Scouting the Broncos with 104.3 FM The Fan’s Cecil Lammey

There’s a lot in common with the Denver Broncos and Arizona Cardinals heading into their Thursday Night Football showdown.

Coaches’ jobs are at risk.

Each signed a quarterback who spent last year with the Minnesota Vikings, and neither Case Keenum nor Sam Bradford have produced with their new teams. Each team has a side of the ball where a problematic theme hasn’t been fixed through six weeks of the NFL season.

To get a better perspective of the Broncos, we sent 104.3 FM The Fan’s Cecil Lammey a few queries about where Denver stands while answering some of his questions as well.

1. Seems that the Broncos haven’t gotten their run defense together? Where are they at in trying to find a solution, and what’s been the problem?

The problem has been the play up front between the defensive tackles and the inside linebackers. When you have guys like Todd Davis catching instead of attacking blockers, that creates a softness in the middle of the field. Domata Peko has been moved out of the way multiple times, allowing those running backs to get to that second level.

What are the Broncos doing to fix it? Well, they’re just asking for better play, really. You can’t stack the box any more. You just have to have better play from Todd Davis and from Domata Peko.

2. What positives did Denver take away from a close loss to a very good Rams team last week?

There are no moral victories in the NFL, but we’ve seen this team play two great teams closely — the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Rams. What you can take away is when they give forth their best effort, they can hang with almost anyone in the NFL. The game against the Jets should be the anomaly. It should be the game where everyone thought they’d win and they didn’t.

Now, if you can take away the positives that you did have against the Rams … you did slow down their passing game. You did not slow down their rushing game. But if you can take the positives away, you can play better, especially against a team that’s struggling offensively like Arizona.

3. Von Miller just made more than a few headlines with his thoughts about this game. Where did those words come from and what did you take from it, if anything?

Von Miller has never done this before. He’s been a captain. He’s the superstar leader of this team. But you’ve never seen him be this vocal, and there’s a specific reason why. I think he’s calling out some of his own teammates to rise to the occasion, to rise to his level of play, which has been outstanding at times. But there are others on this defense that need to put in the effort that Von is putting in.

By vocally saying they’re going to kick the Cardinals’ (expletive), Von is telling the rest of his teammates to keep up with him because he’s planning on giving his best effort on Thursday night. We’ll see if his teammates follow suit.

4. Take us through Case Keenum’s first year in Denver. Is he actually at risk of losing his job in the near future?

I don’t think the Broncos trust Chad Kelly. Now, is Case Keenum at risk of losing his job in the future? Yes. He’s got to play better. Now, statistically, he’s set to put up the most touchdowns and most passing yards of his career, as he’s clearly the Broncos starter. And the lack of experience for Chad Kelly is something that I feel keeps him on the bench.

Case Keenum has to elevate his game because too many passes are off the mark, his footwork has been poor and it seems like he just doesn’t understand the totality of this Bill Musgrave offense. He’s missing open receivers. He’s not reading the full field. He’s reading about half the field on a majority of his pass attempts. That’s got to be better because there’s a tipping point for everything in football. There will be a tipping point where the Broncos just look to Chad Kelly. I think that’s after a coaching change, where they just look to the future and see what they have in Chad Kelly. So, for right now and for this week, and even though this game, I think Case Keenum is safe.

5. I think Cardinals fans, at this point, would like to know the gist of what went down with Mike McCoy a year ago and if the reasons for his firing are reminiscent to what we’ve seen so far this year.

Mike McCoy used three wide receiver sets almost 75 percent of the time for the Broncos when your third wide receiver back then was a guy named Bennie Fowler. Bennie Fowler is a journeyman wide receiver who has bounced around to two or three different teams this year. So, McCoy was trying to force the issue with 11 personnel — that’s one running back, one tight end, and three wide receivers. He was trying to force that issue when his quarterback was Trevor Siemian and his third wide receiver wasn’t really that good. And also, the Broncos don’t have a tight end to speak of.

McCoy wanted to be a little bit too pass happy when this team had success running the ball last year. When C.J. Anderson got 20 carries they won every game. But he only got 20 carries five times, and the Broncos’ record was 5-11. Now, at the end of the season, McCoy’s not responsible for that last win. But the point is if he would have run the ball more, he might still be here as the offensive coordinator.

6. What’s the health of the Broncos’ offensive line heading into game day? And how are they using their group of running backs to find a bit of success on the ground?

They’re not finding enough success. I mean, if you look at yards per carry totals, they’re among the league leaders in the NFL. If you look at the number of carries, they’re among the bottom. So, this team has a thunder and lightning combination in Royce Freeman and Phillip Lindsay, but they’re simply not using them enough.

And the offensive line has been saddled with injuries — Ron Leary is down for the year, and, of course, Jared Veldheer going to miss the game on Thursday night. So, you have two starters in there that you didn’t at the beginning of the regular season.

But this team as a whole is just better at run blocking than they are at pass blocking. Yet, you don’t see an emphasis on balance, and you see this team abandon the run game way too quickly.

7. What would it take for coach Vance Joseph to find himself jobless? Is a loss to Arizona all it’d take?

Yeah, we could see a change on Friday if Vance Joseph doesn’t show well and show that this team is responding to him. That’s pretty much all we’re waiting for, to see how this team responds in this desperate situation. Do they play for their head coach? Or, are they themselves thinking about their next gig?

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