5 Stats to Give Denver Broncos Fans Hope vs. Seattle Seahawks

After last week's abominable outing by the offense, the Denver Broncos barely beat the now 0-5 Chargers in LA.

Now they're facing the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks on a short week. The elite defense is coming to Denver to play the Broncos inept offense.

But here's your injection of hope, Broncos Country.

5 Stats to Give Denver Broncos Fans Hope vs. the Seattle Seahawks

1. Turnovers

Thursday Night Football is a clash of turnover-forcing defenses.

The Broncos have forced seven turnovers to this point. That's half as many as they had in the entirety of the 2025 season. They're on pace for 23 turnovers forced this year, which is phenomenal.

That makes them 12th in turnovers faced.

Unfortunately, the Seattle Seahawks are No. 1 in turnovers forced with 11.

The good news? Seattle's turned the ball over nine times. That's 8th-worst in the NFL.

And six of those have come the last two weeks; 3 interceptions thrown by Sam Darnold and 3 fumbles by running backs.

Most games come down to turnovers, and this one almost certainly will. The good news is Denver has a great chance to win the turnover battle because Seattle coughs it up a lot. They had four giveaways last week alone in San Francisco.

2. Early-Down EPA/Play

The Broncos are terrible on early downs. They have seemingly set themselves up in 3rd-and-longs all year long. Payton has said so himself.

"There’s so much that goes into making his job easier and then if you’re having trouble, for instance, with early-down efficiency, second-and-9 or third down-and-long, those would be a few that come to my mind right away,” Payton said last Wednesday.

Well, as bad as the Broncos are (19th, -0.020) the Seattle early-down EPA/play is worse (22nd, -0.044).

It should be noted that Seattle's success rate is a good bit better (44.2-38.8%) meaning gaining at least four yards on first down, or 60% of needed yards on second down.

Still, Seattle's offense is struggling on early downs just like Denver's is.

If the defense can limit them on those plays, it will make for tough sledding on the money downs. It’s all shaping up to be a slog. That's the type of game Denver can win.

3. 3rd Downs

Seattle is 31st in 3rd down conversion percentage. They've converted on only 29.8% of their 3rd down attempts so far this season (17-57).

That includes going 3-12 on 3rd in the loss to the 49ers on Sunday.

Denver's not great in the same category but they are better than the Seahawks at 33.8% (27th) on 3rd downs.

The Broncos went 12 straight 3rd downs without a conversion last week and 1-12 on the game. There's no way they're that bad on the money downs in back-to-back weeks, right?

One downside for Denver is the Seahawks only allow 29.4% of 3rd down attempts against them to be converted. That's 3rd-stingiest for a defense in the league.

Meanwhile, Denver's defense is 26th at stopping opponents on 3rd downs (45.2%).

4. QBR

I don't know how much stock you put into QBR, but it's another number that should give Broncos fans hope.

Sam Darnold's QBR is currently second-lowest in the NFL to only Justin Herbert. Darnold's QBR is 34.9 (out of 100).

Even with how bad Bo Nix is playing, his QBR is five spots ahead of Darnold at 43.1 (25th).

QBR is similar to passer rating in that it calculates completion percentage, touchdowns, and interceptions while also adding in where the team is at on the field, the down and distance, score and more. It's an attempt to have a more accurate passer rating.

Ironically, Darnold's 90.3 simple passer rating is nearly 10 points higher than Nix's (80.8).

I like to take as many of the stats in at once to try to get the best feel for QBs' play, since it's the most difficult and dynamic position in all of sport.

EPA/play for quarterbacks is another metric I usually include; unsurprisingly Nix and Darnold are 25th and 26th (-0.013, -0.027) per rbsdm.com.

Simply, both team's quarterbacks are struggling right now.

Considering Darnold's O-line is No. 1 in Pass Block Win Rate per ESPN, it sounds like he's really going through it. Darnold is possibly even having a rougher go of this season than is Nix. Seattle's QB has thrown more interceptions than Denver's, too (5-3) in basically two fewer games.

5. Throwback Uniforms

The Denver Broncos are 5-0 since 2024 wearing the throwback "Mile High Collection" uniforms.

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They're wearing the greatest uniforms in NFL history again this week.

I do love this "elite throwback uniform matchup" and all, but I do wonder; are the Seahawks really wearing their home jerseys?

So it's home vs. home? The brilliant orange against the Kelly green?

I love it and hate it. I love that both teams worked together to coordinate. How chic.

However, Seattle should be wearing their white old school unis. Yes, I also get that the NFL only gives teams so many choices.

This is how it should look:

By the way, the throwback Broncos uniforms are a brighter shade of orange, no? Are the lights and cameras just better these days? (Yes, I see this picture above is in the shade but still, the newer throwbacks seem brighter.)

Seattle Seahawks (3-2) vs. Denver Broncos (3-2) kicks off at 6:15 p.m. MT on Amazon Prime at Empower Field at Mile High Stadium on Thursday, Oct. 15.

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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.