Denver, CO
Broncos at Chargers: The No Bull Review
The Denver Broncos lost to the Los Angeles Chargers because of two significant reasons:
- Poor coaching all around from the Broncos
- One-sided refereeing that favored the Chargers deeply
I’m not going to spend a ton of time on point #2 as that’s just the NFL (and our own John Holmes goes into it at a far greater depth than I am capable of). You have to deal with bad ref jobs, though it honestly puzzles me to see such favoritism paid to the lowly Chargers. At the end of the day, good teams overcome this and the Broncos didn’t play good football.
The blame for this loss lays flatly at the feet of Sean Payton and Vance Joseph. Either of them could have called a more sensible game and clinched the win for the Broncos.
Offense
I absolutely loved the run offense dialed up early and often for the Broncos. Sean Payton was rotating backs in almost every play and it kept the Chargers guessing. The play calls were creative and utilized pulling guards and superb blocking.
Unfortunately, Payton decided to abandon his run game once again as the game wore on. This really numbs the mind when you factor in how well it was working.
The other problem with the offense was Payton not forcing more downfield plays. To be fair, this could have been superb coverage by the Chargers as our viewing angle isn’t great for seeing the secondary. That being said, the Chargers were down players in their secondary and I believe good coaching could have schemed up some advantage matchups.
Also, Payton’s decisions at the end of the first half didn’t cost us the game, but make no mistake, they were bad decisions. The Broncos had all of the momentum in the game. You don’t need to try to pass for a first down. Just run the ball three times and get the half over with. I don’t blame the player from special teams for his silly penalty. I blame the head coach for putting them in that position. It was just bad situational football and it cost the team 3 points and momentum.
Quarterbacks
Bo Nix had a pretty solid game at first glance. The problem is that his greatness was on display in the first half when the run game was potent. The second half was a different story as he kept dumping off the ball to his outlet receivers an inordinate amount of times instead of finding a way to push the ball downfield.
One of the big pluses Nix brings to the field is his ability to scramble. His second touchdown of the game was largely due to the threat he is as a runner. The defender on that side had to honor his ability to run and tried to play halfway between Nix and Burton to defend them both until help could get there. Nix made a great throw on the run for the easy touchdown.
The big area of improvement we saw for Nix in this game was his play against the blitz. He really didn’t handle it well and either didn’t have answers, or the answers he had were smothered by the opponents.
At the end of the day, Nix is still a rookie quarterback who has a lot to work on. I believe he’s nowhere near his ceiling yet. This game is in the long run going to be great for his development even if it stung a bit to lose the game.
Line
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25802953/2190102456.jpg)
I loved seeing our line block so well early. This was one of their better run-blocking games of the season. The line is still getting some pretty silly penalties that they need to clean up.
One stand out to me was seeing us run plays while pulling Ben Powers. He made some bruising blocks on the move that were impressive.
Running Backs
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25802952/2190773686.jpg)
Audric Estime needs to be the starting back moving forward. He should have gotten more carries in this game as he was averaging over 5 yards per carry. He runs with power and has a knack for finding creases in the defense. It was pretty obvious to me that he was out when we wanted to pass the ball. If that is because of his pass blocking, he needs to level that skill up in a hurry.
Ben Watson got a surprising number of plays in this game. I wasn’t too encouraged by them, honestly. He missed a catch late and only had an average of 2.5 yards per carry.
Receivers
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25802951/2190102602.jpg)
It was nice to see Devaughn Vele get a touchdown catch off a really smoothly run route. I’m a fan of the young player and would have loved to see him get more targets than the measly 3 he got in the game.
Our #1 receiver on the day was Javonte Williams. He hauled in 7 catches for a whopping 29 yards. Averaging 4 yards per catch is not a winning formula.
Marvin Mimms, Jr. had an eye-popping reception as he scrambled for over 50 yards. This is another player that seems to be thriving, yet the offense doesn’t seem to find its way to him enough.
Defense
It is not new news to us that without Riley Moss, the Broncos don’t seem to be able to play man coverage well enough for Vance Joseph’s tastes. Instead, we’re playing a lot of zone coverages and getting beat often because of blown coverages.
This team needs to figure out what its identity is. I know it sounds good to hear Joseph talk about adjusting his defense to do what his players do best, but I question if that’s really what’s going on. Our inside linebackers especially were not up to the task of defending the middle against crossing routes. This weakness was abused throughout the game.
