Three things that went horribly wrong for the Broncos in 2020

The Denver Broncos had a bad year in 2020. The finished the year with a 5-11 record and missed the playoffs again, a fate they’ve endured every year since 2015. The team had to deal with multiple injuries to key players on both sides of the ball, and working with one of the youngest rosters in the NFL proved to be difficult as well.

Heading into next season, the Broncos are keeping most of the coaching staff together. That means they’ll get another shot to prove that they are the right men to do the job – both on the roster and in the coaching ranks.

Broncos head coach Vic Fangio actually has some optimism heading into next season.

“The optimism comes from getting a bunch of these guys back that have been injured and missed a lot of time. That will be a good place to start. We have a lot of young players that got valuable playing time that will grow from this. For them being able to watch cutups and film of themselves for 16 games, they will benefit from that greatly and we will have the second year of our offense that will let those guys grow even more,” Fangio said.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. The coach may have optimism, but there were plenty of problems – certainly more than three – that plagued the Broncos last year. If they’re not careful, these issues will carry over into 2021.

Here are three things that went wrong for the Broncos this season.

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3. Problems at the Top

Fangio was a rookie coach last year, so some of his mishaps were forgivable. Even though he had been a coach in the league for decades, Fangio had never been a head coach until 2019. This year, I thought we’d see fewer of those “rookie” mistakes from Fangio.

I was mistaken. The mishaps continued for Fangio, especially when it comes to dealing with timeouts and clock management. We saw him fumble timeouts all season long, and that was highlighted in Week 17 against the Raiders.

With the opponent going for a two-point conversion to win the game, the Raiders seemed confused by the Broncos defensive formation. They were out of timeouts and were going to have to snap the ball or risk getting a delay of game penalty that likely would’ve convinced them to kick an extra point instead. Fangio bailed out the Raiders by calling a timeout, they reorganized and ran a play to win the game.

Fangio regularly seems disinterested in what the offense is doing. He’s a defensive coordinator at heart and loves to dive into what his defense is doing rather than running the game as a head coach. There are times when Fangio is just standing away from the entire team on the sideline, seemingly lost in thought – likely about what to do on defense.

Broncos president/CEO Joe Ellis knows Fangio must improve.

“Vic knows he has to improve. I believe that he has great ability to teach players how to win and put them in a position through game planning and everything else so they can be successful. We just haven’t executed it. We’ve had some problems late in games and it boils up in frustration and anger, and I understand that. We have to improve there, and we have to win. We have to get better. I do think he’s a good football coach and I think the staff is good and they’re experienced. Another year with them together stabilizes things to a certain point. Fans will disagree and say it’s not going to work, but I don’t see it that way. I think it has a chance to work,” Ellis said.

Broncos president of football operations John Elway saw improvement in Fangio, but he also knows what he needs to improve in 2021.

“Vic came a long way this year. When you don’t win, the mistakes get pointed out and emphasized. There were some mistakes that he made, and I think he’d be the first one to say that those were mistakes that he made, and he’ll learn from those. Vic is a very intelligent guy and he will adjust and learn from those mistakes. I look at what went on, and the different things he had to deal with this year away from football were 10 times what he’d normally have to deal with. We had a ton of injuries, which put us behind the 8 ball, also. He had to deal with that. Just ending the year and understanding what it is to be the head coach and learning how to delegate his time and spend his time in different areas. I think he’ll get better,” Elway said.

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2. Injury Riddled

It’s not an excuse, but a reality of the 2020 season – the Broncos just sustained too many injuries on both sides of the ball. They didn’t have a lot of depth entering this season. During training camp, I would regularly say the Broncos have about 22 quality players and no depth. That seemed to be a correct proclamation as the season went on.

The Broncos didn’t get to the regular season with two of their biggest stars, linebacker Von Miller and wide receiver Courtland Sutton. Losing Miller took away arguably their best pass-rusher, and losing Sutton took away an ascending Pro-Bowl-caliber player on offense. Those two injuries alone would’ve been tough for many teams to overcome. It was more difficult for the Broncos because of their lack of depth.

Miller and Sutton weren’t the only two players lost for the season. As the year went on, key starters like defensive tackle Mike Purcell, defensive lineman Jurrell Casey, defensive end Shelby Harris, running back Phillip Lindsay and cornerback Bryce Callahan were put on season-ending Injured Reserve. The Broncos didn’t have the depth to overcome these injuries (and the others). In fact, they ended the regular season with four cornerbacks on IR, with one more (A.J. Bouye) suspended.

Fangio did not make excuses, but after the Raiders loss in Week 17, he did highlight what could make the team better in 2021.

“Moving forward, the biggest thing that will help is getting guys back that have missed a lot of time this year. I say we have 12 starters on defense because the nickel position plays a lot and I believe we were eight of those 12 starters for us. To get those guys back will be a big jolt for us and then for these young guys to improve, we played a lot on both sides of the ball and another year of maturation,” Fangio said.

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1. No Answer

The only thing I wanted to see from the Broncos in 2020 was to determine whether or not Drew Lock could be the franchise quarterback. I felt that with a full season of reps we’d know a clear-cut answer by the end of the year.

I was wrong. We got to see Lock play most of the games this year, but he did not show the type of progress that would make you confident that he could be the clear-cut starter going forward. This was the biggest disappointment of the Broncos in 2020 because they wasted an entire year just trying to determine whether or not their quarterback problem had been solved.

Now, the Broncos will go into the offseason with plenty of questions about Lock. In fact, the team should bring in a veteran to compete for the job in training camp next year. They could outright replace Lock as the starter if they were to trade for a player like Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford. If they wanted a competition (who does, but work with me), then perhaps adding a free agent like Cowboys QB Andy Dalton would make sense.

Either way, Lock is not going to be the unquestioned starter like he was this season.

Lock played in 13 of 16 games for the Broncos, missing two games due to a shoulder injury (he missed most of his rookie season due to a thumb injury) and one game due to COVID violations. He is not injury prone, but Lock didn’t need to miss any time. All of that time lost only hurt what little development he did make over the course of the season.

Speaking of little to no development, I think Lock got back to where he was in 2019 by the end of 2020 – maybe. He clearly is not a fit for what offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur wants to do, but Lock did look good in 2019 (going 4-1 as a starter) with former OC Rich Scangarello. When Shurmur changed his system to look more like what Lock was used to, you saw some improvements in Lock’s play. He still turned the ball over too much, and there were only two games out of his 13 played (Week 1 and Week 17) where Lock did not have a turnover.

Lock has plenty of supporters, but I feel those who blindly support him are being dishonest with the fan base. These “analysts” do not tell the truth about Lock because they’re trying to sell you something.

It’s good for business if you support Lock as the Broncos QB, so “analysts” will try to sell you a product because they look like a supportive fan. These blind supporters are going to have egg on their faces when the Broncos get someone to compete with Lock or perhaps even replace him.

He has talent, but that talent took a step back this year under Shurmur. I don’t see another year with Shurmur making a world of difference, especially since Shurmur has never really developed a young quarterback in his coaching career. If Lock can beat out his competition next summer, then perhaps that will spark him to better play. I hope the Broncos QB woes are over with, but Lock showed me little to believe in.

Fangio gave a tepid answer when asked if Lock would be the starter next year.

“He can be. He can be. He’s going to have to improve, which he knows, and we all know. We have to eliminate the negative plays and we have to become more efficient in our whole operation offensively. As the quarterback, he’s the leader of that unit,” Fangio said.

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