Alfred Williams: DT, Sanders comments ‘destructive’ to Broncos

Mentioned several times at the Denver Broncos headquarters Wednesday was the word “frustration” and all of its variants. Frustrating opposing offensives with suffocating defense.

Frustration over injury. Frustration with the offense not putting up touchdowns. Or with how many receptions have been caught.

“There’s some frustration, but it’s hard to be frustrated when you’re sitting here 2-0,” wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders said Wednesday after practice.

“At the end of the day, I can sit up here and make it all about me and Demaryius (Thomas), how we’re used to having 100-yard games, we’re used to scoring touchdowns and we’re used to doing this. But we’re sitting here 2-0. We’ve got the No. 1-ranked defense and offensively we’re getting better.”

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Those comments come just a few days after Thomas told NFL.com’s Michael Silver, “We’re gonna need more offense, that’s for sure.”

Said Thomas: “It’s hard — you’re always putting it on the defense, and at some point, that’s tough to count on. There’s no reason to keep it close. Last year, a lot of things went our way, but that can catch up to you.”

He then gestured to Sanders, according to the report, and said, “”You’ve got two guys … damn, the best duo in the league, and we haven’t had 100 yards in a game yet. He’s got, what, eight catches? I’ve got nine. I mean …”

And it was those comments that former Broncos defensive lineman and “The Drive” co-host Alfred Williams took exception with Wednesday.

“This is more than selfish. This is destructive,” Williams said of the remarks by Thomas after the game and Sanders Wednesday. “Those honest comments should be kept in the meeting room.”

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Williams said it should matter how many touches Thomas or Sanders are getting, that the Broncos are “playing winning football” and the offense is working better than last year.

“I’m looking at it now and saying, yeah, they did get a lot more pass attempts last year, but that offense didn’t work better than it did this year. This offense is working better right now,” Williams said.

To compare, through two games in 2015 the Broncos had 331 yards passing on 77 attempts with 50 receptions, a 64.94 completion percentage. This season, Denver’s thrown for 425 yards on 59 attempts and 40 receptions (67.8 percent).

However, Thomas and Sanders have seen a decline in targets (From 25 and 26 to 13 and 16, respectively) and receptions (9 for 138 yards and 8 for 88 yards).

“Those comments are bad for the team. They’re bad for leadership. They’re bad coming from a captain. That is not what’s supposed to be happening,” Williams said.

However, in terms of red zone production, Denver has ranked toward the bottom of the league, covering just 33.33 percent of red zone scoring changes, a major source of the frustration for the Broncos.

“I think the (bigger) frustration is that we can be a better offense than what we’ve put out so far,” Thomas said when asked about his comments Sunday following Wednesday’s practice.

“We’ve been in the red zone maybe three or four times and we haven’t been able to get a touchdown. We’ve had three turnovers in two games. I think that will come to haunt you at the end.”

Said running back C.J. Anderson Wednesday: “We know that we have some things that we need to work on. I’m going to keep saying it all week, we just want to put the ball in the box. That’s what it’s about, putting the ball in the end zone.”

Follow 104.3 The Fan digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @johnnyhart7.