In the short term, Riley Moss getting healthy is going to be a shot in the arm for this defense. In the long term, this team needs to get more corners who can play man coverage on the outside.
Front 7
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25802950/2190773682.jpg)
Zach Allen impressively wrecked a 3rd and 1 single-handedly. It was an example of superb timing mixed with raw power as he blasted into the backfield and got the TFL. He spent a good amount of time pressuring the pocket as he had 4 hurries in the game as well.
Justin Strnad had such a rough game this week. He badly over pursued from the edge on a run that gave up a 1st down. Later on a 3rd and 5 he was flat-footed and let the tight end cross without pursuit. He was just too slow recognizing that it was a pass. He even gave a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty by hitting a sliding Justin Herbert who had clearly given himself up. It was bone-headed and absolutely could have been avoided.
Drew Sanders had only one snap in the game and made it count. He came up the middle on a blitz that the Chargers didn’t account for and got a huge sack. Hopefully, we’ll get to see more of him in the last two weeks of the season as I feel like he’s got more ability at ILB than what we’re seeing on the field lately.
Secondary
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25802949/2190102439.jpg)
Kris Abrams-Draine made a game-breaking interception as the Chargers were driving late in the first half. He played with technique that my boy Chris Harris Jr. would be proud of and robbed the pass by breaking underneath the route. I’ve liked what I’ve seen from the rookie. He’s got a big career ahead of himself at corner in the NFL.
Brandon Jones led the team in tackles with 10 (not necessarily what you want from a safety). He was on McConkey one of his big crossing routes and blew the coverage. It wasn’t all bad from Jones, as he did have a really big pass defense late in the game on 3rd down.
P.J. Locke just awful coverage on the outside crashes too deep and lets his receiver go over the top for an easy touchdown. Locke is one of the weakest pass-defense players in the secondary. He’s a guy that keeps everything in front of him but with too much of a cushion and it leads to him oftentimes being late to a play.
Special Teams
Tremon Smith made a huge mistake in punt return coverage that led to 3 points for the Chargers off a free kick (which hasn’t been done in decades). He has to keep himself away from the returner on a fair catch.
Final Thoughts
It is starting to look a bit ugly for the Broncos as the season winds down. Yes, they control their destiny. Win one game and they make the playoffs.
This was a rough outing, though. This team looked like the team with poor coaching going up against a very well-coached team in the Chargers. I’m seeing a bit of hubris in Sean Payton’s play-calling and game decisions that I’m not a big fan of. It isn’t enough that you act like the smartest guy on the field. It is better when you just do the smarter actions and win the friggin game.
Factors such as declining birth rates and families moving out of the city are contributing to declining enrollment at Denver Public Schools. In turn, it’s reshaping the district’s future.
“I think we’re in a good position, but it’s responsible for us to always be looking in the future and knowing we have to make some adjustments,” said Chuck Carpenter, the district’s CFO.
In a two-year span between this past school year and next, DPS expects a decline in enrollment of around 1,700 students.
“We haven’t really seen anything like this,” said Carpenter in response to the consistent decline.
Because of this trend, the district is facing a $28 million structural deficit over the next five years.
“We have a balanced budget now, and we’re not predicting that we’ll have an unbalanced budget in three years,” said Carpenter. “We’re saying we need to make adjustments over the next three, four years, so that our budgets are balanced.”
DPS’s Director of Campus Planning, Andrew Huber, told CBS Colorado in an interview last month that those adjustments will likely include closing down more schools.
“Additional school closures will be necessary in the upcoming years. When exactly that would be is hard to forecast right now,” said Huber.
The district’s CFO says his biggest takeaway from a recent round of closures is to make sure to give families options for what’s next.
“No one wants their school closed, but the second-best option isn’t going to be the same for every family,” said Carpenter.
This issue could be one Denver faces for years to come.
“We sort of say, how many kids are born here? Because in five years, those kids will be kindergartners,” Carpenter added.
The city’s birth rate peaked in 2005, meaning those babies have already graduated high school. And, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, more young families move out of Denver and into surrounding counties than move into the city.
“I think school consolidation is very — I understand why people want to talk about it, but I think it’s more about, like, how do we make sure that the programs that are offered are rich programs,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter also says the district is closely monitoring some potential cuts to federal grants for students of poverty and language learners. He says those decisions will be made by October for the start of the new fiscal year, and cuts would have a “terrible” impact.
