The Denver Broncos offense has been far from good over the past two years. With Mike McCoy back in the saddle, look for the offense to produce far better results this season.
It’s been a couple years since Broncos fans have witnessed efficient offensive football. Former head coach Gary Kubiak, using the West Coast Offense and the Zone Blocking Scheme, didn’t produce the kind of results that were expected during his tenure. Whatever magic Kubiak worked in the late ’90s, didn’t materialize during his second stint in Denver.
Finishing 27th in total offense and 22nd in scoring last year, Kubiak and offensive coordinator Rick Dennison saw a drop off from the Super Bowl-winning season of 2015 where the offense finished 16th in total offense and 19th in scoring. Getting the ball into the end zone was a persistent problem as well, with Denver finishing 2016 as the 24th ranked team in touchdowns.
Enter a familiar face in McCoy. McCoy served as the offensive coordinator, first under Josh McDaniels, then under John Fox, and gained notoriety for taking a one-dimensional quarterback, Tim Tebow, and crafting an unconventional but effective offense around him. His offense then exploded with Peyton Manning at the helm beginning in 2012. During his time with Denver, and most recently as the head coach with the Chargers, McCoy gained the reputation as an offensive mind that will tailor an attack based on the pieces he has, rather than forcing players to fit into his scheme.
With a championship-caliber defense still in place and talented offensive pieces in Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders and C.J. Anderson, here are three ways the new offensive coordinator will improve the Broncos offense.
1) Tailor an offense to his QB, whomever that might be
The battle for the starting quarterback spot is anybody’s guess at this point with both Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch having their share of ups and down in the OTA period. The good news is, whoever does emerge as the starter for this year, will operate an offense based on what they do well.
It’ll be a departure from last season where both had issues within Kubiak’s rigid system. Whether it was Lynch struggling to take drops and make reads from under center to Siemian’s inability to get rid of the ball quickly or find open receivers down the field, either player will benefit from having McCoy putting them in the best possible situation to succeed.
2) One-man band
For as much as Rick Dennison had the title of Offensive Coordinator, Gary Kubiak was the main play-caller last year. Oddly, Kubiak admitted that Dennison, former quarterbacks coach Brian Pariani and analytics director Mitch Tanney all had input in what plays were selected. The old saying that too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth was evident in the offensive struggles last season.
Vance Joseph is known as a coach that gives freedom to his coordinators and assistants to oversee their players as they feel fit. McCoy won’t have to explain his play-calling to anyone and won’t have three other coaches in his ear giving their input. Uniformity will be key in helping a sputtering offense gain an identity where it clearly lacked one a season ago.
3) Get the ball to his playmakers
There were far too many times over the past two seasons where it looked like the Broncos offensive brain trust had out-smarted themselves. Throwing on third-and-short or stubbornly trying to establish a run game when it clearly wasn’t working are just some of the complaints many expressed in the 9-7 mark last year.
With two 1,000-yard receivers in Thomas and Sanders, and former Pro Bowl running backs in Anderson and Jamaal Charles, the cupboard isn’t bare when it comes to offensive talent. Remember, McCoy didn’t try to turn Tebow into a pocket-passer. He instead turned to a zone-read scheme that Tebow used at Florida and added wrinkles to make it work at the pro level. McCoy will meld the talents of the players he’s inherited to form a more cogent offensive attack in 2017.