With Broncos dead last in kickoff returns, they’ll continue being ‘challenged’ by foes

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Unfortunately, Dwayne Stukes is accustomed to his kickoff-return unit being challenged by now.

Denver still ranks dead last in kickoff returns with a 16.2-yard average. Thus, in last Sunday’s game in Baltimore, Baltimore kicker Justin Tucker — whose leg strength makes him quite capable of blasting the football into or out of the end zone — dropped three kickoffs outside of the goal line, forcing a Broncos return each time.

The strategy worked. Instead of starting each series at the Denver 25, the Broncos had an average drive-start position at their 20-yard line, with none reaching the 25.

Two weeks earlier, Stukes spoke at length about his frustrations with being “challenged” in that way. Teams attack the Broncos like that because of their kickoff-return average.

And until the Broncos improve their form, they can expect to see more of it.

“I’m irritated by getting challenged every weekend,” Stukes said. “It’s football, right?”

It is, and a moment later, he circled back to a problem he cited a fortnight earlier — the blocking.

Asked Dwayne Stukes about BAL’s short kickoffs and how the Broncos continue to be challenged by foes kicking short to induce a return due to Denver’s struggles.

“I'm irritated by getting challenged every weekend,” he said, adding later, “We have to make them pay.”

Full reply: pic.twitter.com/cUQHdj6rob

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) December 8, 2022

“Guys have to take pride in getting their blocks. Keep my man off the stat sheet. I’m going to be between my man and the returner at the end of the play,” he said. “That’s the only thing I’m going to accept as a player, right? And that’s what I’m trying to get those guys to understand.

“Like, there is no room for second-guessing yourself. There is no room for saying, ‘Oh, I missed this block,’ or ‘I didn’t execute.’ We have to execute at a high level. We have to get kickoff returns started. We have to get it going.

“We have to help our offense with field position. And that’s what I’m going to keep saying to our guys.”

The issues rankle Stukes — understandably.

“And I’m a prideful person, as well as I’m a highly competitive person. I compete in everything,” he said. “If it’s my kids, I’m going to compete versus them. If it’s the next man, I’m going to compete versus them. That’s what I’m trying to instill in my players.

“If they decide to kick the ball down the middle of the field and give us an opportunity to return it, we have to make them pay at some point in time. Not just one time. But consistently.”

Getting opponents to pay even once would be an improvement, because the form on kickoff returns was shaky last year, too.

Denver has the exact same average as they did in the 2021 season — 16.2 yards. They ranked 32nd then, just as they do today. Those two 16.2-yard averages are the worst season-long averages since Tampa Bay averaged 14.6 yards per kickoff return

But there are signs of improvement. Denver’s special teams no longer rank last in the NFL in Football Outsiders’ DVOA rankings. Miami now possesses that dubious distinction; Denver sits No. 31.

Green Bay, another team with a new special-teams coordinator in the wake of third-phase issues last year, is 30th with former Raiders interim head coach Rich Bisaccia, a longtime special-teams guru. This perhaps shows that coaching can only go but so far.

But Stukes will try, despite the continued tornado of injuries wreaking havoc on the lineups he tries to cobble together.

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