For Broncos, lack of aerial punch shows in tally of 100-yard games

In Week 2, Broncos wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. exploded in the first half of their game against the Washington Commanders.

In the span of four offensive snaps over barely two minutes of game play, Mims caught a 60-yard touchdown bomb from Russell Wilson, then snagged a 53-yard, over-the-shoulder catch down the left sideline.

He had the first 100-yard receiving game of his career. It was also the Broncos’ first 100-yard pass-catching day of the season. It wasn’t even halftime.

He wouldn’t catch another pass that day. And the Broncos wouldn’t have another 100-yard receiving game for the entire season.

With just one such game last year, the Broncos were 31st in the NFL in games that saw a pass-catcher hit that single-game milepost. Only New England — which cycled through struggling passers Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe — had fewer such games in 2023.

But the big problem for the Broncos is this: Their lack of 100-yard games isn’t just a one-year thing.

BRONCOS AMONG THE BOTTOM DWELLERS FOR A FEW YEARS NOW

They rank 30th in total 100-yard receiving games:

• … over the last two seasons, with five …
• … over the last three seasons, with seven …
• … and over the last four, with 12.

Not once in a single year since 2020 have the Broncos reached even the league average of 100-yard receiving games. In that span, the Broncos ranked 18th, tied for 28th, tied for 20th and, finally, 31st this year.

It’s logical to connect this with the issues at quarterback. After all, the only two teams worse than the Broncos in those multi-year spans — the New England Patriots and New York Giants — have quarterback instability of their own.

But take the example of the Cleveland Browns, who have started 10 different quarterbacks in the past three seasons. In that span, they have 15 100-yard games from pass catchers — more than twice as many as Denver. The Browns had six such games this season despite cycling through five different quarterbacks.

Quarterback problems explain why the Broncos aren’t at the top of this metric — both this year and over the past four seasons seasons. But those matters alone don’t justify why the team doesn’t even reach the 10th percentile.

IT HASN’T BEEN LIKE THIS IN THREE DECADES

One must go all the way back to 1991 to find the last time the Broncos had merely a single 100-yard game in a season.

But the years in between show that it wasn’t always like this. In fact, during the 2014 season, the Broncos had 18 100-yard receiving performances over the course of what would be a 12-4 season.

That’s one more than the Broncos have had in the last five seasons combined, a span that covers 83 games.

What’s more, the Broncos’ 15-game streak without a 100-yard receiver is the longest in over 36 years, since a 21-game regular-season streak that lingered from Week 16 of the 1985 campaign until Bobby Micho ended it in the final replacement-player game during the 1987 strike.

PREMIUM INVESTMENT, SUB-PAR DIVIDENDS

Given what the Broncos have invested in wide receivers and tight ends in recent years, this shortcoming is alarming. Denver has used first-round selections in 2019 (Noah Fant) and 2020 (Jerry Jeudy) and Day 2 picks in 2017 (Carlos Henderson), 2018 (Courtland Sutton), 2020 (KJ Hamler), 2022 (Greg Dulcich) and 2023 (Marvin Mims Jr.)

Combined, those seven premium picks have 13 100-yard performances as Broncos over 236 games. Emmanuel Sanders, by comparison, had 19 100-yard efforts in 78 games played before moving on to San Francisco, New Orleans, Buffalo and retirement from the playing field.

And before considering that he played with Peyton Manning, consider that Sanders had 10 100-yard days in 53 Denver games after Peyton Manning made his last regular-season start at quarterback.

That’s one every 5.3 games. The Broncos’ premium picks since 2017 have one 100-yard receiving day every 18.2 games.

And this is another reason why Denver’s offense continues to languish.