The Denver Broncos' exciting season in 2024 came to a crashing close in the playoffs against the Buffalo Bills. It looked a bit simple on the field. The Broncos just lacked enough talent to stay competitive with the Bills, once the cream rose to the top in the postseason.
Broncos' potential lack of offensive weapons
In a recent rundown with tons of offseason thoughts, ESPN's Ben Solak discussed the Broncos' decisions with the offensive side of their roster. He wonders if they made enough notable upgrades at the skill positions to help Bo Nix and Sean Payton find postseason success this season.
I wish the Broncos made a splashier move in the skill position group. When they lined up against Buffalo in the wild-card round, their offense simply did not present enough danger to a well-coached, deep Bills defense. Since then, they've added Evan Engram, RJ Harvey and Pat Bryant -- a veteran tight end and two rookies. I'm imagining this offense once again lining up against Buffalo and feeling much the same way.
Wonder what the trade deadline ends up looking like for this team.
This point of view makes plenty of sense to me. The wide receiver room remains relatively unproven in Denver, but that is nothing new to Payton's roster-build scheme.
During his days with the New Orleans Saints, they often passed on drafting wide receivers early in the draft or going after top-flight pass-catching free agents. The Engram addition did move the needle a bit for me, though. His potential role as a "joker" for Payton is intriguing.
The long-time offensive guru will move Engram around plenty, and he will mostly be used as a mother big-body receiving option for the offense. Courtland Sutton is the other main option with that sort of build, so there is a bit more variety in size for Bo Nix to throw passes to this season.
Pat Bryant can also be a downfield option in jump-ball opportunities. I liked his value for Denver in this year's class, but his production won't jump off the page in year one in the pros.
Questions marks at running back
The running back room is simply unproven, so it is hard to project how it will fare this season. Harvey is elusive and can make huge plays happen. That being said, relying on a second-round rookie RB to carry the running game does hold some risk. I'll be interested to see how Nix's running ability plays a role in year two for him as well.
Audric Estime is a player who needs to play a valuable role this season, too. We've seen him flash as a useful, depth RB, but the consistency has simply never been there so far for him with Denver.
Keep in mind - the AFC is home to plenty of incredibly talented defenses as well. At the top end, Denver will need to beat the best of the best when it matters most, just to reach the conference championship game.
Solak's concern makes a ton of sense. I figured a flashier WR or RB option would be on Denver's radar, but that simply didn't come to fruition. We will see if Payton and his players can prove that they've gotten plenty better to find more postseason success.
