Can coach fix whatap wrong with the Broncos?
For a defending NFL champion, this is a team with an identity crisis.
The Broncos don’t know what they want to be on offense, and to be honest, it seems as if Kubiak has lost trust in his players to operate his system. Even before losing cornerback and defensive end to injury, a defense that messed with the mind of MVP Cam Newton in the was getting bullied at the point of attack.
This is a football team that looks worn out, physically and mentally, from the grind of winning a championship. With ground to make up against Oakland and Kansas City in the AFC West, Kubiak declares that the spirit of his players is good, saying: “They understand what we’re facing. They understand where we’re going.”
But do the Broncos know how they want to get there? Either Kubiak must make a real commitment to running the football or completely change his offensive approach, rather than letting foes dictate how Denver plays. If the Broncos begin another game with three incomplete passes and a punt, you will hear the cursing from fans all the way from Colorado to the Superdome.
What Kubiak performed last season might not have been a football miracle, but it was as good a coaching job as I have witnessed from any coach for any Denver pro franchise during the past 30 years. With Peyton Manning too hurt to help at his worst and an NFL legend in name only at his best, by all rights the Broncos should have fallen apart during the regular season rather than taken the league by storm during the playoffs.
While every player in the locker room and every fan in apountry talked of a repeat, it was fanciful, if not farcical, to believe Denver would walk away with its sixth straight division title while breaking in at quarterback. While Kubiak could never tell his locker room the whole truth, it seems obvious that managementap strategy from the outset was to find a way to get in the playoffs and then see what happens with a team that has slowly matured.
Kubiak’s faith in Siemian is real. But the reality is Siemian ranks as the fourth-best quarterback in the AFC West.
While the football cognoscenti in apountry like to harp that rookie is not NFL ready, the fact is his completion percentage in limited duty (62.3) now ranks higher than the mark for Siemian (59.8). In the league’s traditional QB rating system, the scores for Lynch (86.3) and Siemian (86.2) are nearly identical. So it is hard to argue that Siemian’s experience and expertise in operating Kubiak’s offense has trumped the superior athletic gifts of the raw Lynch.
It looks to me as if Siemian is playing hurt, with his left shoulder more banged up than he will admit. Kubiak has shot down that idea, insisting toward the end of preparation for the Saints: “He’s fine. As a matter of fact, he’s had a really good week, so he needs to play well.”
While Kubiak’s allegiance to Siemian is genuine, the coach is also practical enough to know that if his run-first, play-action-pass offense fails again against New Orleans, then it would be wise to reassess during the team’s bye week. A change of quarterback, however, would require Kubiak to sell his championship defense on the idea that starting Lynch does not mean the Broncos are playing for next year. And putting Lynch under center would not seem to make much sense, if operating out of the shotgun gives his natural talent a better chance to shine.
Here’s the deal: If the Broncos can’t win football games Kubiak’s way, then one of the smarter coaches in the league is going to be forced to find a new way for Denver to make the playoffs.
