Denver Broncos: 3 takeaways from Week 6 loss vs. Chargers

Another week, another utterly disappointing loss from the Denver Broncos. This past Monday, the Broncos lost to their division foe, the Los Angeles Chargers. This loss makes the Broncos 0-2 in their AFC West matchups so far this season. As it stands right now, there seem to be more questions than answers regarding what is troubling the team. Let's discuss some of the takeaways from the Broncos' Week 6 loss.

3. The Broncos' offensive line is borderline abysmal

For a majority of Monday's game, Russell Wilson was left scrambling for his life. There seemed to be constant pressure in his face. There was even one play where Chargers linebacker Drue Tranquill was left unblocked, and he had Wilson on the ground within a second of the ball being snapped. That play alone epitomized the offensive line struggles throughout the game.

To be fair, the Broncos' offensive line has endured quite a lot of shuffling through the first six weeks of the season. The entire Broncos team has been insanely unlucky regarding injuries, including the recent loss of left tackle Garett Bolles to a broken leg.

Injuries aside, the performance of the offensive line is just not good enough and changes need to be made. But the big question is, how will the Broncos go about that? Will they reshuffle the line? Can they acquire some linemen before the trade deadline? Will the position coach be fired? The Broncos simply cannot continue on with the current offensive line they have now.

2. Nathaniel Hackett is coaching an undisciplined and unprepared team

Typically what makes great teams in the NFL is the ability to make mistakes, learn from them, and fix them. The Broncos, however, have made a copious amount of mistakes, but have yet to really do anything about it.

Regarding penalties, the Broncos are the most penalized team in the league right now. It's going to be pretty hard to win games when you are gifting tons of penalty yards to the opposing teams game after game. Head coach Nathaniel Hackett said in his early press conferences that he and the team would focus on the penalties and work towards reducing them. But here we are in Week 6, and the Broncos are still leading in a category they really don't want to be leaders in.

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1. The Broncos have a promising young core

Let's take a step away from all the negatives for just a bit. While the Broncos struggled to have much go right for them on Monday, some young players did show glimpses of promise.

Outside linebacker Baron Browning, who was a part of George Paton's stellar 2021 draft, has been having a breakout year so far. In the first half of the game against the Chargers, the young pass rusher had three tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack, and one batted pass. In each game this season, Browning has been a steady force and has shown shades of former Broncos star Von Miller.

Pat Surtain, who was also a part of the Broncos' 2021 draft, is already one of the best cornerbacks in the league. He's in his second year as a pro and is already one of the most feared cornerbacks. How cool is that? And Javonte Williams, who unfortunately had his season cut short by an ACL tear, has proved to the team that he is the Broncos' best running back in years.

One thing is for certain, and that is that Paton can draft insanely well. In just two seasons as Broncos GM, Paton has started to assemble a very promising young core. This season hasn't exactly gone to plan for Denver. But once the team is fully healthy, Broncos fans should see some much better seasons in the future that are powered by the young core.