Ejiro Evero hypes the Broncos offense in a surprising way

The Broncos offense has been dreadful for years. Through three head coaches, five offensive coordinators and 10 quarterbacks, Denver has struggled to consistently score points since winning Super Bowl 50. Heck, even that championship team was up and down on offense.

That’s a streak of six years or more of relatively futility on that side of the ball. It’s a run that’s led to a lot of frustration – in the locker room, at Dove Valley, in Broncos Country and parts in between.

So this offseason, the franchise went about correcting things. In a big way.

The biggest addition was at quarterback, where Russell Wilson gives the Broncos their first franchise quarterback since Peyton Manning rode off into the sunset. Denver’s blockbuster trade with Seattle finally put an end to the carousel of QBs that the team has endured since the 2015 season.

Second on the list of improvements was the hiring of Nathaniel Hackett. After back-to-back head coaches with a defensive-minded background, including one who didn’t even bother to watch the offense during training camp or practice, the Broncos brought in someone with an offensive pedigree.

Hackett’s most-recent job was the offensive coordinator of the Packers. In Green Bay, he helped Aaron Rodgers win back-to-back Most Valuable Player awards, devising a passing attack that carved up opposing defenses on a weekly basis.

These two upgrades are expected to jumpstart the Broncos offense. They’re being counted on to utilize the pass catchers that Denver has spent premium draft picks and money on in recent years.

Jerry Jeudy, Courtland Sutton, Tim Patrick and K.J. Hamler are supposed to flourish with Hackett calling the plays. Those four receivers, plus tight end Albert Ogwuebunam, figure to put up big numbers with Wilson throwing them the ball.

So it was no surprise that new defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero was singing the praises of the Broncos offense on Tuesday, talking about how much of a challenge it is to face them on a daily basis in practice. What was a bit of an eyebrow-raiser, however, was the way in which the DC hyped Denver’s new-look attack.

“We’re going to have one of the best run offenses in the league,” Evero said on Tuesday.

Wait, what? The Broncos are going to be a running team? They’re going to excel in that phase of offense?

That’s not what people expect when Wilson is behind center. That’s not what most think about when they see Sutton, Patrick, Jeudy and Hamler lined up wide.

But second-year running back Javonte Williams is poised for a big season now that he’s not splitting carries with Melvin Gordon. He had 903 yards as a rookie, despite only getting 50 percent of the workload.

And Hackett has led a run-heavy offense before. In 2017, he was the offensive coordinator in Jacksonville when the Jaguars had the best rushing attack in the NFL.

So it’s not crazy to think that the Broncos will run the ball well in 2022. It is surprising, however, to think of them as the best rushing offense in the league.

Regardless, going up against them will make the defense better. It gives them a chance to repeatedly see the direction that the NFL is going.

“This Shanahan scheme is going through the league,” Evero added. “Getting to practice against that daily is going to be awesome. They’re going to challenge us a lot with formations, tempo and all of those sorts of things. It’s going to get us ready for the season.”

After more than a half decade of bad offense, the Broncos will be better this season. It just might not be in the way most people were expecting.

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