The Broncos got thinner at positions that were already dangerously thin
Sep 10, 2020, 8:54 AM
The Broncos have made thin positions even thinner days before starting the season. The two roster surprises late last week were Denver cutting linebacker Todd Davis and trading cornerback Isaac Yiadom.
I’m not going to pretend these two were elite level players at their position, but when you’re already weak at those spots, why make cuts? Are you telling me the Broncos actually feel good about those positions?
Davis has been a bit of a headache for Broncos Country the past few seasons, but he has been this team’s clear cut best inside linebacker in that timeframe. So now the Broncos will rely on Alexander Johnson, who looked good towards the end of last season, but still has a lot to prove, and Josey Jewell, the guy who lost his starting job to Alexander Johnson last year. The inside linebacker spot leaves a lot to be desired in 2020.
Yiadom was a third-round draft pick in 2018. He struggled during his tenure with the Broncos, but the cornerback spot has been a talking point all offseason. This is a clear position of weakness going into the 2020 season and the Broncos will be forced to depend on a rookie in Michael Ojemudia, a guy who has never played a full 16-game season in Bryce Callahan and a guy whose best days were in 2018 in A.J. Bouye. The Broncos cornerbacks are not in a great position to succeed in 2020, and whether or not Yaidom was going to be a great player in Denver, trading him for a seventh-round pick made absolutely no sense given where the Broncos are with the cornerback spot.
The Broncos have made a bad situation worse right before the start of the season. If this team wants to have any chance of making the playoffs, the defense needs to play at a high level. That is now going to be harder since the team made these changes at already weak spots.
This is a young offense, with a new offensive coordinator, a first-year starting quarterback and a makeshift offensive line. The offense is going to struggle early, the defense will be leaned on to carry them. That is now an even taller order for that side of the ball.
