We're gonna run out to the Kawa Common Spiral hotline and bring on our good buddy Ryan Michael go inside the numbers. Ryan's been out under the weather in the last couple of weeks. I certainly understand what that's like. Is I've been under the weather for quite some time.
But Ryan, you're back.
The only streak we have to worry about is the fact that the Broncos are winning.
Yeah, I mean, with a three game winning streak, I think I need to get sick more often. If there's any correlation there. I would happily take being under the weather to see another three game winning streak. So it's definitely been good to see the way that our team has been playing.
Yeah, they really have. It's been fun and it's you know, it's always more fun to cover this team with a win streak three and two through five weeks, riding a three game win streak. How are you feeling about the twenty twenty four Denver Broncos A little.
Bit of a mixed bag. Then, to be honest with you, three and two is a better record than I had anticipated through five games. So through that, lens, I'm feeling very hopeful. I'm feeling very positive and certainly the brand of football that we've been playing over the last three weeks, winning primarily with defense, seeing the offense certainly step up last Sunday. We're winning in a number of different ways. I'm still more than a little bit nervous about the offense,
despite you know, putting up thirty four points. Seven of that, you can give it to the pick six. We haven't scored thirty four points. It's the highest total in the last two years, highest under Sean Payton's regime. Defensively, we're knocking it out of the park and I'm looking forward
to getting into some of those numbers if you want positive. Certainly, seeing bo go nineteen to twenty seven, he completed seventy percent of his passes for the first time in his career, average seven point six yards per a tent shooting total touchdowns, no picks, no tumbles, one hundred and seventeen point two pass the rating great box score performance. The caveat is
he did it against the Raiders defense. It doesn't impress me too much, but he did complete passes to eleven different broncos of something I like seeing no picks, no fumbles. It was a clean game, so kind of in between. You know.
That's the thing. I think that there are promising things to take away from each of these games. It does look like bow is maturing slowly but surely. The first half of the game, it still seemed to tick too fast forward, but it's starting to slow down in the second half of these games. Now you just needed to get slower all the way across the board, slightly below
average on the ground. You know, we had kind of an anemic passing game in the first quarter of the season, some not frankly great efficiency marks for bow Knicks despite a strong box score. Where can we pick these things up and be more consistent in moving the football and not punting as much?
We have a lot to improve then, and we started to see a little bit of that last Sunday. So far, the one notable positive offensive statistic was we ranked third in the league in fact percentage. It was a big point of contention as far as sean not wanting to see quarterbacks take unnecessary sacks because sacks can be drive killers to almost the same extent interceptions are all matic drive enders. So at four point one percent, that's an elite number. As far as sack percentage. We're towards the
bottom third of the league. Nineteenth in rushing yards twenty first and rushing yards per game twenty first, in yards per carry scoring twenty second in the league. So we went from nineteenth last year to twenty second through five games. That's not great twenty fourth and completion percentage twenty eight from passing yards twenty nine, touchdown passes thirtieth, yards per tent dead last in the NFL as a team in
passer rating at seventy one point four. So we're starting to see a little bit of growth in the rushing game. We're obviously not going to finish the season with a quarterback as our leading rusher, so it's good to see vote knock down to number two in that stat But there's a lot to pick up both rushing game passing the football, and it's going to be a tremendous challenge against the Chargers that it is.
Talking with Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael on Twitter. On the other side of the ball, the pass defense, the only thing hotter than Pats Tartanas Galgado is wonder Woman sacks and QB hits or through the roof ask Joseph turning the defense twenty seven scoring defense last year to a top three defense this year, and they might not be two or three talk to me about the defensive side of the ball.
It's been a turnaround that exceeded my most optimistic expectations. And you and I have been talking since the winner about just how much we were excited to see what Van Sturpsis could do year two in the system. Like you said, we're second in the league in points per game surrendered at fourteen point six, second in the league. And quarterback it's forty two quarterback it's through five games, fantastic.
Our passing defense is suffocated tied for second yards per tenth at five point eight, third in the league in fact nineteen facts, third in TFLs. We're doing about everything right that you can imagine. And when you see patser Tan return and inter such in one hundred yards, it just brings me back to those cold DCT shows back in March when we were talking about the possibility of trading patser Tan to move up and get a quarterback.
And here we are a few months later, and I think said, I've been proven right that certains the best corner of the league.
Well, yeah, we weren't talking about that where we're making fun of it to clarify, but yeah, that is the thing that's going on. And it's not just Certan though. On the other side of the on the other side from Sir Tan, you've got Riley Moss. I mean, we might as well be calling him Randy Moss the way he's skying for sky and for interceptions out there. I was told that white guys couldn't jump like that, but Randy rather Riley Boss is breaking the mold.
He really is. And I was going to save this stat and is going to post it live to Twitter right now. He has thirty three nine tackles through five games, so he leads the Broncos. If you average that rad out at six point six per game, he'veld finished the year with one hundred and twelve point two total tackles for the year. So I did some digging into the franchise record Brook there's a time two dv's same season two thousand and six, teammates teach Nicks Darren Williams had
eighty six tackles and fifteen games. Cham Bailey eighty six tackles and sixteen games, so we might be a little bit early five games into the year, but he's to obliterate the franchise record for a cornerbacks as total tackles.
Talking with Ryan Michael again that contributed to po Football Hall of Fame at the Ryan Michael on twere you one of the little deal deeper on Bonnix's numbers? Let us know where he ranks, I guess amongst his peers this year, how Sean Payton's passing game is compared to the Drew Brees eerro Sure, I.
