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It’s possible to make new friends, even on the last day of school.
Take Broncos center Graham Glasgow, for example.
The veteran offensive lineman looked around his own huddle at one point Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers, spotted an unfamiliar face, and said to himself, “I don’t even know that (expletive)’s name.”
No. 36? Who the heck is that?
Glasgow didn’t recognize him, though even in Week 18 perhaps that’s not shocking given the turnstile nature of Denver’s roster — and offensive skill group in particular — this season.
Turns out, No. 36 was Tyler Badie. Running back. A 24-year-old signed 10 days ago after he spent most of the season in Baltimore’s organization. Badie not only made his way into the Broncos huddle, but Glasgow figured out who he was quickly enough when Badie scored a touchdown the first time he touched the ball as a Bronco.
That’s the kind of afternoon it was for the Broncos just before the final bell sounded on a disappointing season.
They got extra recess. They drew stuff up in the dirt. They made good for the substitute teacher, interim head coach Jerry Rosburg, even though he proved to be a bit more of a taskmaster than the previous guy.
They finished the season with a win, 31-28 over the Chargers.
How about that?
“While I’d have liked to have seen more wins, today was fun,” Glasgow said. “It doesn’t change the general outlook on the season. There’s not a big difference between 4-13 vs. 5-12. It’s not like the difference between a playoff team and missing the playoffs by one game. But at the end of the day it does feel nice to see, if not exactly what we could have been, then what we could be in the future. The style of ball was good, we had good plays, we ran the ball well.”
Indeed, the Broncos gained 471 yards — the most in a game since Jan. 3, 2016, against the Chargers back when they were San Diego-based — and ran for 205. They got big plays from quarterback Russell Wilson. They flipped the field quickly. If you want to squint through an impending offseason chock full of uncertainty, beginning with the ongoing search for a head coach, you might even wonder if this is the recipe for Wilson and the Broncos well into their future.
“Over the past several weeks, we started creating an identity,” Wilson said after throwing for 283 yards, three touchdowns and an interception.
Too late to matter this season and nobody knows yet what style of offense the next coach will want to rely on, but players couldn’t help suggest the final weeks could pay dividends for the offense and for Wilson in particular. Over Denver’s final four games, Wilson turned in his worst performance of the season against the Los Angeles Rams but in the three other games threw for 752 yards and seven touchdowns (three interceptions) and rushed 18 times for 94 yards and two more scores.
“It’s completely up to us,” wide receiver Courtland Sutton said of what the future looks like.
For the final time in this odd, underwhelming, historic season, the Broncos’ offensive and defensive players in the postgame locker room had diametrically different tones.
All positive on this night, mind you, after wrapping a disastrous season on a good note, but opposite nonetheless. While the offensive guys breathed a sigh of relief and looked forward, the defensive players mostly looked back on a season that they will be proud of.
“Even though we didn’t win as many games as we wanted this year, this is the most fun I’ve had playing football in a long time,” outside linebacker Baron Browning said. “That says a lot about the culture we created as a team and the guys on the team. I don’t think you could go anywhere else and hear somebody say they had this much fun when they didn’t win many games.
“Obviously, fun don’t mean nothing, we want to win games next year. But that’s a lot — you want people to want to come to work and enjoy it and I enjoyed it this year. I’m going to miss it.”
Several times in the locker room, defensive players started answers with various renditions of “If ‘Coach E’ is back next year…” in reference to first-year defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero.
To a player, the group is adamant any new head coach would be wise to keep him if he isn’t the next head man himself.
“Some coaches come in and have their mind set on who they want, but if ‘E’ is still here, I mean, you just pop the tape on and see how we did as a defense this year,” defensive lineman and free-agent-to-be DeShawn Williams said. “We all know the team is always not the same at the end of the year, but if somehow, some way you keep this defense together, it’s going to be real nice. We’d have a healthy Randy (Gregory). Baron (Browning) is light years ahead of where we thought he’d be. …
“And it would only get better. We showed for his first year being a DC, we showed what we can do in his system. Like I said, man, this defense is special. I think everyone can see that.”
So now the period of many unknowns begins. Who will be the next coach? Will Evero be back and in what capacity? Will general manager George Paton re-sign defensive lineman Dre’Mont Jones and/or linebacker Alex Singleton? Will Latavius Murray — perhaps one of Denver’s best leaders by year’s end — be back in 2023 after capping his year with 103 yards (6.9 per carry) and a touchdown?
Answers will trickle in over the next weeks and months, but change is coming. Soon.
“Year’s end, it sucks,” Singleton said. “All these guys are great. I love every single one of them. They brought me in and from the very first day it was all love from these guys. Defensively, it’s the way we played all season. I appreciate every single one of them.”
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Not showing up
A fair amount of Broncos Country checked out on Sunday’s season finale at Empower Field, with 13,202 no-shows opting to spend their Sunday somewhere else. That’s the fifth largest no-show total in franchise history, but not the largest this season. That came in Week 15 vs. Arizona (18,423). With half of the team’s largest no-show totals coming in the past five years this much is clear: the fanbase’s patience is wearing thin.
| Date | Opponent | No-shows |
|---|---|---|
| Dec. 30, 1990 | Green Bay | 29,076 |
| Dec. 1, 2019 | L.A. Chargers | 19,094 |
| Dec. 18, 2022 | Arizona | 18,423 |
| Dec. 14, 1975 | Philadelphia | 15,789 |
| Jan. 8, 2023 | L.A. Chargers | 13,202 |
| Dec. 10, 1989 | N.Y. Giants | 12,771 |
| Oct. 15, 1984 | Green Bay | 12,554 |
| Dec. 30, 2018 | L.A. Chargers | 12,073 |
| Oct. 31, 2021 | Washington | 11,755 |
| Dec. 16, 1990 | San Diego | 11,042 |
Source: Andrew Mason, 104.3 FM reporter
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