Gary Kubiak, the Denver Broncos’ head coach, has been an NFL offensive coach for over two decades since making the transition from a player to a coach in 1994. While he has seen nearly everything, from the good to the bad, there is one thing he hasn’t seen in his well-over 300 game coaching career — a defensive front seven as good as the Carolina Panthers.
“Their front seven is as good as I have ever coached against. They are exceptional,” Kubiak said after practice on Monday. “If they can sit there and play a seven man front and stop the run; it’s just very, very difficult on your football team. They do a hell of a job.”
Kubiak pointed out two players in particular who make their front seven so dominant.
“The guy running the show in the middle [LB Luke Kuechly], he’s incredible. [LB Thomas] Davis has been doing it forever, and the young front they have. Just very, very difficult to deal with because they are so big and physical,” Kubiak said.
This isn’t encouraging news for the Broncos as they open the NFL season Thursday night against Carolina with a new offense led by a quarterback making his first NFL start. However, after practice on Monday Broncos offensive coordinator Rick Dennison alleviated the pressure being put on his inexperienced quarterback, Trevor Siemian.
“It’s just not Trevor [Siemian] playing, it’s the entire Broncos playing. So we are confident in the way our team is preparing…obviously they are a great group, especially on defense…and they are very good. It’s going to take every bit of effort we got,” Dennison said.
Even with such an incredible front seven, there is one area of the Panthers’ defense that the Broncos could expose – their starting two rookie cornerbacks. It is very rare that a team goes with two rookies in the secondary, let alone both at cornerback, although Dennison say’s the Panthers’ front seven will greatly help out the two rookies.
“It’s hard to focus on the two corners when you look at the guys up front. We’ve got to find a good mix between run and pass to keep them off balance,” Dennison said.
With many questions still remaining on the Broncos offense, it seems as if they may get their most difficult test in game one against Carolina.