ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Here are 5 keys to the Broncos defeating the Seattle Seahawks in the season opener Sunday at Seattle’s Lumen Field:
1. Game manager Bo
Seattle will not be the easiest environment to break in a rookie quarterback, no matter how poised and mature Bo Nix is with 61 college starts and 24 years of age. Moreover, new Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald, who is coming off three years as defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens and Michigan Wolverines, is known to be aggressive with blitzes.
Play-caller Payton can ease Nix into this game by establishing a run game, mixing in short throws and screens, then popping a big one in each half. Maybe pop a big one early, then settle into running the ball and short passing game.
2. Focus out the crowd noise
Ever notice how when it’s real loud, you can’t hear? It’s an oxymoron that can work if the Broncos’ offensive lineman zero in their focus on waiting until center Luke Wattenberg snaps the ball, then move. Pre-snap penalties must be avoided.
3. Contain Kenneth Walker
Seattle’s top running back is entering his third season after rushing for 1,050 and 905 yards in his first two. And that was with missing two games each season. Stopping the run was an offseason priority for the Denver D as it added John Franklin-Myers and Malcolm Roach up front and Brandon Jones as a physical safety. Outside linebackers Jonathon Cooper and Baron Browning are entering their fourth season and they are both good at setting the edge in the run game.
There is no better tackler than inside linebacker Alex Singleton. The other inside linebacker, Cody Barton, needs to play well as Payton said inside linebacker is a position the Broncos were looking for during the season-opening waiver period.
4. Mix up coverage and fourth rusher on Geno
Seattle quarterback Geno Smith is not a turnover machine but he can hang on to the ball a bit long as he’s taken 77 sacks in 32 starts the past two years. Denver defensive coordinator Vance Joseph knows how to confuse quarterbacks by showing blitz and dropping off, showing man coverages and dropping to zones and alternating the likes of Singleton, Lock and Jones as a fourth pass-rusher blitzer.
5. Welcome the new kickoff play
The Broncos can’t allow Andy Reid to lull them into a state of inertia. Reid, the Kansas City Chiefs’ head coach, wanted nothing to do with the silly-looking new kickoff play in the NFL opener Thursday night, ordering Harrison Butker to boot touchbacks on all six kickoff attempts.
The ball doesn’t carry so well in Seattle, as former Broncos’ kicker Brandon McManus found out during his 64-yard field goal attempt in the final seconds of the 2022 opener. There will be kickoff returns in this game. And Marvin Mims was a Pro Bowl kickoff returner last year as a rookie.
