The Broncos have been amazing on defense for many seasons, and it carried them to a Super Bowl 50 victory.
Offensively, Denver’s been so-so at best since that Super Bowl win, and awful at worst. In all honestly, they’ve been more bad than good with the ball in recent years.
That can be really difficult for fans to take.
The offense is the group tasked with putting points on the board. They’re the exciting group, calling plays the opponents won’t expect and chewing up chunks of yardage for fun.
And for Broncos fans, who enjoyed two of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the game in both John Elway and Peyton Manning, there’s nothing like a dynamic and dominant offensive unit.
So, while Drew Lock has taken a lot of criticism — and rightfully so — and as the Broncos have struggled with the 28th scoring offense this year, Denver’s worst unit is clearly their special teams.
That was no more obvious than on Sunday in Los Angeles.
To start the game, the Broncos gave up a 53-yard kickoff return to the Chargers. That set them up with the ball in Denver territory, and thanks to that solid defense, the Chargers only took a 3-0 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff though, Denver committed a holding penalty. That backed the awful offense up to their own 13 yard line.
During Denver’s next drive, the team stalled and set up a 42-yard field goal, which Brandon McManus doinked off the left upright. The consistently good McManus got a second chance, from five yards closer, but doinked it again. Unreal. He had made 48 straight within 40 yards before the miss.
And with six minutes before halftime, punter Sam Martin shanked a kick while a special teamer deliberately ran out of bounds, which is another penalty.
Then, in the second half, the punt unit was fooled by the return man faking a fair catch and let a ball bounce into the end zone when it could’ve been downed within the five yard line.
I mean, come on.
Was it fully the special teams’ fault the team lost 19-16? No. But that’s simply far too many mistakes for a single game.
Of course, it wasn’t the first time this year, nor the last few years the special teams has been terrible.
Last week, Diontae Spencer muffed a punt, only to recover it. In Week 6, the group gave up a 102-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. It was embarrassing.
Overall, the Broncos are currently 22nd in DVOA on special teams.
But, it hasn’t been all bad.
McManus has been basically magical this year, making 89.3 percent of his field goal tries, including the miss on Sunday. Sam Martin’s punting has been much improved compared to recent years, with a 42.1 net punting average, which is 9th-best in the league.
And, Spencer returned a punt for a touchdown 83 yards against the Carolina Panthers. (The first punt TD by Denver since 2015.)
But, all in all, the Broncos have been spectacularly bad on special teams recently.
This year, they’ve allowed 7.6 yards per punt return, which is 13th and is a vast improvement from last year (30th, 9.81 YPR). The Broncos have also allowed 29.65 per return this year, which is second-worst only to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Last year they allowed 26.8 yards per kickoff return, which was fourth-worst.
In three years under Tom McMahon, the Broncos have been inept in terms of returning punts and kickoffs as well as stopping opponents from returning the ball against them.
Part of the problem is the Broncos less than talented roster. Teams who excel on special teams are able to because their backups are capable of making plays like tackles and returning the ball by making defenders miss.
But the other, more important problem, is the lack of coaching on special teams. Vic Fangio will not be fired this offseason as the Broncos look forward to how the team can grow in Year 3 under the head coach, but they should consider letting go of McMahon, whose special teams unit has struggled for years.