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Dave Logan, voice of the Broncos, joined Andy Lindahl and Tyler Polumbus on Orange and Blue 760 on Monday and had a lot of great thoughts on the Broncos as the team gets ready to finish preseason this Thursday and start getting serious about the 2018 season.
And the first is that the real MVP of the Broncos’ offense so far this preseason has been the coordinator - Bill Musgrave.
“I have been really impressed with Bill Musgrave,” Logan said. “He showed creativity, he’s getting a lot of guys involved in different ways (i.e., that flip end-around to Emmanuel Sanders). I’ve always thought of him as a creative offensive coordinator, and we saw a little bit of that in that preseason game No. 3.”
Logan is also impressed with Courtland Sutton and even though the rookie receiver has been criticized for not being a sophisticated route runner yet, the broadcaster believes critics are making too much of that.
“Is he as polished a route runner as he’s going to be? No. Does he have the ability to run enough routes that he can be more than just a competent receiver early in his career? Absolutely,” Logan said, adding that it’s really up to the coordinator’s creative ability to use his young receiver for his talents.
With Sutton, that’s generally his size and athletic ability.
“Even if you think you have him covered, that big body creates mismatches for just about everybody,” Logan added, noting No. 14 hasn’t even been used in the red zone or on screen plays yet. “I’m a big Courtland Sutton fan right now.”
If there’s one area of concern for Logan, it’s depth at corner. But it looks like John Elway had the same concern as he went out and signed Adam Jones, former Bengals cornerback.
Newly acquired Broncos CB Adam Jones (No. 20) getting his first work in with the team today. Also took reps returning punts. pic.twitter.com/4ETPM681rG
— Kyle Fredrickson (@kylefredrickson) August 27, 2018
“Adam Jones was a great player during the course of his career - really competitive, very athletic, very tough, an elite special teams guy,” Logan said, adding that the signing speaks to the “sense of urgency” the Broncos are in with the position. “They’ve got two corners that are really good in Chris Harris Jr. and Bradley Roby. Maybe other guys surface, but they’re all in a bag of ‘I don’t know’ right now.”
Logan believes if Tramaine Brock were the solid veteran the coaches keep touting, the Broncos wouldn’t have needed to sign Jones. And while Isaac Yiadom is getting a quick introduction to the NFL as a rookie, the lack of contribution from Brendan Langley is a concern.
“He was a high draft choice but right now doesn’t factor into their rotation. He has got to be more than a special teams player, otherwise you missed on the choice,” Logan said. “That’s a high draft choice who in his second season should be able to step up and at the very least be involved in sub packages.”
Fewest yards allowed per coverage snap over the last two seasons (min. 800 snaps)
— PFF DEN Broncos (@PFF_Broncos) August 26, 2018
1. Aqib Talib - 0.66
2. Chris Harris Jr. - 0.72
3. Patrick Peterson - 0.78
4. Adam Jones - 0.79#BroncosCountry
So a lot of secondary success could rest on Jones being as good as he was back in 2014 and 2015.
Or as Logan hopes, even almost as good as that.
“Lets hope that Adam Jones has 80 percent of what he did because I’ll tell you what, he was a hell of a player for a long, long time.”