Fangio needs wins now, but Paton drafted for 2022 and beyond
Sep 1, 2021, 6:27 AM
Eight of the Denver Broncos’ 10 draft picks from this spring’s draft — cornerback Pat Surtain II, running back Javonte Williams, interior offensive lineman Quinn Meinerz, linebacker Baron Browning, safeties Caden Sterns and Jamar Johnson, cornerback Kary Vincent Jr. and linebacker Jonathan Cooper — made the team’s final, 53-man roster when cuts were announced on Tuesday afternoon. The other two — wide receiver Seth Williams and defensive lineman Marquiss Spencer — were cut on Tuesday, but may be back as soon as Wednesday; both are likely candidates for the team’s practice squad.
In and of itself, that’s not a surprise. The Broncos went 5-11 last year and haven’t had a winning season since 2016; one would expect that a healthy infusion of youth and talent that a draft can provide would be necessary. Broncos fans, however, may find the immediate returns from the 2021 NFL Draft underwhelming; not one of those players will begin the season as a starter, and barring an injury, it’s unlikely that any of them will finish the season as one, either.
Though he may not realize it yet, that’s also bad news for head coach Vic Fangio, who is presumably on the proverbial “hot seat” following an uninspiring 12-20 record in his first two seasons as head coach. Fangio, who was involved in the hiring process for new general manager George Paton, got exactly what he wanted in Paton’s inaugural offseason – a deep, talented defense and a roster built to win in the grind-it-out, mudslinging style that the longtime defensive coordinator clearly prefers.
But Fangio is running out of time, while Paton’s just getting started. And in the first year of a six-year contract with the Broncos, Paton drafted like a man with the longterm security that his embattled coach lacks.
Though the selections of Surtain and Williams, whom the Broncos traded up to select, are certainly defensible — and the two young players will see significant snaps that ought to increase as the season progresses — neither is expected to supplant the players directly ahead of them on the depth chart; not this season, at least. At the running back position, Melvin Gordon III looks revitalized in a contract year without the specter of now-Texan Philip Lindsay shadowing his every move. And with Fangio stalwarts Kyle Fuller and Bryce Callahan back in the fold along with newly-signed Ronald Darby, neither Williams nor Surtain has a clear path to a starting role… until next season, at least.
They’re not alone. Gordon will become a free agent after the season. Fuller and Callahan are among six defensive starters — including future Hall-of-Famer Von Miller — that will join him, making Surtain, Williams and perhaps even Browning and Sterns likely starters in 2022. Paton’s draft followed the pattern of his quietly efficient shopping in free agency; adding depth across the board while acquiring projectable talent for the future.
Not that it’s likely to help Fangio all that much.
The Broncos will have only five new starters from the disastrous 2020 campaign; and that’s only if one includes Miller, who was on last year’s roster, but injured prior to the season. Otherwise, only Fuller, Darby, current holder of the right-tackle baton Bobby Massie and quarterback Teddy Bridgewater will be new faces when the television networks put their postage-stamp photos on the screen during the opening drive. Among their AFC West rivals, that’s the fewest; the Raiders and Chargers should have at least six, and the defending AFC champion Chiefs are expected to have eight — the Broncos’ evolution looks slow by comparison.
It is happening, however. Paton has built a competitive roster that should be able to weather the season’s inevitable injuries and still find themselves in good salary-cap position when the offseason once again arrives sooner than Broncos fans would like. But after witnessing an alarmingly bland quarterback battle between an overly conservative thrower and one that’s too often out of control, it’s obvious that Denver’s ceiling is clearly capped in a stacked division replete with high-tech, 21st century offenses led by efficient and explosive signal-callers.
While New England’s first-round rookie quarterback, Mac Jones, has already unseated former league MVP Cam Newton — who was jettisoned from the Patriots’ roster entirely on Tuesday — and the rest of the league is laughing at the ham-fisted Chicago Bears organization’s choice to (temporarily, at best) start Andy Dalton over Justin Fields, the Broncos’ top selection will call the No. 4 spot on the team’s depth chart home all season long. When Paton passed on that pair of quarterbacks to select Surtain, he did so knowing that he made a safe selection that would delight his head coach.
Jones’s day has already come. Fields’s will come any day now. Surtain’s day will, as well… in 2022.
Because of that, Fangio seems likely to run out of them.
