Football, real live Denver Broncos football will be here in just under two weeks from now. So as we gear up for another season full of hope and possibilities, I just wanted to take a second and remind us all (mainly myself) that while we’re all hopeful for a new and improved offense, and I believe we definitely have the pieces to get there, we will most likely see some growing pains, especially early on.
This is no secret and we’re all smart enough to recognize that when you cut an offseason program short, change offensive schemes, have a QB starting just his 6th NFL game, and the majority of the offense has under three total years of NFL experience some bumps, maybe some crashes, are to be expected.
Joe Rowles and I discussed this on this week’s episode of Cover 2 Broncos. As we gear up for our regular season schedule of breaking down the film from each game and previewing the next one on the docket, we wanted to take a minute to give final thoughts on this team before everything gets underway and we start prepping for the Tennessee Titans.
I vividly remember the great “no sack” debacle of last year and all the hand wringing both on this site as well as across Broncos Country at Denver’s top two pass rushers not registering a sack in the first four games of the year, and want to avoid an overreaction of that magnitude if we see early struggles from the offensive side of the ball.
In previous years, I think we pretty much could tell where the offense was going to be by the first couple weeks, but this season I think the first four weeks are going to be marked by the offense finding it’s way and really looking to hit it’s stride in time for Week 7 against Kansas City.
This is the first season since 2015 that Denver has had an incumbent QB from the previous year be the declared starter all offseason and into the next year, so we’re already at least trending in the right direction from a continuity standpoint, but while I think Drew Lock will eventually show us all what we hope to see from him, I do think we should prepare ourselves for some early struggles.
Like I said on the podcast, if anything this is just a reminder for myself to come back to in a few weeks after Lock has thrown a few interceptions to remind us all to show patience, which isn’t always easy as fans, particularly after all the hope surrounding this team.
What are your expectations for when the Broncos finally take the field in two weeks? Am I being overly cautious, or should we all bookmark this to remind ourselves not to run Pat Shurmur out of town after week 3?