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.
I personally am so happy for Russell Wilson after all the doubt he has received over the past year and a half. Do you think the Broncos keeping everything together and having success, despite the calls to tear it all down at 1-5, will influence other NFL teams in similar situations in the future to keep it all together as well?
— Augustus Oswald, Miles City, Mont.
Hey Augustus, thanks for writing in from Roosevelt territory to get us started. Spent a little time in Miles City back in the Montana days. Good eats and plenty of hydration options at Black Iron, if I remember correctly.
Great question, too. Certainly, general manager George Paton and head coach Sean Payton look wise at this point for standing pat at the trade deadline. Was it done entirely out of conviction about this group? Eh, not entirely. They listened, they just didn’t get the price they wanted on their players. Though it’s also fair if part of the reason they held prices at a certain level is because they felt like they at least had a chance to bounce back with the group as constructed.
Whether it has an impact on other teams in the future is another matter. One of the unique parts about Denver’s situation going into the trade deadline was that most of the players they fielded calls on have team control beyond this year. Inside linebacker Josey Jewell and center Lloyd Cushenberry are free agents after this year, but Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, Justin Simmons, D.J. Jones and Garett Bolles all have contracts through at least 2024. Part of the calculus to holding at the deadline is that a trade of any of those players or others can be revisited between the end of the season and the draft in late April next spring. That’s not going to be the case, necessarily, for other teams that end up in similar positions at future trade deadlines.
Another interesting wrinkle: Payton said in the lead-up to the deadline that they feel pretty good about their vision for the 2024 roster. Could this current run and/or a potential playoff push change the way they feel about a guy or two long term? Does Simmons look like an aging player at this point or somebody you’d think about giving a third contract? Bolles has a big cap number next year, but he continues to look healthier and healthier. Ditto for Sutton. So on and so forth. Interesting decisions all around coming this winter — and that’s before the conversation about Wilson himself. But, hey, the beauty of a five-game winning streak and meaningful December football is all that stuff can wait.
I was surprised by the many people who expected (hoped?) that Kareem Jackson would not be (or should not have been) suspended for his hit on Josh Dobbs. Jackson knew what the rules said, and he had to realize that the league would be scrutinizing his every play closely as he returned from his suspension. Yet, he still hit Dobbs high with helmet-to-helmet contact. Did he expect a different result from doing the exact same thing (insert the definition of insanity here) without considering the possible detrimental effect to the team? Why do fans not realize that this was the most likely result?
— Shawn Thompson, Denver
Yeah, Shawn, I’m with you pretty much across the board here. From the time the broadcast showed a replay of Jackson’s hit on Dobbs, it was clear he was playing on borrowed time before another suspension. Anybody expressing surprise is either acting or has their head buried in the sand.
The thing we don’t know — and won’t unless Jackson wants to talk in depth about it upon his return — is whether the fact that it took three plays after returning from suspension is indicative of obstinance, bad habit or something else. I believe his teammates when they insist it wasn’t out of malice, but obviously that didn’t mean much in terms of the punishment levied by the league.
OK, we’ve won five in a row and every week we look a little stronger. I have a couple of questions: 1. Jerry Jeudy barely got his number called against the Browns. Do you think he’ll be more involved next week or will Russell Wilson just keep doing short passes to the running backs or the occasional deep toss to Courtland Sutton? And 2. The Broncos allowed like five yards a carry against the Browns. Do you think Houston will come out with a run-heavy offense early? It seems like that’s been our issue all year, but not too many teams have been trying to run hard against us lately.
— Mike, Denver
Good questions, Mike, and keen observations. Jeudy’s been steady but hasn’t put up big numbers over the course of this winning streak. Two catches on three targets for 11 yards Sunday was his lowest output of the season. No Broncos receiver has put up big yardage numbers this year — Sutton’s got the touchdown machine rolling, though — so it’s hard to say when Jeudy or anybody else is going to truly go off. If you’re throwing darts, this would be a good week for it, though. Houston’s allowed the sixth-most passing yards in the NFL this year (252 per game) and is stingier against the run (ninth at 95.1 yards per game allowed). Still, I wouldn’t expect Payton and company to get too far away from what’s been working for them in recent weeks.
Here’s a good time to point this out: One element of Denver’s recent surge that’s gone perhaps under-appreciated is the quality of defenses they’ve faced in recent weeks. By EPA/play, Cleveland is No. 1, Kansas City is No. 5, Minnesota is No. 11 and Buffalo is No. 13. Meanwhile, their next three are on the road and certainly none is a walk in the park, though defensively Houston is No. 21, the Chargers are No. 27 (yuck) and Detroit is No. 15.
As for Houston, it wouldn’t surprise me if they tried to establish the run. Minnesota didn’t have much of a ground game but ran wild over the Broncos. One key difference: The Vikings were playing a quarterback who’d been with the team for two weeks and the Texans have an MVP candidate in C.J. Stroud. So sure, they may try to run it more than usual, but you can bet head coach DeMeco Ryans and offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik will put the game in the hands of their young, budding star quarterback.
P.J. Locke looked like he was everywhere Sunday. Is he the starter for the rest of the year as long as he’s healthy or will he split time with Kareem Jackson when he’s back from his suspension? And do you think we can catch the Chiefs for the division lead?
Love your coverage.
— Marshall, Parker
Thanks for the kind words and the questions, Marshall. Locke’s played well every time he’s been on the field this year and played his best game Sunday against the Browns. When he first came off of injured reserve, the staff clearly had Jackson in front of him as he worked mostly in spot duty.
I was interested to see how they’d handle the playing time when Jackson returned from his suspension, but Locke hurt his ankle and didn’t play against Minnesota. Now Jackson’s suspended again. If Locke continues to play well and Denver keeps winning, it’s going to be tough to take him off the field when Jackson’s suspension ends before that Christmas Eve game against New England. Maybe they’ll feel like they can get Locke a little bit of rest or maybe they’ll run into more injury issues, but there’s a long way to go still before they’re accounting for working Jackson back into the mix.
As to your other question, there was a moment Sunday when Denver was leading 14-0 and Kansas City was trailing by the same margin and that thought popped up as a conversation on press row for a fleeting moment. But then all of a sudden Patrick Mahomes and company had 31 on the board and stormed past Las Vegas. It may not be a vintage Mahomes offense, but that defense is real and they know how to win. Plus, Buffalo’s the only team left on their schedule that’s even at .500. Not only are they overwhelming favorites to win the West, but they’re right in the mix for the No. 1 seed. Same as it ever was.
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