3 Up, 3 Down as Denver Broncos Offense Stalls in Loss to 49ers
RJ Harvey? Good. Evan Engram? Bad. The Broncos Week 4 stock report is here.
The Denver Broncos offense has regressed from last year, which is saying a lot.
They're now currently 27th in the league in scoring (18.5 PPG), falling off more than five points compared to last year (23.6 PPG).
Denver simply cannot run the ball (29th in yards), they're throwing the ball too close to the line of scrimmage to scare anyone, and they have no tight end presence at all.
All three of those issues haunted the Broncos in their 24-14 loss to the San Francisco 49ers this Sunday.
With that, let's get to the Broncos stock report for Week 4.
3 Up: Harvey is Bo Nix's Safety Blanket
1. RJ Harvey
Harvey had one of his best games as a professional on Sunday when he caught 10 passes to lead all Denver Broncos in receptions. His 68 yards were also the most among all Broncos receivers, plus he ran seven times for 25 more yards. Really, Harvey was the lone bright spot on the Broncos offense this week.
For the second-year back, the 10 receptions were a career-high and the first time he’s ever had double digit receptions in a single game. His 68 yards were second-most behind the Jacksonville game last year when he had 71.While all those personal accomplishments were great and all, the Broncos offense cannot function that way going forward, and Bo Nix needs to attack deep a lot more often than checking down all the time.
2. Alex Singleton
Singleton was really solid for the Broncos on defense on Sunday; he totaled an absurd 14 tackles on the day. Seven of those tackles were solo and he was part of the great Broncos run defense against CMC and the 49ers strong rushing attack. His 72.7 defensive grade by Pro Football Focus was 6th-best on the Broncos in the loss and his 83.6 tackling grade was best on the defense.
Rich Kurtzman
3. Run defense
Yes, the 49ers did run for 140 yards on the game, but they only ran with a 4.0 yards per carry average. The Niners are one of the best teams in the league when it comes to yards per carry, averaging 4.8 even after the Broncos win, which is tied for 5th-best in the NFL.
The Broncos seemed to take it to heart when they missed all those tackles against the Chiefs in Week 1. They’ve been tackling a lot better and that was seen definitely for most of the game in San Francisco. Or Santa Clara. Whatever.
The tackling wasn’t great on George Kittle‘s game clenching touchdown reception but again we’re talking run defense here. Christian McCaffrey ran 15 times for a measly 52 yards, which was only a 3.5 YPC. They basically kept him bottled up and the 44-yard run from Deebo Samuel makes San Fran’s numbers look better.
3 Down
1. Marvin Mims
Mims finally returned from injury, but maybe Kolbe Katsis should’ve been back there returning punts instead of him. Mims is the star returner but he fumbled a punt at the worst possible time. He was deep in Denver‘s territory and the defense had been on the field fighting to get a stop. When they had to come back on the field, they were tired and gave up the touchdown.
I posted this on Bluesky during the game, but I think it’s a pretty funny anecdote to repeat here now: last week when Katsis muffed the pint against the Rams special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi said he told his return men that Devin Hester fumbled the ball 41 times in his Hall of Fame career. And that basically fumbles happen for returners. But it seems like Mims took the wrong messaging from Rizzi because he immediately fumbled the ball in the next game after that story that Rizzi told his group. When you’re playing against a great team like the Niners, you can’t afford turnovers.
We knew special teams often decide these games between two good teams and it did on Sunday.
2. Broncos run game
Denver‘s run game is a joke at this point.
RJ Harvey was featured to start the game, which was pretty interesting considering J.K. Dobbins is still the starter. But when Dobbins finally did start getting carries in the second quarter he had no juice compared to Harvey; the younger back looked a lot better early on. At the end of the game, Denver only ran for 82 yards on 22 carries. That was a 3.7 YPC, which is actually somehow better than their typical run game numbers.
The Broncos average 3.6 yards per carry over the course of the season which is 5th-worst in the NFL. Denver is missing Jonah Coleman who’s still injured, but even when they had Coleman the run game was inept at inept at best. It goes back to play calling and Davis Webb’s struggles there.
Plus, Denver's offensive line isn't winning up front. They are 20th in the NFL in Run Block Win Rate per ESPN, only winning on 73% of run plays.
3. Evan Engram
Engram makes the list in back-to-back weeks.
So much for Davis Webb involving tight ends more; that’s not happening. Although, it should be noted that Engram was targeted five times in the game and had one measly catch for six yards. They are trying to make Evan Engram happen, at least?
His 54.0 PFF grade was 4th-worst on the team.
Most of the contenders have multiple talented tight ends, the Broncos have none. That’s an issue with this offense to be sure.
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Rich Kurtzman was born and raised in Denver Colorado and attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins in the aughts. He's been a professional writer since 2011, covering Colorado State football and men's basketball, as well as the Denver Broncos, for many outlets. Current Denver Broncos work can be found on Mile High Sports. Previous credits include CBS Denver and The USA TODAY Sports Media Group.
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