The Broncos’ eight-game preseason winning streak is over.
Green Bay came to Denver and thumped Sean Payton’s team, 33-10, on Friday night. It marked the first preseason loss for the Broncos since San Francisco prevailed, 21-20, on Aug. 19, 2023.
Denver head coach Sean Payton regularly emphasizes the importance of competing in everything and, therefore, the importance of winning in the preseason.
That, however, is not the primary objective in the grand scheme. First and foremost is using the three preseason games to figure out the 53-man roster puzzle that must be completed by Aug. 30 and also preparing the team for a 17-game regular season.
There were positives, too. Quarterback Bo Nix returned to the field for the first time in seven months, led a touchdown drive and finished 6 of 9 for 76 yards and a touchdown.
With two of the three games now in the books, here are five more takeaways from the first outing of the year at Empower Field.
Payton once said sometimes a coach has to “create a crisis.” This isn’t one, but…
You wouldn’t know it the way Payton talked after the Packers finished drubbing his team.
The Broncos opened with two scores behind Nix and then did very little the rest of the game.
“I can’t think of one area where we played them (even) or out-played them, honestly,” Payton said.
Payton seethed that all three phases had a hand in the lopsided score and he was right.
Denver committed 10 penalties, including several on the offensive line. Jarrett Stidham turned the ball over. The starting defense surrendered an opening touchdown drive and the Packers scored on seven of their nine possessions overall. A week after dominating Atlanta at the line of scrimmage, the Broncos got out-rushed 118-70.
The average length of Denver’s 12 third-down attempts: 9.5 yards.
Good luck telling Payton itap just a preseason game.
“You can’t not pay attention to these games, these scrimmages, these important steps toward the beginning of the regular season,” Payton said.
Payton wants to win at everything. He undoubtedly had no fun standing on the sideline as his team got beat by three scores.
When he was asked after the game about whether Nix and other starters would play in Denver’s preseason finale next week against Minnesota, he gave a little bit of a peak into how he felt in the moment.
“I’m not getting into next week. I want to play them all into the third quarter next week,” he said. Of course, leveler heads will probably prevail on that front in the coming days.
“Letap figure out the tape tomorrow,” Payton continued, “see where we’re at, and letap do whatap best for us as we prepare for the Chiefs.”
Even as the immediate frustration recedes, though, expect Payton to use Friday nightap performance for longer than just a day or two.
In fact, itap a safe bet this will not be a particularly enjoyable week around the Broncos facility in general.
Payton learned the “create a crisis” play, like many in his quiver, from Bill Parcells.
Early in his tenure here, he explained that, “You trust your instincts with each week in our league — where your team is at and what you think they need. I don’t know that there’s a book for that, but experience certainly helps.”
He’s undoubtedly not happy about losing, but the score doesn’t actually matter in the long run. Now the key is extracting as much as possible out of the day.
A lot of that will be film study, but some, too, will be message-sending to a team that dominated in preseason Week 1, expects itself to be a contender, has had a fairly straightforward training camp so far and also has not been able to generate fast starts to the regular season under Payton.
In fact, for as surly as Payton was after the game, somewhere in there he probably convinced himself that it set him up perfectly to hammer home to his team that they’re not good enough to be anything other than on the screws every week.
Buckle up if you work at Broncos Park this week.
Jahdae Barron looks like the next man up outside and in the slot
It can be dangerous to read too much into preseason personnel rotations. The coaching staff has an idea going into a game in terms of who is going to play how many snaps and when. That goes into account when a player is injured or something unforeseen happens.
Still, it was interesting to note that the Broncos’ 2025 first-round pick was the first man in when starting cornerback Riley Moss injured his ribs on the second play of the night. Barron is playing a jack-of-all-trades role so far in camp and has seen time on the outside, in the slot and as the team’s primary dime back when defensive coordinator Vance Joseph puts six defensive backs on the field.
Barron has no obvious competition for the dime job or as the No. 2 nickel, but he’s competing against Kris Abrams-Draine to be the primary back-up for Moss and Pat Surtain II on the outside. When Surtain missed three games last year, the Broncos used Barron, a sure tackler, on early downs and Abrams-Draine in more obvious passing situations. They could certainly go back to that arrangement this year in the regular season, but perhaps Barron is making a run to claim that job outright.
