The Lead
New year, new Broncos?
Like the rest of us, the team can turn over a new leaf this year and right some of the wrongs that plagued them in 2020.
Asked to pick a New Year's Resolution for the Broncos, ESPN’s Jeff Legwold picked "Get (and stay) healthy," but if I may add one of my own, I'll go a different route.
Through 16 weeks, the Broncos have earned a rather unfortunate distinction with a league-worst -20 turnover differential. The next-worst team's differential is half that.
To Legwold's point, injuries have played a key role in this; it's hard to imagine a full strength defense with Von Miller, Jurrell Casey, A.J. Bouye and Bryce Callahan still forcing just 12 takeaways.
More than that, the team has really struggled to limit its giveaways, as the Broncos lead the league in interceptions and total turnovers. And when it comes down to that, perhaps nothing has doomed the Broncos as much as those costly errors.
"We kind of look at where we are turnover ratio-wise, dead last in the league, and just knowing that there's no way you can win football games turning the ball over as much as, as many times as we have," President of Football Operations/General Manager John Elway told DenverBroncos.com in his weekly interview. "Plus, we haven't done a good job getting turnovers, either. So, the mix of both of those has put us behind the eight ball."
Still, Elway was optimistic that Drew Lock's mistakes aren't irreparable, and with more work, a brighter future is ahead.
"[Y]ou look at the roster, there's a lot of good, young football players we believe in, and Drew showed some flashes," Elway said. "Obviously he's been very inconsistent but showed some flashes. And we still have high hopes for Drew that with a good offseason, a lot of hard work this offseason, a lot of film study, that he can come back and be a very good quarterback in this league."
With Sunday's season finale vs. the Raiders on deck, the Broncos can try to get their 2021 off on the right foot with a commitment to resolve their turnover woes.
Below the Fold
Looking at that upcoming game, the Associated Press found an interesting tidbit about the Raiders' recent run of bad luck with these games. "The Raiders have lost their last nine season finales with four of them coming vs. the Broncos," they wrote.
