Could this year’s Broncos be just like last year’s Browns?
Jun 18, 2020, 6:31 AM
The Broncos might be the most-hyped team in the NFL heading into this season. The praise is coming Denver’s way in all sorts of ways.
Some members of the national media thinks the Broncos can overtake the reigning Super Bowl champion Chiefs in the AFC West. Denver has the possible next great quarterback in Drew Lock, who showed promise in his rookie season. Denver also has proven running backs in Melvin Gordon and Phillip Lindsay, as well as a tight end who has a lot of hype around him in Noah Fant. Everyone loves the weapons John Elway has given his young quarterback, with Pro Bowl wide receiver Courtland Sutton, first-round pick Jerry Jeudy and the speedy K.J. Hamler.
We also can’t forget about the Broncos defense that ranked in the top 10 of scoring defenses last year. Bradley Chubb will be returning from injury, looking to win Defensive Player of the Year and become the next great pass rusher. With Vic Fangio’s amazing football IQ with his defense, this team should be a playoff team.
The only issue is that we’ve heard this hype before. It was as recently as last offseason. The same things were said about the Browns entering the 2019 season.
Even though the Browns finished 2018 with a 7-8-1 overall record, many people picked them to win the Super Bowl in the 2019 season. Well it’s safe to say that definitely didn’t happen.
But what did happen to the Dawg Pound?
Baker Mayfield showed in his rookie season that he had the potential to be the savior in Cleveland with 63.8 completion percentage and a 93.7 quarterback rating. In his second season, Mayfield’s numbers went down to a 59.4 completion percentage and a 78.8 quarterback rating. This was all after Cleveland added Odell Beckham Jr. to pair with his former college teammate Jarvis Landry. Both wideouts finished the season with more than 1,000 yards receiving, but it didn’t lead to victories.
Nick Chubb and the rushing game didn’t disappoint, but another area that did was the tight end position. David Njoku was emerging as one of the best tight ends in the game until he got injured. Njoku would finish the season only playing in four games. The lack of depth at the tight end position really hurt the Browns.
The Browns defense played well enough, allowing only 20 points per game last season with the rising stars on the line and in the secondary. So that wasn’t the problem.
There’s one more main reason why the Browns struggled in 2019, finishing 6-10. They refused to address the need on the offensive line.
After losing future Hall of Famer Joe Thomas to retirement, Cleveland traded away Kevin Zeitler to the Giants for Odell Beckham Jr. Every week, the Browns would throw out a below average offensive line. On the season, they would give up 41 sacks, which ranked 16th in the NFL and tied with the Broncos last season. Instead of investing at the line of scrimmage, Cleveland focused on skilled positions and the turned out to hurt them in the long run.
This seems to sound like the same story with the Broncos entering this season. Just like the Browns, Denver finished last season giving up 41 sacks and didn’t address the biggest needs on the offseason. Elway decided to not address the glaring needs at the tackle positions after disappointing seasons from Garett Bolles and Ja’Wuan James.
Denver is stuck with James for now because of the huge contract he signed making him one of the highest paid tackles in NFL history. But they could have moved on from Bolles after he continued to lead the league in holding penalties year after year.
Lock has shown potential to be the next great quarterback, just like Mayfield was projected to be. Denver added more receiving weapons to pair with their star wide receiver, just like the Browns did. The lack of depth behind Fant at the tight end position has been disappointing for years due to multiple injuries to all of the Broncos tight ends.
Denver shouldn’t have any issues in the running game after Phillip Lindsay has rushed for 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons. The Broncos also added star running back Melvin Gordon.
The hype is definitely there for the Broncos as it should be on paper. But since Denver failed to address their biggest needs on offense, the similarities between Cleveland and Denver are just too obvious to ignore.
Hopefully, John Elway can prove Cleveland and everyone else wrong once again. But right now, it’s concerning that Denver could be the 2020 version of the 2019 Browns.