Jarrett Stidham didn’t make a strong claim on the No. 2 job when given the chance
The possession count for Denver’s three quarterbacks on Friday night looked like this:
Bo Nix: 2
Jarrett Stidham: 5
Sam Ehlinger: 2
Stidham and the No. 2 offense, however, struggled to find anything resembling a rhythm. The first four trips generated just two first downs and featured an interception on a ball that looked like a miscommunication between Stidham and tight end Lucas Krull.
The veteran’s final line: 9 of 15 for 82 yards, the pick and a passer rating of 47.1.
“Anytime you play, you want to win,” Stidham said. “Tomorrow we’re going to have a great chance to look at the film and see what we can do better individually and as an offense. As a group. It’ll be good to obviously take some things away that we can improve on and, going into next week, the last week of preseason and then, you know, beyond that.”
Ehlinger got one real drive that covered just nine yards in seven plays. His second possession started with 1:05 remaining and Denver ran the ball twice to kill the clock.
As camp has progressed, Stidham has dominated the No. 2 reps in practice. Ehlinger’s run the No. 2 unit twice all of camp and didn’t this past week.
In the end, perhaps there won’t have been all that much to decide in the race outside of whether to keep all three quarterbacks.
Payton, though, wasn’t near ready to say that yet Friday night.
“We’re still working through it,” he said when asked if next week’s game against the Vikings matters in the decision-making process. “Yeah. It matters. It matters. We’re watching those guys.”
The Broncos offense is going to hear about penalties. A lot.
One area that had Payton particularly peeved postgame: Penalties.
Denver had 10 enforced for 79 yards and a Frank Crum holding penalty declined. Of the 11 flags total, five were on the offense and all were either holding or procedural.
Crum, fellow offensive lineman Alex Palczewski, tight end Lucas Krull and fullback Adam Prentice all got called for holding and left tackle Garett Bolles false started.
During Tuesday’s practice, offensive coordinator Davis Webb yanked Bolles, Mike McGlinchey and Evan Engram from a drill because of false start penalties.
Payton was similarly annoyed Friday.
“Some of them we keep seeing in practice, we’re seeing the same penalties in the games,” Payton said. “Saw them last year. We’ve got to get that cleaned up.”
Overall, it was an up and down night for the offensive line, which is going to be counted on to be among the roster’s strongest suits.
Not on this night, though.
“Wasn’t good. Wasn’t good,” Payton said. “We had too many minus plays, too many penalties offensively. I don’t know how many third and 10-or-mores we had, but quite a bit, right?”
RJ Harvey should have your attention as a pass-catching threat
The Broncos look poised to roll out a diverse set of offensive options when the regular season begins.
That was apparent early Friday night when Jaylen Waddle was on the field with Courtland Sutton and Pat Bryant at receiver, Evan Engram at tight end and RJ Harvey in the backfield.
Denver should also have J.K. Dobbins, Jonah Coleman, Marvin Mims Jr. and others ready on Sept. 14 against Kansas City, as well.
Don’t forget about Harvey, though.
He scored 12 touchdowns as a rookie and, though he’s not the most refined runner between the tackles yet, he is special in open space and in the passing game.
The second-year man out of Central Florida showed that again Friday, ripping past standout Green Bay linebacker Edgerrin Cooper for a 21-yard touchdown on a wheel route.
“Well honestly, he was like that last year, so the growth I haven’t seen much because he started so far out in front as a pass-catcher,” Nix said after the game. “I knew when he came in last year, seeing him for the first time at practice, that was going to be his strongest ability.
“The catch he made wasn’t necessarily easy. He’s just done that his career here so far, just over a year and some change. I’m excited to see him continue to develop. He’s a special football player.”
Harvey caught 47 passes on 58 targets for 356 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie. He’s got more competition for playing time this year with the way Coleman has looked in his first professional training camp, but Payton knows exactly how to use players with Harvey’s skill set, Webb knows what he’s got as a pass-catching threat and there should be more opportunity for favorable matchups with Waddle’s addition to the mix.
