Broncos studs and duds

[Thirteen Below]

Dud - Gutekunst.

Re: Parsons…. This is the danger of trading the farm for one player. Now he is out until middle of next year at the earliest and we are out two first rounders. Of course, would we even be in this position without him?

I've been a little worried about that very thing much of the year. I'd never watched much of Parsons before, because I had little interest in Cowboy games. But watching that man hurling himself headlong into the O-line on every single snap, like a grizzly bear attacking a sheep, was an eye-opener for me.

The explosive, furious fighting for every inch, the way he plants his feet and drives his legs, made me worry that he was vulnerable to knee injuries - especially non-contact injuries. And, here we are. As you see - all in. This trade was intended to win a Super Bowl, and while it was a bold gamble, it seemed to me to be a wise one.

But other than Love, there is not a single other player on the roster we could less afford to lose. I think more than any other player than Jordan, Parsons was the key to our entire season. Sometimes you go all in and it pays off; sometimes it doesn't.

 

[OldSchool101]

Just to be fair some of those three years he wasn’t even able to play.

Doesn’t change the points at all as it was time to part ways for sure (and I’m a Stokes fan).

True. Maybe a post further I did indicate 2.25 years condensed.
Stokes had a very good Rookie season. Since then he’s been very disappointing and in particular for a Day 1 selection he grades very poorly. He plays like you’d expect from a 5th-7th Round draft selection.

 

[milani]

Dud - Gutekunst.

I've been a little worried about that very thing much of the year. I'd never watched much of Parsons before, because I had little interest in Cowboy games. But watching that man hurling himself headlong into the O-line on every single snap, like a grizzly bear attacking a sheep, was an eye-opener for me.

The explosive, furious fighting for every inch, the way he plants his feet and drives his legs, made me worry that he was vulnerable to knee injuries - especially non-contact injuries. And, here we are. As you see - all in. This trade was intended to win a Super Bowl, and while it was a bold gamble, it seemed to me to be a wise one.

But other than Love, there is not a single other player on the roster we could less afford to lose. I think more than any other player than Jordan, Parsons was the key to our entire season. Sometimes you go all in and it pays off; sometimes it doesn't.

Too bad our season was not ending with the Jets, Raiders, and Titans. We would be feeling good right now.

 

[lambeaulambo]

STUDS:
Jacobs - hes got great legs and hands. Huge weapon in this game.

Golden - he is coming out of his shell a bit now, and had sticky hands in this one.

DUDS:

Valentine - no pressure up front didnt matter much as he looked like Stokes. This cannot happen.

Bullard - looked lost in the slot.

E Wilson - stop running into your own lineman and dropping like a stone.


All in all, this injury soaked game renders the 2025 Packers a limp noodle. I would love to see it turned around on Saturday but the Bears are licking their chops even more now. Anyone that claims chicago has all the pressure on them is smokin rope. Micah Parsons absence will rear itself. When you lose that caliber of a player on defense it literally is the same as losing a Reggie White. Devastating. The team now and the team at mid season is not the same. Now it will be roll with what we have left. We have already seen this defense zero pressure and magically the secondary turns into turnstiles. Every good team has a year where injuries killed em. GB is no exception. You can point to this team for sure. Love 1st half and Love 2nd half looked like 2 different players. Hafley has got an enormous feat to shore this D up. He almost literally has to change the entire D alignment over night and thats not easy to do. Not dooming and glooming, Offensively this team is probably forced to play ball control which isnt MLFs strength.

 

[tynimiller]

True. Maybe a post further I did indicate 2.25 years condensed.
Stokes had a very good Rookie season. Since then he’s been very disappointing and in particular for a Day 1 selection he grades very poorly. He plays like you’d expect from a 5th-7th Round draft selection.

I’ll still never forget that rookie year, I really thought he and Jwire were gonna become one hell of a one two….

 

[Thirteen Below]

Golden - he is coming out of his shell a bit now, and had sticky hands in this one.

He has sticky hands every week. He has yet to drop a single pass, either in the regular season and (I believe) in training camp. 27 receptions this season, zero drops.

 

[jdizz81]

I don’t post much….
Studs cooper Watson and Tom packer fans in Denver
Duds penalties injuries and bear fans

 

[DoURant]

Re: Parsons…. This is the danger of trading the farm for one player. Now he is out until middle of next year at the earliest and we are out two first rounders. Of course, would we even be in this position without him?

The answer to your question is "No", he is an elite player, and I would guess his play has probably given us a minimum of 2 more wins. Parsons is better and will still be more impactful after injury, than both players we would have drafted with those picks, combined, over the next two years. I don't care about the money he was paid, salary caps are manipulated every year by the bean counters (Russ Ball) they are masters at finding money to sign players.