Mean fourth in the league in zac percentage at four point zero seven percent rounds up to four point one.
Beyond that, thirty first in passer rating seventy one point four, suretieth in the yards per at ten five point two, twenty fifth and completion percentage, which is a stat that we were hoping he would be a little bit more proficient in sixty one point eight percent success percentage, which is an efficiency metric per Pro Football Reference here is thirty first and is twenty nine and adjusted net yards
per attempt. So when you factor in Ben just how statistically dominant he was against the Raiders to still see him towards the very very bottom of the league is a testament to just how abvisimal he was in the early game to take off the season. So there's no comparison so far between him and Drew Brees, nor should that be the expectation for a rookie quarterback. You know, Drew was an absolute master of blending elite pass accuracy
with fluid, live anticipation. He carved defenses apart though Nick so far has been to see it and throw it kind of guy. He just hasn't had the profits of speed to be able to hit receivers in motion and really facilitate opportunities for our guys to get yards after catch. So, you know, the elite back percentage, he certainly had that in common with Drew Brees, and that was the case at Oregon. But as far as passing efficiency have a long way.
Ago, well, I think you hit the nail on the head with the see you throw at thing, because that's that's been a you know, sort of complaint of mind about bo so far. He's been sort of Russell Wilson in that regard to the see it, throw it rather than anticipatory, And I think a large part of the reason that the main route combo right now for the
Broncos is curl flat instead slant flat. Is because of that, he has to see it to throw, which is easier on the curl flat than it is on the slant flat, where you have to be more anticipatory.
Agreed, And it would be interesting to see if we could start to facilitate scenarios where we could turn Courtland and Sutton into a Mike Thomas and kind to bring it back to the Sean Payton Bays in terms of what he did well. Again, you're comparing a guy who is, in my opinion, the second greatest quarterback in the history of professional football and Drew Brees. And I understand I'm in the minority and having that opinion with a rookie quarterback who's entering game six. So we need to temper
the expectations. The best thing you could have for a young rookie quarterback is in elite defense on the opposite side of the football. It's one of the reasons why we're winning games, and it's allowing Boe to be the best version of himself. As far as what we saw against Davis.
We've seen these stats, We've heard the stats but it's five games enough of a sample size to take much from I don't think so.
I don't think so. I mean historically speaking, then you look at quarterbacks who had low efficiency as rookies and had bounced back sophomore dominant campaigns. The two recent examples that come to mind are Jared Goff when he was paired with Sean McVay in twenty seventeen and Trevor Lawrence going from Urban Meyer to Doug Peterson. In both cases, it's going to be Sean Payton for the next few years, regardless of how he plays. Certainly this year and next
year it was very minimum, so he is good. It's going to be riding or dying with Sean Payton's offense. There's no hope to bring in a new offensive strategist to see what he could do with Knicks. So given that we are now twenty two games in to Sean Payton's tenure here the Denver Broncos, and we've been looking at an offense that's been in the bottom third of the league in scoring. I've always said I'm not so concerned as far as how we're producing points. At the
end of the day, you have to produce points. So we had thirty four of them last week. Gives seven of them the passer can but we have a long,
long way to go offensively. And for me, it's frustrating to see a coach like Robert sala let go where on the defensive side of the ball that just have been essentially a top defense over the last three years and five games into this year, top three defense, and he was responsible for the offensive struggles as a head coach of force to an extent he's taught to be. But in Sean Payton's case, how many seasons did we
see the Sames win seven games? And because he was taking care of business offensively, he evaded criticism for how abysmal they were defensively. We are not affording that same sort of consideration to Robert, and I'm just disappointed at seeing that.
Yeah, same way. Some of the responses I got today were sort of weird when people talk about how terribly he wasn't like, do you guys not remember the Jets before he got there? Do you not remember the Adam Gase era at two and fourteen? That just seems ridiculous. You know, It's it's funny to me how the grass is greener or Jets greener in this particular case. Yeah, I don't know. I think the Jets are about to
get what's coming to them. I think this season they might get a rally around the coach phenomenon for a game or two. But I think this is going to fall apart on them. We'll see, you know. I wanted to close this segment strong Ryan with some of the other standouts statistical standouts so far in the season. Got to figure Zach Allen PS two obviously there, But who are some of the standouts for the Broncos through the first quarter of the season.
Yeah, I mean obvious slee Zach Allen five PFLs, twenty one total tackles, twelve quarterback hits in three sacks. He's knocking it out of the park on the defensive line, and you know, passer ten to get two interceptions in one game, that's an impressive accomplishment considering people don't like to shrow in his direction. You see what happens when you do that. I've been a big fan of what Will what's is doing. He's forty two of forty seven
on field goals since joining the team. Two of two last week against the Raiders in twelve of thirteen this season, So when you have money in the bank on special teams that way, I understand the Broncos are not a high flying offense just yet, but those points that we are producing is the difference between winning and losing football games. So we figure at three and two and Will has just been money in the bank. I think it's important not to overlook what he's been doing. Ryan.
I always appreciate getting the chance to have you all, get you inside the numbers with the rest of us here and certainly are glad that you're not being under the weather anymore and having the issues with that. My voice is still given out at the end of show, so I know how long road back from that can be. But were shanates your brother? Yes, sir, absolutely take care. Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael on Twitter