Mile High Report
Breaking down penalty trends for the Broncos, and the leagues new replay proposal
For Denver’s Bye Week I traditionally take a look at seasonal trends in penalties, and how fouls are impacting the Denver Broncos. The Broncos are fairly average this year in penalties both for and against. Denver is getting called for more serious than its opponents, leading to a penalty yardage differential that is somewhat substantial. This is due to Denver earning a large number of deep pass interference calls. Otherwise, Denver has been fairly typical in penalties overall.
Denver has so far diverged from the league offensively in two penalties. Denver has been called for only half as many false starts as the typical team and has been called with twice the number of delay of game penalties as most teams. Some of the delay of game penalties are fake, as Sean Payton is fairly open to taking delay of game penalties intentionally before short kicks on fourth down. This is certainly not the only source of these calls, several weeks back I discussed Bo Nix’s struggles with delay of game. At least the injuries that have caused significant changes in Denver’s offensive line throughout the year have not impacted that the Denver offense is doing a great job in not false starting.
Of Denver’s offensive players Garett Bolles has been flagged fifteen times, with eleven accepted. Each of those numbers is one off his career highs, and significantly elevated from last year. It seems likely that he will set career records for penalties this year. That is not great, a big damper on his otherwise solid year.
Denver has a secondary that plays aggressively and gets flagged accordingly. Pat Surtain leads the way with eight called penalties, but Ja’Quan McMillian has six in significantly fewer snaps, and Riley Moss also has five penalties. I do not take this as much of an indictment on Denver’s scheme or personnel, as aggressive defenses are frequently good defenses. If Denver was significantly above league average in personal fouls, offsides, or neutral zone infractions, it would be a very big reason for concern, but some pass interference and defensive holding calls are contextually less problematic. I am bit concerned about McMillian, and Damarri Mathis has had long-term problems with pass interference that would be more important and relevant if he was playing more.
I mentioned before the season that this year with a new head of officiating we could see some big changes in officiating standards. I was very much right. League-wide almost all penalties are being called more frequently compared to last year. A few penalties stand out: Teams are being called for illegal formation, illegal shift, and ineligible player downfield at massively higher rates. False start rates are higher, and offensive holding rates are massively up. Subjectively, I believed early in the year that the standards had obviously changed for holding, and that the league was emphasizing “look” holds instead...
