Denver Broncos vs. New York Jets: Thursday Night Football Preview and Predictions
By AJ Olona
Thursday, Oct. 1 at 8:20 p.m. ET
NFL Network
SPREAD: Broncos, -3.0
So far throughout the year, we have been “treated” to some less than stellar Thursday Night Football games. Through 4 weeks, this game included, teams that have played on Thursday Night have a combined record of 7-20-1 with the Kansas City Chiefs having 3 of those 7 wins. For the fourth week in a row, there is a team playing without a winning record. However, this particular game features two winless teams in the New York Jets and the Denver Broncos. To say that this game is less than interesting is an understatement. These are two teams that will likely be battling it out all season long for the number one overall pick. Thursday night will be very telling in where these teams will finish off the 2020 season.
Brett Rypien (4) steps in and starts his first NFL game for the Broncos (Photo: USA TODAY Sports)
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos have had a very bad season throughout this entire season, dating back to July. The Broncos offensive line was already a question mark heading into the season and then suddenly starting right tackle Ja’Wuan James opted out due to COVID-19 concerns. Then the Broncos lost Super Bowl MVP and defensive anchor, Von Miller, for the season when he suffered a tendon injury on the last play of practice in training camp. Then to start the season, the Broncos were without star wide receiver Courtland Sutton, who was placed on season-ending injured reserve a few weeks later and also lost running back Phillip Lindsay for some time. The Broncos also lost second-year quarterback Drew Lock to a shoulder injury and just recently placed Jurrell Casey on injured reserve when he tore his bicep, keeping him out for the season. So far in this early season, the Broncos have $53.4 million worth of cap space on the injured reserve list. That is more than a quarter of the team’s cap space that they will not have available to them for the rest of the season.
Since losing Drew Lock, the Broncos have already made a few changes at quarterback. Initially, it was Jeff Driskel’s job after he filled in admirably for Drew Lock in Week 2. However, after opening the game against the Buccaneers with only 176 passing yards on 30 attempts, the Broncos moved on to second-year player Brett Rypien. Brett Rypien looked good enough in this game for the Broncos to be comfortable with him moving forward. Brett Rypien finished Sunday’s game with 53 passing yards and an interception. Thursday night against the Jets will be a good opener for the young quarterback to see if he can keep this team afloat while Drew Lock gets healthy. The Broncos will likely be without Philip Lindsay for a 3rd straight week, meaning that Melvin Gordon will need to play better the carry the offense on Thursday night.
The Broncos defense has been less than stellar heading into the season. They are already without their two best players on that side of the ball in Von Miller and AJ Bouye. The Broncos have struggled heavily in both of those areas so far in the season. They have had a hard time getting to the quarterback without their star edge rushers. They have only 4 sacks in 3 games. Only five teams across the entire league have fewer sacks than the Broncos. Without Von Miller, the Broncos are failing to have anyone step up and take control. The Broncos will need to get much more pressure on the quarterback to have more success on that side of the ball. Luckily for the Broncos, the New York Jets have one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL. The Jets are coming off of a game in which they allowed Sam Darnold to get hit constantly. In that game, the Colts were able to bring down Darnold twice, including a safety late in the game. Despite what the box score shows, Sam Darnold was constantly running for his life. The Broncos will have to have the same sort of success to rattle Darnold early.
In the backend of the defense, the Broncos have not been much better. Without AJ Bouye, they have allowed 277.7 passing yards per game, which ranks towards the bottom of the league. Last week, the Broncos were able to finally make Tom Brady look comfortable in that Bucs offense. While the Broncos secondary is likely getting Devontae Harris back Thursday’s game, they will need to prove that they can stop the pass before Broncos fans start worrying for the year. The Broncos defense was supposed to carry the team throughout the year. Despite losing so many key pieces, the defense still has a lot of good depth players. They need to play better. With the Broncos starting a guy under center who has 0 career starts, the defense is going to need to step up big time.
New York Jets
Just like the Denver Broncos, the New York Jets are no stranger to the 2020 injury bug. The Jets have been without Le’Veon Bell for most of the early season and have had to rely heavily on 37-year old running back Frank Gore. Key wide receivers Jamison Crowder, Denzel Mims, and Breshad Perriman have missed some time while none of them will likely play in this game. The Jets enter this game with 12 players on the injury report for the week, which doesn’t even include the 9 players that are either on the injured reserve list or the physically unable to perform list.
Sam Darnold (14) is brought down in the endzone for a safety (Photo: AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
The Jets are entering Thursday Night coming off one of their worst games in recent memory. Against the Indianapolis Colts, the Jets were not able to get anything going offensively, and their defense allowed the Colts to do whatever they wanted to on the day. Sam Darnold threw an interception on the opening drive that was returned for a touchdown. To end the 3rd quarter, Sam Darnold threw his second pick-six of the day, his third interception overall. Late in the 4th quarter when the game was essentially already over, the Colts were able to get to Darnold one more time, this time bringing him down in the endzone for a safety, ending the day for the Jets.
The Jets are winless on the season and fans are finally starting to question if Sam Darnold is their guy. The season is already over for the Jets but another loss on Thursday night will put the nail in the coffin. Darnold has only 562 passing yards on the season and only three touchdowns. He has turned the ball over four times and has shown no signs that he can be the guy for the Jets going forward. Darnold will need to have a good game on Thursday to try and silence his doubter, but it is going to take a lot.
The Prediction
This game is going to be ugly through all four quarters. Both teams are entering the game with pretty much nothing on the line. Statistically, both of these teams are all but out of the playoff race. The Broncos have put up three consecutive bad weeks of football. The Broncos are injured all over the field and are starting their 3rd string quarterback. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are 8 plus turnovers throughout this game and if neither team passes double digits scoring. This game is going to be bad and will continue the string of horrible Thursday Night Football matchups.
SHAWN’S PREDICTION: Broncos 20 - 13
AJ’S PREDICTION: Broncos 10 - 0
JAKE’S PREDICTION: Jets 24 - 20
CADE’S PREDICTION: Broncos 6 - 3
DAGEN’S PREDICTION: Broncos 17 - 14
TIMOTHY’S PREDICTIONS: Jets 21 - 20
Follow La Tonique on Twitter @LaToniqueMedia.
