The Broncos traded for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle this offseason in order to add more explosiveness to their offense, but Waddle wasn’t able to make a difference in their Week 1 loss to the Chiefs.
Week 2 provided more proof of the concept that the Broncos had in mind. Waddle had five catches of at least 14 yards, including a 49-yard leaping grab over a defender to set up Denver’s first points of the day in the second quarter. Waddle wound up with eight catches for 138 yards as the Broncos came back from 10 points down to beat the Jaguars 20-13 at home on Sunday.
Head coach Sean Payton said Waddle’s impact on the game was “significant” and fellow wideout Courtland Sutton said that he thinks even bigger things are coming.
“I think that’s only the tip of the iceberg for him,” Sutton said, via the team’s website. “We have more plays in our back pocket that we didn’t even get to get to. And for him to be able go out there and do what he did and us be able to have the success, and him being able to go and put together a very efficient day today, it was very promising. And I look forward to seeing where that goes the rest of the season.”
The first seven quarters of the Broncos’ season produced 16 points and 444 yards, which set the stage for a lot of hand-wringing about the state of the offense if the fourth quarter on Sunday went in a similar direction. The Broncos picked up 124 yards and 14 points to pull out the win, which makes it easier to talk about the brightness of a future with Waddle playing a central role in the passing game.
Broncos Clips
The Broncos offense took a big step forward in the final quarter of Sunday’s home game against the Broncos.
After being limited to 16 points through the first seven quarters of the season, the Broncos found themselves down 13-3 to the Jaguars in the fourth quarter. They responded with a pair of touchdown drives in the fourth quarter to take a 20-13 lead over the Jaguars and then put together an impressive four-minute offense to run out the clock on their first win of the season.
Quarterback Bo Nix converted one third down with a 29-yard strike to wide receiver Jaylen Waddle and rookie running back Jonah Coleman picked up another one with a 12-yard run that forced the Jaguars to use their final timeout. Coleman was pressed into duty with RJ Harvey inactive and J.K. Dobbins leaving with a hamstring injury, and the fourth-round pick came through with one more big run to allow the Broncos to run out the clock.
Coleman also scored the go-ahead touchdown run with 7:21 left to play. It was his first NFL score and he finished the day with 10 carries for 39 yards.
That score came after Jaguars kicker Cam Little missed a 54-yard field goal and the first Broncos touchdown came after cornerback Riley Moss picked off Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Waddle had two catches on that touchdown drive and finished the day with eight catches for 138 yards.
That’s the impact Denver was looking for when they traded for Waddle this offseason and it helped get Bo Nix on track after a bad interception in the end zone to kill a first half scoring chance. Nix finished 22-of-31 for 288 yards and a touchdown to tight end Nate Adkins.
Neither team scored in the first quarter, but the Jaguars got a touchdown to open the second quarter and took a 10-3 lead into halftime. They extended it to 13-3, but the interception and missed field goal opened the door for the Broncos. Denver’s defense forced a punt after Coleman’s touchdown put them ahead and the offense was able to slam the door.
That’s a good development for offensive coordinator Davis Mills and the Broncos will now turn their attention to a Sunday night game against the Rams. The Jaguars will try to stop the bleeding at home against the Patriots.
Jaguars head coach Liam Coen’s team lost its lead and Coen lost his cool just before the Broncos moved in front for the first time all day.
Coen was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for arguing with officials after cornerback Travis Hunter was flagged for defensive pass interference on a pass to Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton. The Broncos were set to be at the 6-yard-line after the pass interference, so running back Jonah Coleman only had to go three yards on the next play for a touchdown.
The score has the Broncos up 20-13 with 7:21 left to play.
The Jaguars led this game 13-3 in the third quarter, so a failure to turn things back around should lead to a lot of other angry reactions around Coen’s team.
The Broncos have tied the Jaguars in the fourth quarter, but they may be down another running back the rest of the way.
J.K. Dobbins is questionable to return with a hamstring injury. RJ Harvey is inactive on Sunday, which leaves Jonah Coleman and Tyler Badie as the team’s available backs.
That setback did not keep the Broncos from finding the end zone for the first time in Sunday’s game. Bo Nix found tight end Nate Adkins for a touchdown to tie the game 13-13 with over 11 minutes left to play in Denver.
Adkins’s touchdown came after Broncos cornerback Riley Moss picked off Trevor Lawrence. The Jaguars quarterback will have to be sharper to pull off a road win over the Broncos for the second straight year.
The Broncos ran six offensive plays inside of the Jacksonville 10-yard-line during the first half of Sunday’s game, but they don’t have much to show for it.
Three J.K. Dobbins runs from the 1-yard-line resulted in a loss of a yard and a field goal while a Bo Nix pass into the end zone late in the second quarter went for a Jourdan Lewis interception. The Jaguars moved the ball well after the turnover and got in position for a Cam Little field goal that sent them into the break with a 10-3 lead.
Quarterback Trevor Lawrence is 12-of-17 for 138 yards, but he’s been sacked twice to keep the Jaguars offense from fully catching fire. Parker Washington has six catches for 80 yards while Brian Thomas has three grabs for 40 yards.
Nix and Jaylen Waddle hooked up for a 49-yard gain to set up the three failed Dobbins runs. Waddle has four catches for 71 yards and Nix is 11-of-16 for 156 yards, but his mistake overshadows any positives halfway through this game.
The Jaguars got a win in Denver last season and they are on the board first in this year’s visit.
