The Denver Broncos are undergoing a grand makeover on the offensive side of the ball. Since the confusion that was Peyton Manning shotgun offense and Gary Kubiak under-center/bootleg offense colliding, to the abominations there were the schemes under Rick Dennison, Mike McCoy, and Bill Musgrave, the Broncos’ offenses have been as hard to watch as they have been ineffectual.

The Broncos were able to make it work in 2015 given a multitude of reasons, such as the simple presence and leadership of the legendary Manning, combined with coming to some sort of ‘compromise’ with a pistol look and an all-time level defense, but to be blunt, some balls bounced the right way in order to secure the No. 1 seed and game flow that favored the Broncos in their playoff run.

While the Broncos’ defenses have remained ‘good’ since the Super Bowl Championship team, they have not been to the level to overcome such dreadful offenses that the team has continued to trot out onto the field. There is blame aplenty to go around.

Denver's quarterback play has been horrid and the offensive line, while recently trending in the right direction, has been shoddy. The playmakers, outside of the likes of the top-two wide receivers, have been lacking in juice, and the scheme hasn’t complimented the player. Incompetence, thy name is the Broncos’ offense.

Injecting a dose of skepticism

With the change in coaching regime, scheme, and it being the offseason, hope springs eternal. Every move by one’s favorite team will work out, every coach was the best guy to get, every signing was a bargain, and every draft pick will end up being an All-Pro eventually. A dosage of heavy skepticism and patience is needed during the offseason for every fanbase. Not every team is destined to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

The Broncos, however, do feel like a team that is trending in the right direction offensively. The quarterback room is improved, even if marginally, the running back group looks to be the engine that drives the offense, the offensive line should be improving under one of the greats in Mike Munchak, and many of the weapons on the outside are as young as they are promising.

Despite the moves made in the offseason, via trade in acquiring Joe Flacco, free agency in signing Ja'Wuan James, or the draft in obtaining Noah Fant, Dalton Risner, and Drew Lock, the offense is going to take more than one offseason to evolve into what first-time offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello envisions.

Joe Flacco practices during a Broncos OTA session.

Assuming to know what Scangarello envisions offensively is purely a projection at this point, but given his tutelage under master play-caller and schemer Kyle Shanahan, one can reasonably assume the Broncos' offense should be molded somewhat after what the San Francisco 49ers have built and what the 2016 Atlanta Falcons had before they inexplicably blew a Super Bowl lead to the Patriots.

Shanahan's offensive staples

The offenses under Shanahan didn’t simply fit into a single mold. In Atlanta the offense was predicated more around the dominance of Julio Jones, a super underrated quarterback in Matt Ryan, and a really good running back duo in Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman.

In San Francisco, a team that has been maligned by poor quarterback play, was built around the dominance of tight end George Kittle as the primary weapon. However, there is one thing that both these offenses had in common that the Broncos simply do not possess currently; blazing speed at the receiver position.

While not purely a deep threat to win over the top, Shanahan has used speed at the wide receiver position in his offenses to create space and stress defenses both vertically and horizontally. From the 4.42-speed of Taylor Gabriel in Atlanta to the 4.27-speed of Marquise Goodwin, whom the Niners signed from the Bills, the Kyle Shanahan offense has grown into one that craves a speed option to open up opportunities for other weapons on the offense.

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From the slot, out wide, or in pre-snap motion, to throwing it to the speed option deep, to isolating them short in space to allow the receivers to threaten after the catch, speed has been a huge key and revolution in the Shanahan offense in comparison to his father, Mike's. A great example is Shanahan’s usage of Goodwin in this video, in which Samuel R Gold explains how Shanahan uses ‘speed’ not purely as a field-stretching deep threat.

In an interview in January 2018, former wide receiver under Shanahan, Andrew Hawkins, made it quite clear when asked what the offense needs to succeed at receiver. The first thing he said? Speed.

“He needs a speed guy," Hawkins said. "He needs a guy who is faster than everybody else on the field. That’s a big part of his offense. He needs a tough guy. He needs a guy who is going to catch the ball over the middle, be tough as nails and be a little versatile. He needs a third down guy, who has great hands and will, under any circumstance, can move the sticks.”

Do the Broncos check those boxes?

One can argue the Broncos have some semblance of the tough guy with versatility, and the third-down move-the-sticks guy in the combination of Courtland Sutton, DaeSean Hamilton, and even Noah Fant, but a true speed player?

Some will point to Emmanuel Sanders. However, entering the final year of his contract at age 32, expecting Sanders to be a true speed option for the Broncos in 2019 coming off of an Achilles injury seems hopeful at best.

Perhaps Brendan Langley can wind up being the speed option the Broncos need at receiver, but his chance to make the roster as he converts from cornerback to wide receiver shouldn’t radiate confidence and anyone with high expectations for him in 2019 could probably be sold beachfront property in Kansas. Perhaps one of the undrafted rookie speedsters in Trinity Benson or Kelvin McKnight might serve, but again playing the odds, probably not. Instead, the ‘answer’ to the Broncos and Scangarello’s need for speed likely isn’t on the roster today.

Bottom line

Given the inept level of the Broncos’ offense over the past few seasons, any expectations in a massive turnaround into a juggernaut should be tempered. It is going to take time to build the roster up, add the necessary pieces, and develop them into scheme fits for the offense.

Luckily for the Broncos, the upcoming 2020 draft class is being billed as the best wide receiver class since the epic 2014 class. The level of play at quarterback, the effectiveness and consistency of the offensive line, and the clever scheming and play calling by Scangarello will likely have the biggest impacts on if the Broncos offense can begin their march towards league average or better, but to fully unlock the offense and create spacing as Shanahan has done in his offenses, the Broncos will need to find a speed element in their pass game that is very likely not there right now.

How much will that impact the offense remains to be seen, but make no mistake, the odds of the Broncos looking for more ‘juice’ and a truly dynamic speed option in the pass game are quite high if Scangarello is to fully implement a true version of the Kyle Shanahan offense in Denver.