The Denver Broncos hosted eight tryout players at mandatory minicamp this week, including quarterback Sawyer Robertson. It sounds like the team has made decisions on those tryout players, and Robertson won’t be signed (at least not right now).
Instead, the Broncos are signing offensive lineman Reid Holskey (according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler) and cornerback Blake Cotton (according to the Denver Post‘s Parker Gabriel). Holskey (6-6, 306 pounds) spent time on the Houston Texans’ practice squad in 2025 before joining the New York Giants in January. He was cut by New York last month. Cotton (6-2, 195 pounds) is a rookie who spent last fall at Utah, totaling 30 tackles and seven pass breakups in 13 games.
The two moves came one day after Denver wrapped up minicamp. The 91-man offseason roster was already full, so the Broncos will need to make corresponding moves to make room for Holskey and Cotton on the roster.
Social: Follow Broncos Wire on Facebook and Twitter/X! Did you know: These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans.
Sean Payton has seen enough. The Denver Broncos’ third practice of mandatory minicamp, which was set to happen on Thursday, has been canceled.
“Just schedule-wise, today will be our last day,” Payton said after Wednesday’s practice. “I just finished telling them that. It’s unusual because there’s a lot of packing, a little bit more than normal when you’re moving into another facility. So when we’re back here, we’ll be in the new building.”
The Broncos are moving into their new state-of-the-art facility, but the decision to cancel the final practice of the offseason was motivated primarily by what Payton has seen thus far and how the team is shaping up.
Thus concludes the Broncos’ offseason training program, which featured eight total practices as a team, four of which were open to the media. There was more on-field activity than that, including walkthrough practices unseen by the press, but in essence, we’re talking about eight sessions.
Some players have already begun to separate themselves in their respective competitions. Others have really popped, while some have failed to really stand out in any meaningful way.
By way of a Broncos stock report, let’s get to the biggest winners and losers of mandatory minicamp.
Winner: Bo Nix | QB
Nix finally returned to the practice field on Tuesday, the first day of minicamp. He was limited to individual drills only, but it was still great to see him out there.
On Day 2, though, Nix took another big step forward, participating in a 7-on-7 drill that included a highlight-reel touchdown pass to RJ Harvey. Just getting Nix back on the field was a big win for the Broncos, but seeing him progress over two days and look overall very sharp was more than a little encouraging.
Winner: Jaylen Waddle | WR
Waddle has been a lightning rod since the practices were opened to the media. He just looks different. That speed and explosiveness really add an element to the Broncos’ offense that has been lacking.
It’s been palpable. But arguably just as exciting is what Waddle’s teammates and coaches have been saying about him. Payton has called him a “force multiplier,” which is another way of saying that he makes everyone around him better.
Not that we really had reason to doubt it, but Waddle has been as advertised thus far, and then some.
Loser: Marvin Mims Jr. | WR
Mims is not listed as a loser because of any specific negative plays, like a dropped pass or a mental miscue. It’s just that, with other receivers, including Waddle, shining, generating buzz, and earning plaudits from Payton, Mims didn’t really.
Mims is a similar receiver type as Waddle, but the newcomer made it clear how much separation exists between them in practice. Now, Mims is still important to the Broncos, especially as a returner, and Payton did compliment his clutch gene and contributions in big games, but you have to wonder how he fits into the game plan on offense. That question still hasn’t been answered.
Winner: J.K. Dobbins | RB
Dobbins was his usually talkative self at minicamp, but the fact that he was healthy and out there doing his thing is a major win for the Broncos. It’s good to have him part of the daily process at Broncos HQ again because he’s one of those veterans that takes players under his wing, and elevates them.
Winner: Que Robinson | OLB
With the recent off-the-field drama the Broncos have dealt with, some extra attention was paid to the Broncos’ outside linebackers. Robinson, in particular, separated himself during minicamp.
His get-off is something else, and he was dispruptive during the Broncos’ team periods. Vance Joseph has said he views Robinson as a “future starter.” Pending Cooper’s situation, the future could be now, though Elliss will also have something to say about that.
Robinson had one heck of an offseason. I’m really looking forward to his second year.
Loser: Jonathon Cooper | OLB
After being arrested twice in the span of a week, the Broncos excused Cooper from mandatory minicamp. It would seem the Broncos want to create some distance from Cooper until his legal troubles are resolved, one way or another.
It’s a shame, in more ways than one. Beyond what legal ramifications might await Cooper, he’s very likely to be suspended by the NFL, and the Broncos releasing him at some point is not outside the bounds of the plausible. It’s a good thing that rush linebacker room is stacked.
