The Denver Broncos did not qualify for the playoffs in 2023, but the team did take a step forward from previous seasons.
During his end-of-season press conference last week, Broncos general manager George Paton was asked what areas he believed the team progressed the most during the 2023 campaign.
“Special teams. We were in the bottom of the league in special teams my first two years here. [It] depends on what rankings you look at. If you look at [Mike] Westhoff’s, we’re first,” Paton said jokingly. “But we’re probably in the top five. That was a big emphasis.
“We’ve been trying to get there, and I give credit to Mike Westhoff, Ben Kotwica and Chris Banjo for what they did. We [also brought] in some players. You have [Marvin] Mims, you have Riley Moss, and you have Tremon Smith. Special Teams was a big jump.”
Rick Gosselin, who ranks all 32 special teams units after each season, ranked the Broncos seventh in 2023 (a big improvement from 25th in 2022).
Paton also noted improvements on defense and offense under new coach Sean Payton.
“On defense, like Sean [has] talked about, the defense formed an identity after about six or seven games with physicality and creating turnovers,” Paton said. “That was huge for our team.
“The offense — we were running the ball pretty good. Obviously late in the year, we didn’t, but on offense, the identity was physicality and ball control. We didn’t turn it over much. We need to get better in both of those phases, but that’s where the jump was from prior years.”
Denver’s offense improved from averaging 16.9 points per game in 2022 to 21.0 PPG in 2023. Still not the kind of number Payton is aiming for, but a notable improvement. The club’s biggest area of improvement was undoubtedly on special teams.
So while the 2023 campaign did not end the way the Broncos hoped it would, Payton’s first season in charge did represent a step in the right direction for Denver.
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