Broncos Fantasy Football Outlook

The Broncos are loaded with a young and talented group of players on the offensive side of the ball which has fantasy football players chomping at the bit to get a piece of Denver’s roster.

Led by second year quarterback Drew Lock, the Broncos loaded up on their offensive skilled position players via free agency and the NFL Draft. They started off by signing two-time Pro Bowl running back Melvin Gordon to go along with Philip Lindsay. Then they drafted two receivers in the first and second round of this year’s NFL Draft in Jerry Jeudy and K.J. Hamler. Combine the new faces with breakout wide receiver Courtland Sutton and talented tight end Noah Fant and Denver is quickly looking like they are on the verge of becoming the NFL’s next great offense. Should fantasy football players buy into that hype? Sports Illustrated asked fantasy football analyst Frank Taddeo and Mile High Huddle editor Chad Jensen for their insight. 

Read the transcript from their conversation:

Bill Enright: Are the Denver Broncos on the brink of becoming the NFL is next great offense. That's the question. Fantasy football players have. So we're going to ask the experts. We are talking with Chad Jensen from Mile High Huddle and Frank Taddeo our fantasy analyst here at Sports Illustrated. Chad, I'm going to start with you. Why did you break down this passing attack led by second year quarterback Drew Lock?

Chad Jensen: Well, we're all really interested and excited to see how it shakes out. One of the challenges in trying to project exactly what we're going to see in 2020 is that the Broncos have a new incoming offensive coordinator in Pat Shurmur after firing last year's coordinator, Rich Scangarello. So in that sense, we can go back, we can look at some of the tape of Shurmur's teams over the years and kind of try to project ahead. And in so doing, we can see that the vertical attack is going to be a lot more prevalent, throwing two running backs out of the backfield, a lot more prevalent and a lot less multiple tight end sets. So what that means is lot of three wide, you're going to see a lot of Courtland Sutton on the field at the same time as Noah Fant as jury duty and as the speedster second rounder K.J. Hamler. So it really is a smorgasbords, an embarrassment of riches for Drew Lock and Pat Shurmur. And the onus is really on them, too, especially for Lock to kind of be that point guard distributor of the football and feed these guys.

Bill Enright: Frank, let me go over to you. Let's talk about the backfield in Denver. They brought on Melvin Gordon. They still have. Philip Lindsay has been very productive from a fantasy football standpoint. What do you make of the Broncos running backs?

Frank Taddeo: Yeah, right now, Bill, for made the clear target is obviously going to be Melvin Gordon. I love his potential, especially in PPR leagues. I think he's actually going to be possibly even the second leading receiver on this team behind Courtland Sutton in terms especially in terms of targets. I think they need to look to spread him out wide. And many situations and they got to look to try to exploit the one-on-one matchups. They can get down the field with maybe a linebacker or a safety over the top or underneath for Drew Lock. And as we know, when young quarterbacks feel pressure in the NFL, they've historically looked to check down. And that checkdown option is going to be Melvin Gordon and as well as Phillip Lindsay. Lindsay could see some action as well. I think he could offer some late round value, especially as a handcuff, if anything should possibly happen to Melvin Gordon once again, because we know that it's been tough for him to stay healthy in a lot of seasons. But for right now, for me, the clear target is Melvin Gordon. And I love his potential in PPR leagues. So as many shares I can get at his current ADP right now, Bill, I think that he is clearly a guy that all fantasy owners are going to want to target in 2020.

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