The Broncos had checked off nearly every box on their offensive checklist when they lined up with 6 minutes, 35 seconds left in the first quarter against San Francisco on Sunday afternoon.
Field position? Their own 49-yard line.
A productive first down? RJ Harvey churned for 6 yards.
A chance to get under center and beef up the personnel? Absolutely. Denver lined up in 13 personnel, with tight ends Evan Engram, Nate AdkinsԻ Adam Trautman in the game along with Harvey and the lone receiver, Marvin Mims Jr.
They could have run it again but instead dialed up a shot play out of a heavy look. Just the kind of optionality and offensive diversity that have been too frequently missing this season as the unit has lamented its inability to stay on track and its penchant for ending up in long-yardage situations.
Off a play-fake, quarterback Bo Nix got his head around, felt pressure from his left and subtly moved right while climbing in the pocket. He looked at Engram coming free on a deep crossing route. Instead of cutting the ball loose, though, Nix patted it twice and quickly swung the ball out to Harvey for a 2-yard gain.
Nix hasn’t been asked specifically about the play, but in general itap a microcosm of whatap ailed the Broncos offense through four games.
The Broncos haven’t put themselves in advantageous spots often enough, and when they do, they haven’t capitalized regularly enough.
“We had seen this on tape, they did a pretty good job of staying on top of some of the deeper throws and (thatap) part of what they’re trying to do defensively,” head coach Sean Payton said Monday. “So I think coming away from that game tape, I think the feeling overall was just more yardage underneath in different ways that I think we feel like we could have taken a little bit more advantage of.”
Itap also not all bad for the Broncos or for Nix. This particular sequence was in the midst of a 13-play drive that featured three third-down conversions, including two plays earlier when Nix made a terrific play to escape pressure, press the line of scrimmage and then hit Tyler Badie for a 25-yard gain — Denver’s second-longest offensive play of the day.
Still, the drive had the hallmarks of the Broncos’ overall offensive struggles. The lack of a shot down the field when perhaps they had a chance for one. The need for a third-down conversion every time to move the chains — a quest Nix called “exhausting” in the lead-up to the game and the fact that Nix and the offense have not been able to get the ball to their receivers and tight ends enough.
“I thought there were some times where we were able to find some intermediate deeper windows out there,” Nix said after the game. “But then you throw it to RJ and he gets 15 and that’s a positive play. You throw it to RJ in the flat, you throw it to our backs, throw it down and just let them roll and sometimes that allows them to be more aggressive, then you can work over the top.”
On the long first-quarter drive, Nix was 5-for-5 to running backs for 42 yards. He was 2-for-4 for 16 yards to receivers and tight ends. For the day, he completed just 1 of 9 attempts of 10-plus air yards and didn’t attempt a pass of more than 20 s air yards until the final two minutes of the game, according to Next Gen Stats.
Harvey had three catches on that drive alone and 10 (on 10 targets) for the game.
Of those 10 targets, according to Post charting, the first was a good numbers matchup where Harvey had a blocker out front and Nix swung it to him quickly. Two others were designed screen concepts late in the game. The other seven were check down-type situations where Nix first looked down the field and then came back to the second-year back in the flat or underneath.
“Some of it is the defense as they stay soft in certain coverages,” Payton said after the game. “Some of it is that they’re eyes to the ball, they get underneath and get deep in their drops. So Bo, right away, when he feels some of that, some of that is smart. There were some big plays made by him.”
The question is: How much of it is smart, and where is the line between smart and too much?
Harvey missed Denver’s Week 2 win against Jacksonville, but in the two games since has accounted for 38.5% of Nix’s completions and now leads the Broncos with 20 catches on the season.
Overall, the past two weeks, Nix has skewed heavily toward the running backs. He’s completed 22 of 24 passes to running backs and just 20 of his 52 other total throws.
There’s an element of two-things-can-be-true in those numbers. One is that Harvey is an ascending player on the Broncos’ offense and is dangerous with the ball in his hands, particularly as a receiver. The other is that in recent weeks Denver’s passing game has skewed heavily toward Harvey and the backs in general.
Two games isn’t a big sample, but the numbers do fit within broader statistical patterns for Nix this year in that he’s seen drops in yards per attempt (6.1), air yards per attempt (6.2, down substantially from 7.5 last year), percentage of passes thrown down the field (8.9%), overall completion percentage (60%), passer rating (80.4%) and more.
Broncos signing WR Cam Ross to practice squad
Denver is bringing a familiar face back to its practice squad in wide receiver Cam Ross.
Ross, an undrafted rookie, spent training camp with the Broncos but wasn’t offered a practice squad spot at the roster cutdown in late August. Now he’s back as Denver after agreeing to sign to the practice squad Tuesday.
The Broncos worked out receivers Tuesday morning including Ross and Jamari Thrash, a 2024 fifth-round pick by Cleveland.
