Broncos Mailbag: Is this drought the worst on-field stretch in franchise history?

Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag weekly during the season and periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question.

Hello Parker! I know there are a lot of question marks on the roster, but I do like the moves they made this offseason. In fact, apart from the safety position where you can’t underestimate the loss of Justin Simmons, I don’t feel they particularly downgraded anywhere. I’d even argue that on paper there are even better at different spots. Whatever Jerry Jeudy becomes, he didn’t work in Denver and I like the addition of Josh Reynolds. They went after specific players on the defensive line to help against the run and John Franklin-Myers is a great addition. Several rookies from last year are in a position to make the jump in year two. Maybe a few rookies can contribute early (although maybe unlikely with Sean Payton). We don’t know yet who will be the QB, which is the most important, but we know it will be someone Sean Payton actually wants to work with. So, if we account for the continuity with Vance Joseph that should prevent another terrible start on defense, who’s to say they can’t improve on their 8-9 record from last season? Call me an optimistic naïve, but I believe.

— Yoann, Beine-Nauroy, France

Hey Yoann, thanks for writing in and for getting us going this week.

Don’t apologize for being optimistic. What’s the point of being a fan if you’re not going to bend that way most or at least some of the time? It’s always interesting to me when fans are relentlessly jaded or pessimistic. I know it’s a way of caring and, obviously, it means a lot to a lot of fans and so emotion is part of the game. But if you can’t be optimistic as a fan this time of year, why bother?

And looking through your offseason rundown, Yoann, I don’t entirely disagree with most or really any of the points you make about the roster.

It’s possible that Jeudy will go off in Cleveland, but it hadn’t happened here. Simmons is a big loss and I think more than just him, the real test is losing basically three of the four key communication pieces in the middle of the defense in him, Josey Jewell and Kareem Jackson. Or, maybe 2.5 since Jackson was in and out of the lineup last year due to the suspensions and then eventually released. Regardless, it’s no small matter that Singleton is the lone full-time player back from last year in the middle of the back two defensive levels.

The main thing that strikes me about the additions is that Sean Payton and company prioritized different skill sets. Reynolds is a good player. He’s not as purely talented as Jeudy but he’s going to give you something different – a big, rugged receiver who can make some plays in the receiving game and also block and bring toughness elsewhere. Brandon Jones is a different style of player than Simmons. So on and so forth. The key is if the improvements on the defensive line — and they look like substantial improvements to me — are enough to cover mild to moderate drop-offs elsewhere.

In the end, a lot of it will come down to quarterback play. Go figure. Russell Wilson didn’t have a great 2023 season but in order to be a clear upgrade from him you’ve got to get at least what, at least slightly above-average starting caliber play? Definitely possible, but at present, I think it’s fair to say also far from certainty.

If you could say today that they’d get that level of play at quarterback, they’d stay as healthy as they were in 2023 and they at least match their division record of 3-3 last year, then yeah, they’ll have a chance to improve on 8-9. They also might be breaking in a rookie quarterback, they were the healthiest team in the NFL last year and the division’s only getting tougher with Jim Harbaugh’s arrival to the Chargers, whom the Broncos swept last season.

All of that to say, is it September yet?

I was born in 1991 and have been a fan since the jump. Has there ever been a worse prolonged period of Bronco football than 2016 to present? Was it worse than this in the ’60s?

— Connor M., Dallas

Connor, how old do you think I am, man? Given that I was barely toddlin’ when you were born, I can’t say I have much in the way of first-hand knowledge of the 1960s. All the same, I think you’re justified wondering if this is the worst prolonged period of Broncos play in history.

During the 2022 season, I and other beat reporters seemed to regularly be spending time searching the record books for comparable offensive futility. That tended to produce a lot of references to the 1966 AFL season, when Mac Speedie’s Broncos mustered 14 points per game. You don’t need first-hand knowledge and a terrific memory to know that was a bad year. It was a second straight 4-10 campaign after back-to-back 2-11s with a 3-11 still ahead. That’s the worst stretch in franchise history, though it obviously was before the merger.

Since the merger, this is clearly the worst prolonged stretch. The only other times Denver’s had consecutive non-winning seasons were its first three in the NFL (1970-72), 1994-95 and then 2007-11. The latter two stretches, though, were mostly seven- and eight-win campaigns. The Broncos even won the division in 2011 at 8-8.

The past seven years, the club is 52-79. Peyton Manning’s four years before that produced 50 regular-season wins.

Another factor here is the parity in the NFL. Teams go from playoffs to bad years and back with regularity. So while continued domination is difficult — it’s what makes the current Kansas City reign all the more impressive — so is continued futility. The Broncos have the second-longest active playoff drought in the NFL at eight seasons behind only the New York Jets (13). Nobody else is more than six.

That means one of them’s got to make the playoffs this year. Right? Right?

What’s your opinion about the Broncos Week 14 bye? Seems a bit late for the season.

— Ed Helinski, Auburn, N.Y.

Hey Ed, thanks for writing in. Yeah, it’s late. In fact, it’s the latest bye week on the calendar. The Broncos aren’t the only ones. They share Week 14 with five other teams this season.

Certainly, most teams would tell you they’d rather have it earlier on the calendar.

Overall, though, the Broncos have a couple of things going for them earlier in the season. One is that the Thursday night game Week 7 at New Orleans does represent something of a mini-bye. They’ll get home late from that game but then will have the weekend off and likely only one true workday from Friday through Tuesday.

Then the other piece is, because of the lack of primetime games and the fact that the bye week arrives after a Monday night game against Cleveland, Denver only has one short week on its slate so far. That’s coming off back-to-back home games against Las Vegas and the Los Angeles Chargers before going to New Orleans.

Still, 13 straight games before a true bye week will be quite a slog.

No question. Just a heartfelt thank you to everyone at my favorite sports department. Very appreciative and always grateful. Absolutely love the Denver Post sports coverage. Truly the best in the business. Go Broncos!

— Dennis Murtha, York, Pa.

Best mailbag entry of the year. Thanks, Dennis! It’s a good group we’ve got. Adding Troy Renck back to our ranks has been terrific and is going to make for a great season on the Broncos beat along with Ryan McFadden, Sean Keeler and many others who get involved at some point in the process. And on the occasion when somebody brings this subject up, it’s always worth giving props to the people who make the operation run smoothly behind the scenes in Matt, Sarah, Lori, Joe, Jeff, Kevin and several others.

On that note, it is the quietest part of the NFL calendar. And that means the mailbag might be a bit more sporadic than usual the next few weeks. Thanks for reading. Training camp will be here before we know it.

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