 

[Poppa San]

we just generally don't put teams away or show any "killer instinct".

MLF tried, it was intercepted. Tried again next series I believe or was it the previous one? Incomplete.

 

[tynimiller]

MLF tried, it was intercepted. Tried again next series I believe or was it the previous one? Incomplete.

And honestly if Love isn’t getting pressure cooked that ball isn’t under thrown to Watson I think Surtain cannot reach it and Watson likely tuddy

 

[gopkrs]

MLF tried, it was intercepted. Tried again next series I believe or was it the previous one? Incomplete.

You mean the bad pass to Wicks? He was open but the ball way too much behind him. Shows how much he was open that it didn't get intercepted. I'm thinking we should send at least 1 more into real patterns everytime. Those dump off receivers/backs/TEs are actually allowing the defense to guard against them and someone else in a pattern. They don't have to commit to watching someone. They have one eye on the possible dump off but are able to stay fairly deep to take up an area. Because they charge as soon as they see the dump coming. It cuts down on our receivers getting open I think.

 

[Magooch]

MLF tried, it was intercepted. Tried again next series I believe or was it the previous one? Incomplete.

I mean, sure. But I'm not going to bother with taking this criticism - which has existed for *years* - and attempt to distill it down into one or two single plays. That doesn't make any sense to me.... I think it is probably also worth taking this statement in light of the surrounding context of the post as a whole? Or at least, you know, at a bare minimum the entire sentence

 

[Pugger]

Agree on nix.....As someone posted in the pregame thread a list of denver's games this year where they barely got by very poor teams several times, nix has been wildly inconsistent. Sometimes he kills you, sometimes he is terrible. We happened to catch him on one of his best days this season so keep in mind that with all the issues and bad breaks we had vs denver we were still in the game to the very end, meaning if this is best they have , the next time we meet may be a different story.

Nix started looking good once our pass rush disappeared. Any QB will look competent when he has time in the pocket.

 

[Pugger]

Like I was saying elsewhere too, the idea was that adding Parsons would help a lot of our guys on defense to take the next step. By and large that hasn't happened.

Last year we had an ineffective pass rush and it made our secondary a big vulnerability at times. No pressure meant either sending less guys in coverage and/or more time for the opposing QB to pick apart our defense. Parsons coming in had a dramatic positive impact here.
We hoped LVN, Gary, Enagbare, etc would make big strides having Parsons soaking up attention, and it's been a mixed bag to say the least.
Unfortunately I suspect we will see our secondary revert to having some of the issues they had last year with an ineffective pass rush, and if Gary/LVN/Enagbare didn't really step up that much WITH Parsons I doubt they will be able to make that step WITHOUT him.

LVN has been inactive so much this season it is difficult to say when Parsons was in the lineup it helped him or not. Gary really did not step up. Enagbare has had a few moments but clearly not enough of them.

 

[milani]

LVN has been inactive so much this season it is difficult to say when Parsons was in the lineup it helped him or not. Gary really did not step up. Enagbare has had a few moments but clearly not enough of them.

LVN helped put pressure in the Bengals game but Flacco is slow and that was his first game in Cincy. They doubled Parsons the whole game. Other than that he showed some spark but not enough.

 

[Magooch]

He (LVN) did take a big step up with regards to hurries/pressures but that was pretty much all WITH the benefit of having Parsons soaking attention

I am not super confident that he/Gary/Enagbare will be able to continue at that level without Parsons to say the least

 

[gopkrs]

LVN has been inactive so much this season it is difficult to say when Parsons was in the lineup it helped him or not. Gary really did not step up. Enagbare has had a few moments but clearly not enough of them.

I think we need to take chances on blitzing much more. Run and pass blitzing. And hopefully not just right in the middle so you only clog yourself and your teammates at the line. There is an art to blitzing. Some coaches have it and others don't imho

 

[milani]

I think we need to take chances on blitzing much more. Run and pass blitzing. And hopefully not just right in the middle so you only clog yourself and your teammates at the line. There is an art to blitzing. Some coaches have it and others don't imho

Like from the safety spot.

 

[Schultz]

To me Valentine is a very unwilling tackler.

 

[Half Empty]

To me Valentine is a very unwilling tackler.

For DBs, wouldn't it be easier to note those that ARE willing tacklers?

 

[milani]

For DBs, wouldn't it be easier to note those that ARE willing tacklers?

After he got injured against the Steelers in 2021 on a backfield tackle, Jaire became gun shy.