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Denver Broncos must make a trade for a pass-catcher or bench Peyton Manning

By Kevin Parvizi

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The Denver Broncos can consider themselves incredibly lucky for coming away with a victory yesterday against the Cleveland Browns, and I wrote before the game that Peyton Manning absolutely had to succeed in Week 6. Not only did the Browns have a below-average defense coming into that game, but their burn-prone pass D and horrendous run D were only going to be at their worst with top players Joe Haden and Tashaun Gipson out with injuries.

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Instead of taking full advantage of an already-poor secondary missing its two biggest stars, Manning chucked interceptions to linebackers on three occasions, and his absolutely horrendous pick to Barkevious Mingo in overtime should have resulted in a loss for the Broncos. This elite defense carried the team to victory by beating the inferior Josh McCown, but the story after the game has to be about Manning.

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Against a run defense that has allowed the second-most yards per carry (5.0) on the season, Ronnie Hillman and C.J. Anderson finally woke up from their slumber. Hillman rampaged the Browns front seven to the tune of 111 yards on just 20 carries, and Anderson‘s 13/41 line represented an upgrade over what he’s previously done (he came into the game with just 2.6 yards per carry).

With the running game firing on all cylinders and a light pass defense in front of him, Manning could only muster a 53.3 QB Rating with one touchdown, three interceptions, and a meager 6.0 yards per attempt against a pass defense that came into today’s game with ten touchdowns allowed and just one interception on the year. That’s embarrassing, and it is completely unacceptable, to be completely blunt.

Manning’s 75-yard touchdown strike to Emmanuel Sanders was a thing of beauty, but, for the most part, his deep passes were once again telegraphed into no man’s land. One of his picks was the result of a dropped pass, but it’s hard to blame drops for a 53.3 QB Rating and a ghastly 54.2% completion percentage. In a game Manning should have dominated based on the matchup, he imploded, and against better teams in the playoffs, that could spell a disaster that would undermine a team whose sheer all-around brilliance is reflected by the fact that it is 6-0 despite having the QB with the second-lowest QB Rating in the NFL.

But, in a way, Manning’s failures are not completely his fault. Gary Kubiak‘s offense doesn’t suit him, but the issues are a bit more fundamental than that. If you look at the Broncos pass-catchers, only Sanders and Demaryius Thomas are giving this offense anything positive. Thomas and Sanders have a whopping 75 and 65 targets this year, whereas No. 3 and 4 targets Owen Daniels and Jordan Norwood have just 29 and 18 targets, respectively.

Worse yet, the split between the No. 1 and 2 options and No. 3 and 4 targets in efficiency is jarring. Thomas is averaging 7.03 yards per target and Sanders 8.1. Daniels and Norwood? 2.9 and 4.4, respectively.

That’s horrendous, and it’s even less acceptable than Manning’s shockingly poor display in Week 6 against Cleveland. If the Broncos are to allow an aging QB with no deep ball to succeed, then they need to use a spread-style offense. But this is obvious. It’s why we’re criticizing Gary Kubiak’s offense right now, and it’s not a new concept either. In fact, I wrote back in January (after the Broncos loss to the Indianapolis Colts in the playoffs) that the Broncos need to spread things out as much as possible in order for their cerebral-but-“cooked” Manning to succeed.

If the Broncos want Manning to succeed, then they need to trade for a pass-catcher, because he cannot succeed with just two legitimate options in the passing game, no matter how good those two wide receivers are. It just doesn’t fit Manning’s  style, and the Broncos offense will continue to fail if they don’t make changes. Vernon Davis is available. Why not try for him?

The Broncos are on a bye week, and while undefeated teams generally don’t make drastic changes, this team will have to at some point. It’s better to see the warning signs now and be proactive, rather than thinking, “Oh, everything is fine,” solely by looking at record. As we’ve seen in the past, all it takes is one critical implosion in a playoff game to ruin a team, and top teams in the playoffs attack weaknesses and take advantage of mistakes to a much greater effect than, say, the Browns or Oakland Raiders.

Oct 18, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) passes in the first quarter against the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: James Lang-USA TODAY Sports

Remember, of the teams the Broncos have beaten this season, only the Vikings have more than two wins. Everyone else has a losing record, so the Broncos undefeated record is the result of narrow wins over bad teams; that’s not something this team should be confident in going forward.

If the Broncos don’t want to trade for a pass-catcher and help Manning have more options so that he can use his brain to beat teams, then they might as well bench him. As someone who has defended him staunchly here, I never thought I would ever have to say this.

If they want to play a run-heavy offense with two star receivers leading the attack, then they need a younger QB with better arm strength in Brock Osweiler who can help open up that running game by hitting up Thomas and Sanders, who are both excellent at getting open vertically when their QB hasn’t lost all arm strength, downfield.

Whether or not Osweiler is a better QB than Manning might not matter, because, based on how the offense has been run through six weeks, he’s a better fit for the pieces they have and for what Kubiak ostensibly wants to do.

If they are too stingy to make a trade, then they might as well fire up Osweiler and see what he can do, since we’ve already seen what Manning’s about.

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