Fantasy football team preview: Denver Broncos

A team in transition, the Broncos are now a year-plus removed from their Super Bowl championship and enter 2017 under a new coaching regime. Vance Joseph takes over as head coach after serving as the defensive coordinator for one season in Miami. With Joseph focused on the defensive side of the ball, former Chargers head coach Mike McCoy will call the shots on offense in his second stint as offensive coordinator in Denver. McCoy’s offense will be a bit of a departure from the Gary Kubiak system. Kubiak’s West Coast system will be replaced with an Erhardt-Perkins system. In the run game, some of Kubiak’s zone blocking will remain, but McCoy will also incorporate power blocking.

Quarterback

For much of the offseason, Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch have been engaged in a battle for the starting job in Denver. At this point, it appears Siemian has edged ahead of Lynch and will be the likely Week 1 starter. Siemian was an unlikely starter last season, and did an admirable job with 3,401 passing yards and 18 scores. For fantasy purposes, he ranked outside the QB2s at 26th, but did post three top-10 fantasy weeks including a first-place finish in Week 3. Still, his limited upside keeps him off the redraft radar in 1QB leagues.

Running backs

C.J. Anderson remains the incumbent starter in the Broncos backfield. He burst onto the fantasy scene in 2014 with a 10th-place fantasy finish. Since then, injuries have plagued Anderson and his fantasy production has been far from ideal. He ranked a disappointing 31st in 2015, thanks in part to just four carries inside the 5-yard line. To his credit, Anderson got off to a solid start last year with back-to-back top-10 finishes in the first two weeks of the season. He ranked 10th among running backs through Week 7, but ended up missing the final nine games of the year. Anderson still has potential, but his recent injury history and the Broncos lackluster offensive line keep him in the back end of the RB2s.

Jamaal Charles has been one of the best running backs of his generation with an astounding average of 5.5 yards per carry on 1,332 regular-season attempts. However, he’s now on the wrong side of 30 and has played in just eight games over the last two seasons. That’s not to say we should completely rule out Charles as a fantasy option, but for now Anderson remains the back to own in Denver. The same goes for Devontae Booker. The 2016 fourth-rounder touched the ball 205 times in his rookie season, managing a disappointing 3.5 yards per attempt. While many point the finger directly at Booker for his poor performance, his offensive line averaged just 1.2 yards before contact per attempt, which ranked a lowly 27th in the league. Still, Booker shouldn’t be considered more than a handcuff to Anderson.

Wide receivers

Don’t overlook Demaryius Thomas. The veteran receiver saw plenty of volume last season, ranking 10th among wideouts in targets, but he finished a somewhat disappointing 16th in fantasy points after ranking in the top 10 in each of his previous four years. Still, he’s been remarkably consistent with 1,000-plus yards and at least 90 catches in each of the last five seasons. The one area where Thomas has really fallen off over the last two years is in the red zone. In 2014, he finished as fantasy’s No. 2 wide receiver, and did so with 23 end-zone targets. That number has dramatically dropped off over the last two years to just seven each season. Despite the lack of end-zone looks, Thomas remains a solid front-end WR2 option.

Like Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders finished as a WR2, ranking 20th. His 131 targets tied for 13th among wide receivers, and he actually doubled up Thomas’ end-zone looks with 14 end-zone targets last season. But for some reason, the fantasy drafting public doesn’t want to believe in Sanders. He’s currently a massive value with an ADP in the seventh round as the 33rd wide receiver off the board. Siemian under center isn’t ideal for either receiver, but he did show the ability to get the ball to this duo enough last year to produce top-20 fantasy numbers. Sanders wasn’t the most consistent option, but he has the potential to offer a big return on investment at his current ADP.

In addition to Thomas and Sanders, the Broncos have rookie Carlos Henderson, Bennie Fowler, Cody Latimer, and Jordan Taylor duking it out for the No. 3 job. Henderson recently underwent thumb surgery, but he remains the favorite for the job. Regardless of who wins, that player isn’t likely to be fantasy-relevant. Thomas and Sanders were the only wide receiver duo to combine for more than 50 percent of their team’s targets last season.

Tight end

The Broncos depth chart is somewhat wide open at tight end, which means we aren’t likely to see much of any value come here. A.J. Derby, Virgil Green, Jeff Heuerman, and rookie Jake Butt are currently on the depth chart. Of this group, Derby is the most intriguing. He started his 2016 season on the Patriots, but was traded for a fifth-round pick. He played six games for the Broncos, catching at least four balls in three of his last four games before missing the final two contests of the season with a concussion. There’s a chance he surfaces on the TE2 radar, but Derby isn’t worth considering on draft day.

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