3 Young Offensive Stars Are Propelling Denver To Championship Contention

The Denver Broncos made their arrival as a true league power Sunday night, as they throttled the Packers 34-26.

While the national identity for this team is defined by its defense, the offense has quietly begun to take hold of the reins, thanks to some wondrous development from a trio of Denver’s young offensive stars.

Bo Nix Notches Career-Best Showing vs. Vaunted Packers Defense

Across the entire nation, the Bo Nix conversation has shifted following Sunday’s dismantling of the much-heralded Green Bay Packers defense – a unit specializing in the zone-heavy defense that has often stifled Nix and is spearheaded by one of the league’s top head-coaching candidates.

Nix opened the game 11-for-12 for 122 yards and two touchdowns and stayed white-hot for the remainder of the showing, finishing the day with a masterful box score of 23-for-34 for 302 yards and four TDs, while avoiding being sacked or turning the ball over even a single time.

The eye test supports that conclusion too. Rather than opting for the safe and easy check down, Nix consistently pushed the envelope, cashing in franchise-level throws one after the other. Outside of his pitch-and-catch to Michael Bandy, each of Nix’s touchdown passes was a high-difficulty target and a beautifully thrown ball.

It doesn’t stop there, though. The advanced numbers, which have so often been used to deflate Nix’s quarterbacking efforts, are now swooning harder for the Oregon product than even the most diehard member of Broncos Country.

Against the Packers, Nix added 0.55 EPA per play while posting a dropback success rate of 61.5%. To put that in perspective, last year, Josh Allen won the MVP by adding a league-leading 0.30 EPA/play, while Jared Goff led the league with a 54.5% success rate.

Nix produced at a level nearly doubling what we expect of an MVP-caliber quarterback, and he did it against a top-10 defense, all while receiving minimal run support.

Sustained quarterback play like this will make the Broncos the best team in the conference.

Troy Franklin Blossoming Into Reliable Target

With Pat Bryant sidelined with a hamstring injury, all eyes were on the Oregon connection of Bo Nix and Troy Franklin, and the two Ducks delivered well beyond expectations.

Nix looked Franklin’s way six times, completing all six attempts for 85 yards and a jaw-dropping touchdown, good for a perfect passer rating of 158.3. Remarkably, that stat line deflates Franklin’s true performance, as a baffling whistle from an official robbed Franklin of what should’ve been seven more yards and a second touchdown.

This development is critical for the Broncos’ offense too, because they’re dramatically more potent when Franklin is playing well, and he had been struggling quite a bit before the bye week.

After a promising start to his campaign, Franklin began to cool off after a two-drop performance against the Bengals. From Week 4 up until the Week 12 bye week, Franklin was targeted 62 times, hauling in merely 32 of them, which made him the least reliable wide receiver on the team during that eight-game span.

Thankfully, since the bye week, he’s returned to his early-season form, snagging 11 of his 13 targets for 117 yards and a touchdown.

Denver’s pass-catching arsenal is sneakily becoming dangerous, with Courtland Sutton catching fire, Pat Bryant emerging, and Troy Franklin hopefully turning his season back around.

RJ Harvey Continues to Re-Stabilize Ground Game

It’s easy to feel much more confident in the Broncos’ passing attack than you did a month ago, but the same can’t be said for the run game, which has lost some of its teeth ever since JK Dobbins’ foot injury.

That said, these past two weeks demonstrated that Denver might be rediscovering its ability to run the ball, thanks to Harvey’s recent development.

Just watching the rookie running back, it feels like the game is slowing down for him and coming to him more naturally, as he now slaloms his way through traffic for modest gains, as opposed to stuttering and being swarmed by opposing defenders. He’s realized that, unlike with his former Golden Knights, he doesn’t have to carry this offense with 60-yard carries. He just needs to muscle forward for three or four yards to keep things on schedule.

Now, he’s started to deliver.

Over the past three weeks, Harvey’s posted a 53.1% rushing success rate, which is phenomenal. On the season, only three running backs are above 50%, and Kyren Williams leads the NFL with a 54.5% rushing success rate.

Harvey offers home-run potential with his explosive running style, but his boom-or-bust nature made the run game too volatile without Dobbins there to stabilize things and keep the offense on track.

The UCF rookie had to adapt to filling that role and playing within that style, and now, after a few weeks of growing pains, Harvey’s starting to look the best he has all season.