Vic Fangio’s team finished strong in 2019. But the Denver Broncos still suffered through another losing campaign. Which five players step up this season?
The team from the Mile High City has had its issues as of late. It’s been a rough stretch for the Denver Broncos, a franchise not accustomed to stringing together losing campaigns. But things have gone steadily downhill since that magical season of 2015. A year later, the club actually won its first four games before dropping seven of its final 12 contests and missing the playoffs for the first time since 2010.
Now the club is in the midst of three straight sub .500 campaigns for the first time since this franchise strung together 10 straight losing seasons from 1963-72. And the Vic Fangio Era got off to a rough start this past year when the team dropped its first four outings. But there was a 7-5 finish and a 4-1 stretch run, the latter under the Broncos’ third-different starting quarterback of 2019.
Now the club looks to build on last year’s strong finish. And could the following five performers come up big and propel the team into the playoffs for the first time since ’15?
5. G Dalton Risner
Dalton Risner was a 16-game starter for the Denver Broncos as a rookie. The 6’5”, 312-pound performer made an early impression on teammate Phillip Lindsay. “He’s one of the best offensive linemen out there right now as a rookie,” stated the productive running back (via Ben Swanson of DenverBroncos.com). “He’s very intelligent and he has that dog in him. There’s not a lot of people like him when he can just turn it on. When it’s time to play, he’s ready to play. Dalton’s going to make a lot of plays in the NFL for a very long time.”
Via Pro Football Focus (subscription required), the 2019 second-round pick from Kansas State finished the year earning somewhat-respectable grades as a run blocker (60.1) and a pass protector (69.8). But there is obviously room for improvement and the addition of four-year veteran Graham Glasgow (more on him later) should be an enormous positive for the promising 24-year-old blocker.
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