Evans: Broncos, Keenum should be aggressive instead of ‘playing it safe’

On Monday, Denver Broncos head coach Vance Joseph called upon quarterback Case Keenum to be more aggressive and take some more chances down the field.

“Schlereth and Evans” co-host Mike Evans echoed the comments on Tuesday, saying the Broncos owe it to themselves to see if Keenum can actually play more aggressively, especially if he is likely to remain Denver’s starter next season.

“If that is the case, then shouldn’t you maybe try to push this guy a little bit more in these last few games? Get him, get this offense, get these guys around him into the mindset of, look, we’re going to take our shots,” Evans said. “We’re going to try to play aggressive. We’re going to try to push the ball down the field instead of just playing it safe.”

After throwing 10 interceptions in his first eight games of the season, Keenum has none during the past five games. However, his yards per game have dropped from 263.8 to 205.8.

Joseph lauded Keenum’s play during the past month but said he was too cautious in a loss against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

“There are going to be turnovers, so he can’t worry about that,” Joseph said. “You can’t play this game perfect, but I want Case to be more aggressive, especially down the seams of those cover-three defenses. That’s where the soft spots are.

“He’s got to be aggressive down the seams and not worry about making mistakes.”

The comments are a reversal of the message Joseph put out earlier in the season, when he said Keenum needed to be more careful with the football. They also signal, Evans said, that Joseph’s come to the end of his rope with the inadequacies of his offense.

“When you get to this point, you understand you’re listening to a guy who understands his offense is hopeless,” Evans said.

Evans’ co-host, Mark Schlereth, said that Joseph must know of the internal conversations that have been had about his job and the head coach should “throw caution to the wind” when it comes to the final three weeks of the season when it comes to game planning.

“Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen. But I always feel like, man, I’m going to go down on my terms,” Schlereth said.

Doing so, Evans said, could even change perspective about Joseph from the view of the front office.

“Maybe in the process, even if you don’t win out, but if you win one or two of those last three games, maybe you kind of change the conversation around you,” Evans said. “Maybe people upstairs look at you and say, hey, here’s a guy who he doesn’t have any fear. He’s not worried about what people are saying about him. He’s going to go for it.

“I like that. I like that attitude. I want that attitude around here.”

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.