Winner: Matt Henningsen | DL
None of these winners has been quite as surprising as Henningsen. He made a huge play on Day 1 of minicamp, tipping a Sam Ehlinger pass and returning it to the house.
Henningsen followed that up with another disruptive Day 2. He’s gone from being an after thought in the Broncos’ defensive line conversation to establishing himself as a bona fide threat for the roster.
Loser: Jahdae Barron | CB
Like Mims, Barron wasn’t bad during the offseason; he just didn’t pop, really, in any way. He broke up one pass on Day 2 of minicamp, but beyond that, there wasn’t much to see.
It will be interesting to see how Barron performs in training camp. We know the Broncos have high expectations for him, and a role on defense, even if as a depth piece, will be created for him, but I was hoping to see more signs of a Year-2 leap by now.
Winner: Jonah Coleman | RB
Another as-advertised player. Coleman has proven he’s ready for the NFL, which was partly what attracted the Broncos to him in the draft.
Coleman stood out in a major way at minicamp and made it clear that the Broncos have more than just a J.K. Dobbins insurance policy on their hands. Coleman is a force to be reckoned with.
Winner: Tyler Onyedim | DL
Like Coleman the Broncos’ first pick in the 2026 draft has looked NFL-ready. The Broncos still haven’t signed Onyedim, but that didn’t stop him from participating in the offseason program, which is a good harbinger.
Rocking the No. 98 jersey, it’s easy to mistake Onyedim for the guy he was drafted to replace: John Franklin-Myers. That’s especially true when the rookie is out there making plays like JFM. Onyedim has earned praise from his teammates, including the All-Pro Zach Allen.
Winner: Evan Engram | TE
Engram looked very good in minicamp this week. He looked like a big, athletic, smooth, explosive receiver, which is what he’s been in the NFL.
Engram wasn’t really all those things in his first year with the Broncos, but I’m hopeful that Year 2 will be different for the two-time Pro Bowler. He’s had a good summer.
Winner: Troy Franklin | WR
Franklin seems like the obvious No. 3 receiver in the pecking order. That doesn’t mean he’ll get the No. 3 snaps on an exclusive basis, though.
As the Broncos’ No. 2 last year, Franklin wasn’t able to fully live up to that, although he took some big steps forward in his second year. As the No. 3, it’s more his natural spot and that should allow him to continue to thrive in the offense, especially with the connection he has with Bo Nix dating back to Oregon.
Winner: Sam Ehlinger | QB
Ehlinger had a great offseason. He looked way more comfortable and far sharper in the offense in what is his second go-around in Payton’s offense.
Ehlinger was sharp this summer, and if he can continue to build on the foundation he’s created, it could create some uncomfortable conversations at Broncos HQ.
Loser: Jarrett Stidham | QB
Stidham has been less noteworthy this summer, but that doesn’t mean he’s been bad. In comparison to Ehlinger, though, Stidham wasn’t as good, which is curious, considering his standing as the team’s primary backup since 2023.
If Ehlinger ends up leapfrogging Stidham, what do the Broncos do? They’re holding a competition for QB2, and they have to be prepared for the possibility of Ehlinger winning it, especially after his strong summer.
If Ehlinger forces this issue, Stidham could become expendable. Stidham is very unlikely to be a cut candidate because of his contract, but as a trade piece? There’s a reason the rumor mill has been active on the Stidham topic this offseason. It’s something to watch.
Sign up for our free Denver Broncos On SI newsletter, and get breaking Broncos news delivered to your inbox daily!
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow
-
Boston, MA7 minutes agoGiannis to Boston is a possibility. Should the Knicks be worried?
-
Denver, CO9 minutes agoDenver Public Schools’ decline in enrollment continues to reshape district
-
Seattle, WA14 minutes agoWoo twirls 7 scoreless innings in bounceback outing vs. Orioles
-
San Diego, CA22 minutes agoNASCAR makes history with inaugural Naval Base Coronado race
-
Milwaukee, WI24 minutes agoStolen Oak Creek couple’s car found by viewer dumped near Milwaukee apartment complex
-
Atlanta, GA29 minutes ago18 essential Atlanta restaurants, from neighborhood gems to MICHELIN-starred destinations
-
Minneapolis, MN37 minutes agoHmong in Minnesota: 50 Years of Resilience
-
Indianapolis, IN39 minutes ago1 critical after shooting on near east side of Indianapolis
