The Denver Broncos offense needs to bounce back and be more consistent this upcoming season if they hope to compete inside of the AFC and AFC West. Which players could potentially emerge as dynamic duos this upcoming season?
Denver Broncos potential dynamic duos on offense in 2024
Denver’s offense improved last season in comparison to what many in Broncos Country have seen over the course of the last seven years, but it still wasn’t good enough in crucial moments. Sean Payton has a newfound level of enthusiasm this year and has touched on the contagiousness of the Broncos youth this season.
Much of that youth expands to the team’s offensive side of the ball, where there’s excitement surrounding rookie quarterback Bo Nix and a handful of other players. But which players could emerge offensively as a dynamic duo this year?
Javonte Williams and Jaleel McLaughlin
If Javonte Williams and Jaleel McLaughlin were somehow able to emerge as a strong one-two punch in Denver’s offensive backfield, good things could come to the Broncos this season. The run game in 2023 was far too inconsistent and it felt like an impossible task at times for Denver to convert a third and short situation. With players returning to the same blocking scheme and system and having more comfortability in the system, there is a chance that Williams and McLaughlin could play well off one another.
Williams’ size and ability to produce yards after contact was something that shined in the early portions of 2021 and 2022, but that dropped off last season in his return from a major knee injury. The hope is that another year of recovery and an offseason with a clean bill of health could see him get back to his ‘Angry Runs’ mentality. If he does, Williams could be the key ingredient offensively in wearing down opposing defenses, allowing McLaughlin to open things up even further.
In that hypothetical situation, if Williams can get back to wearing down opposing defenses with his physicality, McLaughlin’s change of pace dynamic could help Denver’s offense gash defenses on the outside and between the tackles because of his ball-carrier vision and speed. Several times last season, we saw flashes of that with Denver wearing down the Browns on the inside, combined with Russell Wilson and Jaleel McLaughlin bouncing some runs to the outside. If Denver can build this into their offensive identity, they’ll be less one-dimensional and could finally take a step forward towards sustainable success.
Broncos QBs and Lucas Krull
Nobody knows who the Denver Broncos starting quarterback will be this upcoming season, but everybody will find out how impactful Lucas Krull can be for anybody throwing him the football. His 6’6 size is impressive enough for him to be a jump ball target, or he can sit in space and box out smaller defenders. Despite being around 250 lbs, Krull possesses deceptive speed with the ability to long stride and track the ball downfield vertically. The benefit Krull has right now is that there isn’t a large sample size of film for opposing defensive coordinators to truly scout him into a Week 1 gameplan.
He emerged this offseason in various practices during OTAs and minicamp and is in line to be the team’s number one tight end option. I said late last season, after watching Krull in practice before he had a chance to get elevated to the active roster, that he could potentially be the biggest surprise for Denver in 2024. He’s off to a great start and needs to keep building on that momentum going into training camp, but it’s clear as day that Payton has a significant amount of trust invested in him and veteran Adam Trautman going into the season.
