It’s hard for me to draw many negatives from the Broncos’ Week 1 performance. Yes, they were sloppy; the offense turned the ball over far too many times, and the defense was drawing yellow flags out of the referees’ pockets like they were some sort of cloth magnet.
But they won. And in the NFL, that’s all that matters.
Still, if we enter into Week 2 without dissecting the Broncos’ performance with a critical eye, we’re only setting ourselves up for failure. Denver earned that win — without those critical errors, they may have won by 10, not one — but they needed a large dose of Mile High Magic to ink that first notch in the win column.
The Broncos can’t rely on magic to win football games. Maybe it worked well for Tim Tebow and the 2015 Super Bowl champs, but if these Broncos want to win football games, to repeat, they’ll need to be better.
With that said, here are five Denver Broncos who need to improve upon their Week 1 performances:
Trevor Siemian
Trevor Siemian has exceeded all expectations. A year ago, this kid was planning a career in real estate. Today, he’s the starting quarterback of the reigning Super Bowl champs, and he’s beating the Carolina Panthers on primetime. I don’t care if he had six interceptions on Thursday … that’s impressive.
Nonetheless, if the Broncos want to put a stranglehold on the league, they need Siemian to be better. I can’t fault him too much for his two interceptions — one was a great play by Thomas Davis and the other was a poor decision but an even worse blitz pickup — but he does have to start moving on from his initial read much more quickly and find a way to push the ball down the field when available — Emmanuel Sanders is still wide open down the right sideline.
The good news, though, is that he should be able to do just that.
Siemian is not a finished product, and while the finished product may not be all that great either, it’s unreasonable for us to act as if he’s not going to improve. For as poised and mature as every one of his teammates seems to think he is, he’s still just a second-year quarterback.
Derek Wolfe
According to Pro Football Focus, Wolfe received a 40.9 grade against the Panthers, which was good for 84th amongst all interior defenders, one spot above Jared Crick (40.8). The Broncos need him to be better than that.
In fact, the Broncos need him to be a superstar.
John Elway made his decision, and his decision was to choose Wolfe over Malik Jackson. Six months ago, Jackson made Cam Newton‘s life miserable, pressuring him consistently from the inside. On Thursday, the only pressure Newton saw for the majority of the game came from Denver’s edge defenders.
Again, it’s just one game — the person graded directly below Wolfe and Crick was J.J. Watt (40.7) — so it’s hardly time to panic, but there will be a lot of pressure on Wolfe all season to show what he showed in the final quarter of last year.
Emmanuel Sanders
But when the Broncos welcome the Indianapolis Colts into town on Sunday, a team that allowed 340 yards and three touchdowns to Matthew Stafford, we’re going to want to see a little more than fine from the Broncos’ passing game.
That may rest on Emmanuel Sanders’ shoulders.
While reports are that Demaryius Thomas, despite a hip injury, could be back at practice as soon as tomorrow, he’s clearly not 100 percent, and sanders will have to step up in his place.
Again, this is not to say that Sanders had a bad game on Thursday or needs to improve as a player, but he does need to find a way to make a larger impact. Even with Siemian behind center, if Sanders finishes the game with five receptions for 49 yards, it’ll be a disappointment.
T.J. Ward
According to Pro Football Focus, Ward was the worst starter on the Denver Broncos last Thursday night, finishing with a 36.0 grade. That was good for the second worst grade amongst all qualified safeties in Week 1 — to be fair, the worst grade belonged to All-Pro Earl Thomas, so, again, take one week with a grain of salt.
Nonetheless, Ward struggled in coverage on the Panthers’ Greg Olsen, who finished with seven receptions for 73 yards. And in the run game, he wasn’t much better — his 36.8 run-defense grade from PFF was fourth worst amongst all safeties.
Ward’s a guy who lives and dies by his instincts. Most of the time, they’re right, but on Thursday, they led him astray.
Pound for pound, I think Ward is one of the best safeties in the NFL, and if he can clean up a missed-read here and there, he’ll be back to his dominating self.
Riley Dixon
The kid may be the weakest link on the entire roster, and that’s made even more painful when you just pushed Britton Colquitt out the door for a few million dollars.
Since being given the job prior to Week 4 of the preseason, Riley Dixon has been embarrassingly, uncomfortably bad. Aside from one 54-yard punt, everything we’ve seen from Dixon has been underwhelming, and it could come back to cost the Broncos big time.
Even if the offense ends up being a little better this season, this is a team that will center around it’s defense and running game. That means field position will be a critical component of their success, and if they can’t flip the field, they’re in serous trouble.
From what I’ve seen, I seriously don’t know if Dixon is capable of doing that.
Unless he improves dramatically in the coming weeks, there’s a solid chance Denver looks for a replacement or Dixon ends up costing the Broncos a game with a shanked punt.