tables to show who has Played on offense and defense

Special teams snaps will not be discussed in this. I can do a full report on that if there is enough interest.

Offense

Russell Wilson has taken every single Offensive snap at QB - as expected. Generally during his career he has not missed games.

The offensive line lost Quinn Meinerz during game one and Garett Bolles during game 5. Meinerz was getting close then he aggravated his hamstring in practice. Bolles broke his leg and is done for the season. We have used six offensive linemen on one play this season (goal line TD run from Melvin Gordon). On that play the sixth offensive linemen was Calvin Anderson, who appears to be taking over at LT with Bolles out. Billy Turner has yet to play an Offensive Snap for the Denver Broncos. I hope that Ju’Waun James has not jinxed him. Turner was seen riding the bike during the last game, so he appears close to playing.

Albert Okweugbunam started the season as the undisputed TE1, but he has played his way into the doghouse. In the loss to the Raiders, he played one offensive snap. Quietly Eric Saubert has become our TE1.

Losing Javonte Williams for the season during game 4 forced the call-up of Devine Ozigbo from the practice squad and the signing of Latavius Murray. Murray used to be a punishing runner like Williams, but I am not sure how much tread he has left on his tires. Despite being in the NFL since 2014, he only had 1517 touches during his career, so he might have some gas left in his tank.

Courtland Sutton has been one of the few standouts on offense for the Broncos. He has also rarely left the field on offense. Tyrie Cleveland has seen limited offensive snaps and he shares blame for that endzone interception last game when the Broncos could have all but guaranteed the win with a FG. I have to wonder if that same throw to Kendall Hinton would have ended the same. Hinton is a much better route runner than Cleveland and part of the problem was Cleveland’s poor route.

Defense

Losing Ronald Darby for the year is going to hurt. He had played every single defensive snap up to the point where he tore his ACL. It will be interesting to see which of the three potential replacements actually gets his starting CB snaps. Damarri Mathis did so in game five, but Essang Bassey could possibly outplay him.

Caden Sterns has played extremely well in Justin Simmons absence. It will be interesting to see if Sterns plays in more heavy nickel sets (three safeties), if he takes some starting snaps from Kareem Jackson or if he moves back to his third safety role that he had in game 1. It would not surprise me if KJ gets some rest to keep him fresh. I’m not sure how much longer his body can take playing 100% of the defensive snaps. He’s 34 and he’s played every defensive snap for us this year.

Losing Randy Gregory to the IR for four (or more) games will eventually hurt, but against the Colts Baron Browning had the best pass rushing game that PFF had ever seen in terms of pressure rate. It will be interesting to see how Browning fares against decent offensive tackles. The Chargers will be without their starting LT, Rashawn Slater, when we face them on Sunday. Rookie 6th round pick, Jaramee Salyer, has started the last two games at LT for the Chargers. According to PFF and SIS, he has yet to allow a sack. SIS also shows that he has not blown any blocks in pass protection. I doubt he plays as poorly as the LT who started for the Colts against us.

After missing the first two games, Josey Jewell played very well against the 49ers, but not so well against the Raiders, who ran the ball down the throat of our defense particularly on first down and in the second half. The Raiders had 19 first down runs for 132 - 6.95 yards per carry - against us. That excludes kneel-downs. Chronologically those runs gained these yards: 2, 3, 5, 5, 9, 2, 3, 5, 20, -2, 4, 6, 43, -3, 1, 5, 6, 7 (touchdown), 11.

That’s ugly and usually the fault there lies with the defensive line. Having the highest paid NT in the game - who is a run stuff specialist - we should not see opposing run games doing this against us. Thankfully this improved some against the Colts (who were missing there best offensive player in RB Jonathan Taylor). The Colts ran the ball 14 times on first down gaining only 45 yards (3.2 ypc). Nine of those fourteen runs gained 2 yards or less. I don’t know how much of that was improvement over the previous game from the front five and how much of that was a function of Deon Jackson and Phillip Lindsay not being able to hold Taylor’s jockstrap as running backs.