The Denver Broncos can fix their offense. Can’t they?
Yes. It’s still early in the season and they’re 2-2, right in the thick of it.
But if they want to put more points on the board, these are the issues they need to focus on.
Denver Broncos can fix the offense by working on these 3 issues
Davis Webb’s offense has taken a major step backwards compared to Sean Payton’s offense last year.
And considering the Broncos were only 14th in scoring last year, that’s a huge issue. The offense wasn’t good enough in 2025 to truly compete for a Super Bowl as they put up only seven points agains the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game.
Currently, Denver’s 27th in scoring at 18.5 points per game. That’s atrocious. They’re also 27th in first downs, 29th in rushing yards, and 22nd in rushing touchdowns.
So, where can the Broncos improve?
Run the ball better, more consistently
As those previous stats show, the Broncos are a terrible running team at the moment.
Their 325 rushing yards are fourth-worst in the NFL at this point. Simply, there’s no reason for an opposing defense to honor or worry about the run game.
Part of it is up front. Denver’s offensive line is 20th in Run Block Win Rate per ESPN, winning only 73% of their blocks there. That’s simply not good enough. They’re not winning the line of scrimmage and it seems like defensive lines are penetrating on every run.
But the main blame goes to the backs themselves. Last week in Santa Clara, RJ Harvey got the start. In fact, both Harvey and Tyler Badie got in the game before J.K. Dobbins got his first carry midway through the second quarter.
When Dobbins finally did come in, he had no juice. No explosiveness in his legs. That’s a huge concern given it was only Week 4 of this grueling season.
Harvey was certainly a bright spot on the offense, but mostly as a receiver. He ran seven times for 25 yards. Dobbins had 11 carries for only 40 yards.
There’s no chance of explosive plays from this run game and they’re averaging 3.6 yards per carry. That’s fifth-worst in the NFL. They must bring that up to 4.0 and hang around the middle of the pack or defenses will continue to forget about Denver running the ball and focus on stopping the pass. If Dobbins has no juice, Denver needs to ride Harvey. And then hope Jonah Coleman can carry the load when he returns from injury.
Bo Nix is the checkdown king
These issues all blend into one another on the Broncos offense.
Bo Nix is checking down way too often.
According to RBSDM.com, Nix’s air yards are dead last in the NFL, at 6.0. The checkdown king. Yes, all those short passes mean his completion percentage is high (67.9%, 6th) but Denver’s desperately needing more explosive plays. Their 10 explosives are 11th-worst at this point, and they have only one 40-plus yard play, which is second-worst.
Nix’s checkdowns this week resulted in Harvey setting a career-high in receptions (10) and his 68 yards receiving were second-most in a single game for him. But I’m not sure you want your backup running back nearly doubling up your superstar receiver in yardage.
Jaylen Waddle had a mere 35 yards receiving versus the Niners. On the year, he’s at 16 catches for 185 yards and projected to finish with 786 receiving yards.
If you’re trading a first-round pick for him and he’s getting paid more than anyone on the roster, Waddle needs to be a 1,000-yard receiver.
The biggest problem is if defenses aren’t respecting the run, they can shut down the passing game even easier. And they know Nix / Payton’s offense love the screens and throws near the line of scrimmage, that’s been the case for three years now.
Webb needs to change things up in a big way or the offense will never get out of this rut.
Denver has no tight ends
Evan Engram has been a no-show for the Broncos this year.
After a mediocre first year with Denver in 2025, Engram has completely vanished.
He has all of 6 receptions for 66 yards and 1 touchdown to this point. That projects to a paltry 26 catches for 281 yards and 4 touchdowns. Those are backup numbers; you gotta get those numbers up.
Harvey has benefitted in becoming Nix’s safety blanket where tight ends usually function in that way for quarterbacks in this day and age. But Denver has no passing threat over the middle of the field. Again, the book is out on Nix; he can’t throw over the middle and he throws 75% of his passes within a few yards of the line of scrimmage.
The good news on the Engram front is they’re tying to make it happen. But he still only had 1 reception for 6 yards on 5 targets in Santa Clara.
And the other tight ends? Nate Adkins is a glorified fullback, and he has comparable numbers to Engram (2 rec. 40 yards) and double the touchdowns. And Adam Trautman is a blocking tight end, too.
Denver’s drafted tight ends in recent years and sent Justin Joly packing surprisingly this offseason. They’re all-in on Engram this year and getting him going would alleviate many of the passing game’s issues for the Broncos.
