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RG Quinn Meinerz
You’d be hard-pressed to find somebody on either sideline who played better Sunday than Broncos right guard Quinn Meinerz. He was dominant in the run game and more than held his own in pass protection, save for one Chris Jones rush that Meinerz still managed to hang in on for long enough. The third-year man out of Wisconsin-Whitewater is turning himself into one of the best interior linemen in football. Plain and simple.
RB Javonte Williams
The Broncos running back has been waiting for a game like this. He logged a career-high 30 touches (27 carries) for 98 yards and his first touchdown since that brutal knee injury last year. Williams looks a little healthier each week and on Sunday did exactly what Denver needed. He ran tough between the tackles, took what he could get and secured the ball. Williams got the rock on two of every three snaps he played against Kansas City. That’s a workhorse.
CB Ja’Quan McMillian
Denver’s tough little nickel back turned in his second standout performance against Kansas City in the past three weeks. He picked off Patrick Mahomes, logged two tackles for loss and overall played steady. His quick transformation into a reliable player along with Fabian Moreau’s steady play might not get as much attention as Justin Simmons’ return to the lineup, but they’ve also helped settle the Broncos secondary in recent weeks.
OLB Baron Browning
Browning got his feet wet against Green Bay and then made the big splash against the Chiefs. In his second game of the season, the Denver edge rusher logged two sacks against Patrick Mahomes and also stopped a nifty red zone shovel pass for a loss in 36 productive snaps. Now with a couple of outings in the books and a bye week to recover and take stock of early returns, the Broncos should expect a big second half of the season from the 2021 third-round draft pick.
Stock Down
RB Samaje Perine
Not so much about production — he’s third on the team in catches (22) and fourth in receiving yards (231) — but his role has dwindled with Williams healthy and Jaleel McLaughlin now Denver’s second back. He came to Denver in free agency looking for a bigger role than the one he held in Cincinnati but over the past three weeks is averaging 13.7 offensive snaps per game. Perine is basically the Broncos’ third-down back at the moment thanks to his pass protection and receiving abilities.
WR Marvin Mims Jr.
Once again, more about Mims’ role as a receiver at this point. He caught one pass for no yards on Sunday against Kansas City and over his past four games has two catches (three targets) for four yards. The bet here is one of the conversations Denver’s coaching staff will have over the bye week is whether they can get Mims involved in a more meaningful way. Like Perine, he’s still found ways to be productive, including a 31-yard punt return and 28-yard kick return against the Chiefs.
Offensive operation
It just hasn’t been consistently clean for Denver so far this season, and issues cropped up again in the win against Kansas City. Most notably, two illegal formation penalties and two timeouts burned late in the play clock by coach Sean Payton. Also, on a fourth-and-2 where Russell Wilson got stopped short after a sprint-out, it appeared Mims didn’t line up correctly at first and then by the time he moved to the backfield, he perhaps had already telegraphed where he was set to run his route.
Knee-jerk reactions
The Broncos absolutely deserved criticism the way they started the season. They spoiled a couple of golden opportunities to win games against Las Vegas and Washington, in particular, and against the New York Jets, too. So, too, did defensive coordinator Vance Joseph deserve heat. Denver gave up 160 points over its first four games. But they’ve also shown that “it’s a long season” can be more than staving off the inevitable. Payton’s race to the quarter-mark of the season didn’t go so well. As the halfway point nears, though, perhaps the Broncos have a run in them.
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