The Denver Broncos season opener is here as the team prepares to travel to Seattle to take on the Seahawks for Week 1. In our latest mailbag series at Mile High Sports, Broncos Country wants to know if Denver has enough talent to escape the AFC West basement.
Denver Broncos Mailbag Series: Week 1
If you want to send in your mailbag questions, each Monday we’ll put out a prompt on Mile High Sports social media feeds as well as on Twitter @CodyRoarkNFL where you can have yours answered every Tuesday.
Do the Broncos have enough talent to escape the AFC West basement? If so, what kind of season can Broncos fans expect, and if not, how bad will it get? – Ed Helinski on Twitter.
Even though the oddsmakers in Vegas don’t have high expectations of the Broncos, Sean Payton likes being the underdog and doesn’t care too much for what the outside noise says. From what I’ve seen this offseason and every move the team has made, I have a hard time believing that they’ll be worse than they were last season. They started off as terribly as possible and climbed their way back into playoff contention last year. The run game should be drastically better, and Denver’s quarterback play should be better. Will that translate to more wins? It’s not guaranteed, but if Denver gets off to a hot start early, I think they’ll make some noise this season.
Where do you feel like this team should look in the early rounds of the draft next season? – Ryan Gillispie on Twitter.
It’s a little early for the draft, but I think if we’re monitoring positional needs that need long-term answers, offensive tackle becomes the biggest priority, in my opinion. Garett Bolles has expressed his desire to remain with the team for the remainder of his career, but that will be up to the Broncos this offseason with his deal expiring. On paper, it doesn’t appear like the Broncos have a plan at left tackle beyond 2024 and that makes left tackle the biggest priority the team should look at in the early rounds of the draft next season.
Do you see a lot of the Broncos younger players like Devaughn Vele, Audric Estime, or Jaleel McLaughlin immediately contribute in Seattle? Without reliable bets, it looks like there is going to be a lot of learning curves this year. – @newtype_jk47 on Twitter.
I think a lot of young players will contribute right away. The players you mentioned will play immediately here in Week 1, and Bo Nix will likely be the biggest contributor from the onset. This rookie class and the younger players inside of the locker room have a strong level of maturity about them that doesn’t give me too many concerns, but I’d bet this team makes plenty of mistakes this upcoming season because of their youth. That doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing though, and could somehow play into the benefit of the team midway through the year.
