like he’s been studying Aaron Rodgers’ mannerisms at QB. He’s not as talented as ARod, just his look/style is kinda mimicking it. He’s the #2 QB, and he’s really not bad...but this game result was bad, which is just more praise for the Denver defense that they really got after it in this game and Clifford was at a disadvantage, talent-wise, on purpose.
Rookie Michael Pratt (10-16 for 52 yards, 0 TD/0 INT) had his positive moments here too...against this amped up Denver D. He has some skills as well, and he has a bigger/better arm than Clifford. The two of them seem kinda similar...future hopeful...still in development...will get the 3-4 years of study a la Jordan Love’s time frame.
-- Defensive notes...
I don’t have a single standout name to focus on here, but I more want to say – I upgraded the Denver DST a bit in my projections for FF 2024 after watching this game. Denver’s defense, as a whole, was terrific here – but it was also against the Green Bay backups, but still...what you want in a mismatch on paper is for it to be a mismatch in reality. Denver’s 1st and 2nd-team defenses were both energized and effective in this game and Green Bay has good 2nd/3rd team talent to face.
It was just a great game/showing for Denver all around.
The only IDP note I have that seems ‘of interest’ = Damarri Mathis (3 tackles) is still fighting to be the other starting CB over Riley Moss (1 tackle), but no winner declared yet. Mathis was pretty good here, helping his case that still has another week+ to find out.
