The plan had not been etched in concrete, Sean Payton emphasized. Yes, Denver’s head coach wanted to get his starters just eight to 10 plays against New Orleans two weeks ago. Yes, he wanted to score quickly and get off the field.
Didn’t happen. You know what they say about best-laid plans. It took Bo Nix and the Broncos offense three drives to get chugging, and All-Pro offensive guard Quinn Meinerz thus ended up playing 21 snaps rather than a handful.
Meinerz preferred it this way, though, because of the 305-pound task awaiting him in Week 1.
“I don’t want my first game-like snap, especially getting ready for this season, to be against Jeffery Simmons,” Meinerz smiled in late August, referring to the Tennessee Titans’ veteran defensive tackle.
“If my first actual game rep is against Jeffery Simmons — I don’t want that.”
The Titans are still ripe with holes coming off a 3-14 season that landed them No. 1 pick Cam Ward this past year. Their interior defensive line is not one of them. Simmons is a three-time Pro Bowler who will bring some Louisiana grit to the trenches Sunday at Empower Field. Promising second-year nose tackle T’Vondre Sweat finished 12th in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting last year.
Payton has lauded the Broncos’ new-look ground game all preseason. There will be different principles, with a heavier emphasis on outside zone. There will be different backs, with explosive rookie RJ Harvey and free-agent vet J.K. Dobbins replacing Javonte Williams. But this Denver offensive front is no different, turning over the exact same personnel from 2024 to 2025 — and they’ll shoulder the burden of Payton’s expectations Sunday against Tennessee.
“I hope, and I think, you’re going to have a chance to see a more efficient run game,” Payton said Monday.
They know it. Veteran left tackle Garett Bolles made clear this summer that any improvement from last year’s middle-of-the-road run game was going to come down to “us five up front.” And to avoid any sweat against Simmons and Sweat, any demonstrative run-game improvement Sunday will come down to the Broncos’ ability to create holes up the middle.
Denver’s offensive line had the highest run-block win rate in the NFL in 2024, according to ESPN Analytics. That stat sparkles. It also masks some stains. According to Pro Football Focus data compiled by The Denver Post, the Broncos finished 22nd of 32 teams in yards per carry on runs between the tackles in 2024 (4.14).
The three top finishers on such carries last year — Detroit, Baltimore and Philadelphia — all had Pro Bowl centers. The correlation isn’t hard to spot.
Luke Wattenberg, the Broncos’ incumbent at center, was excellent in pass protection last year but finished as the 26th-highest-graded run blocker out of 32 NFL centers with at least 500 snaps last year. Take PFF grades as a singular data point rather than gospel. But Wattenberg said himself in August that he’s been working with assistant offensive-line coach Chris Morgan on taking the “next step” in the run game.
“Playing fast, playing with my hat, getting my backside hand in — have all been a point of emphasis for me,” Wattenberg said.
The backs, too, will need to add shots of life through the A and B gaps. Dobbins hasn’t been relied upon much for outside burst through camp, but still has plenty of between-the-tackles pop. And after trying and failing to break a couple of runs outside in Denver’s first preseason game against San Francisco, rookie Harvey clearly emphasized attacking interior gaps the rest of his camp.
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Denver was largely stonewalled up the middle in joint practices with San Francisco and Arizona. But their battering rams proved fairly effective this preseason, jumping to the eighth-highest yards per carry (4.2) among NFL teams on runs between the tackles, according to more PFF data compiled by The Post.
“We’ve liked what we’ve seen from the running game and from our personnel, from that perspective,” Payton said Monday, speaking on Denver’s general ground game. “We get a chance to see it first this weekend.”
Broncos release practice-squad CB: Denver released a member of its practice squad Wednesday, cutting cornerback Quinton Newsome. The Broncos now have a spot open, and correspondingly worked out seven skill players Wednesday — including running back Deuce Vaughn, a 2023 sixth-round pick by the Dallas Cowboys.
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