Bhayshul Tuten sprinted around the right side of the line after taking a direct snap and strolled into the end zone for a 1-yard score with 12:13 left in the first half. Cam Little’s extra point made it 7-0 for the road team.
The two teams exchanged five punts before the Jaguars put together their eight-play, 77-yard scoring drive. The biggest gain came on a 32-yard throw to wide receiver Parker Washington, who is up to three catches for 46 yards so far on Sunday.
The Broncos will now try to find their footing as they try to avoid an 0-2 start to the year.
Word on Sunday morning was that Broncos running back RJ Harvey would be inactive for Sunday afternoon’s home game against the Broncos and that became official 90 minutes ahead of kickoff in Denver.
Harvey was listed as questionable due to a hamstring injury and the team included him on their inactive list for Week 2. J.K. Dobbins, fourth-round pick Jonah Coleman, and Tyler Badie will be the Broncos’ running backs on Sunday.
Quarterback Sam Ehlinger, wide receiver Marvin Mims, offensive lineman Kage Casey, tight end Dallen Bentley, defensive end Jordan Jackson, and defensive lineman Tyler Onyedim are the other inactives for Denver.
The Jaguars deactivated quarterback Quinn Ewers, tight end Tanner Koziol, wide receiver CJ Williams, safety Jalen Huskey, linebacker Jack Kiser, offensive lineman Daniel Faalele, and defensive end Wesley Williams.
To keep Davis Webb from leaving to become an offensive coordinator (and play caller) with a new team, Broncos coach Sean Payton decided to promote Webb to the position in Denver — and to give him the play-calling duties.
In Week 1, it didn’t go well.
The Broncos had 176 total yards in a 31-0 loss to the Chiefs on Monday night. The entire Denver offense was outgained by Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III, who had 191 yards from scrimmage.
Quarterback Bo Nix had arguably the worst performance of his career, completing 17 of 28 passes for 131 yards, one touchdown pass, and one interception. His passer rating was 69.2.
Against the Jaguars, who broke an 11-game Denver winning streak in December, all eyes will be on Webb and, by extension, on Nix.
The overriding question is whether Payton will show patience. As noted by Jay Glazer of Fox Sports, Payton said that it was his decision to give Webb the play-calling duties, and that no one wants it to work out more than Payton.
It needs to start working out. Next Sunday night, the Rams come to town. Then, the Broncos visit the 49ers.
The Broncos are on track to be without one of their running backs for Sunday’s game against the Jaguars.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that RJ Harvey is not expected to play in Week 2. Harvey missed Wednesday’s practice with a hamstring injury and was listed as questionable after a pair of limited practices to close out the week.
Harvey had three carries for 18 yards and four catches for 23 yards in Denver’s Week 1 loss to the Chiefs.
J.K. Dobbins is the top back for the Broncos with rookie Jonah Coleman and Tyler Badie set to move up the depth chart in Harvey’s absence.
That strange rule no one seemed to know about had a major impact on the Week 1 game between the Saints and Lions. And there’s a reason no one knew about it, beyond the fact that it apparently had not been applied in years, if ever.
A very similar play happened during the AFC Championship. But the rulebook’s get-out-of-backward-pass-free card was never mentioned.
It started with 2:59 to go in the first half. The Broncos, leading the Patriots 7-0, had the ball at their own 33, facing third down and four. Denver quarterback Jarrett Stidham (not Drew Brees) got the snap in shotgun formation. Stidham dropped back, apparently looking to set up a screen pass. Patriots linebacker Christian Ellis gave chase.
Stidham started his throwing motion. Before he got rid of the ball, Ellis made contact with Stidham. The pass, which was initially deemed to have gone forward, ultimately was determined to have been a backward pass, recovered by the Patriots.
The main source of the controversy — and the post-game pool report — was the decision to rule the play dead upon recovery, taking New England’s touchdown off the board.
Said referee Alex Kemp after the game: “I initially ruled it as a forward pass, which was incorrect. I proceeded to go through the administration of an intentional grounding foul. The down judge and the umpire came and talked to me and provided more information. The down judge explained that he extended his right arm to signal that he had a backward pass and at that point we determined that New England had picked up the then backward pass. We awarded possession to New England with no advance, because at that point we are not allowed to permit an advance.”
There was no mention during or after the game about the possibility that Ellis’s contact with Stidham after he started his throwing motion meant that any pass thrown was necessarily a forward pass, even if it went backward. That’s the provision that saved the Lions from a defensive scoop and score by the Saints in Week 1.
Now, it’s possible that a frame-by-frame review of the play would have resulted in a ruling that Stidham started his throwing motion, ended it, and got hit by Ellis before starting it again. But it was close enough that the rule no one knew about should have been mentioned, and arguably fully explained, at some point in the process. Because it would have been a forward pass, even if it went backward, if the final ruling was that Ellis had hit Stidham after he began his throwing motion.
And so, instead of the Patriots getting screwed by the ruling on the field of a forward pass, it’s possible the Broncos got screwed by the failure to apply the rule that worked against the Saints on Sunday. But no one knew about it, because no one knew about the bizarre rule that turns a backward pass into a forward pass.
Bottom line? If that rule had been mentioned, discussed, and/or applied in the AFC Championship, 48.6 million football fans would have become aware of it. And it wouldn’t have been nearly as stunning to first learn about this rulebook quirk in Week 1 of the 2026 season.
