Heading into tonight’s NFL game there are four teams with at least 17 penalties flagged and accepted in the first two weeks of the season:
That is not the company the Broncos want to be keep.
There are some personnel executives in the league who expected a few more penalties in the early-going this season because teams missed all of their offseason work because of the lockout. The thinking is some teams, especially on the offensive line and in the secondary, would have some rough edges in the first half of this season because of that.
But there also seems to be plenty of frustration penalties — personnel fouls and silly post-play stuff – that are free money for any opposing team.
The Broncos are headed to Nashville to play Sunday and the last time those teams played they combined for 17 penalties for 185 yards. The Broncos accounted for six of the penalties for 74 yards.
This season, the Broncos have been particularly hard hit up front on offense, with 10 penalties having been called on their starting offensive linemen and eight of those accepted.
Left tackle Ryan Clady has been flagged three times for holding — two have been accepted, both against the Bengals — and right guard Chris Kuper has been flagged three times — two for holding and one false start — with two of the penalties having been accepted.
Rookie right tackle Orlando Franklin has been flagged twice. Center J.D. Walton and left guard Zane Beadles have each had one penalty called on them.
Overall the Broncos will need to be far cleaner as the quality of opponents improves down the schedule. Some penalties can’t be helped. Mistakes happen, but averaging 8.5 accepted penalties a game is not the pace they want to be on.
Even in last season’s 4-12 disaster, they averaged well below their current pace at 6.125 accepted penalties per game.
