Denver Broncos: 3 Ways Case Keenum is Changing Minds

Keenum can now levitate (shown above).

Ok, he can’t levitate but the picture deserved comment.  What he can do and what he has done is become far more aware in drop-back situations of when and where to slide, move up, take-off or simply get rid of the ball.

Denver Broncos

Garett Bolles took a lot of early season heat over his performance at left tackle.  Part of the symbiosis of quarterback and blind-side tackle is that the QB knows when to cut-and-run or when to slide up into the pocket.

We keyed on Bolles for several games and what we noticed is that when he took the pass rusher upfield, Keenum would often stay put.  This limited Bolles’ space and in the worst of cases, allowed the rusher to get to Keenum for a sack.

It was unfair to the 2017 first-round pick and it created a lot of hand-wringing amongst Broncos prognosticators about what to do with the left tackle position.

Mark Schlereth of The Fan laid our a wonderfully detailed breakdown of Bolles and his shortcomings.  The critique is legit and we won’t argue the validity of the commentary.

What we will do is point out that for a young man that has a lot to work on, it’s overwhelming when his quarterback hangs him out to dry.

Credit Keenum and the offensive line for finding that common ground and putting together their best two-game stretch in three years.  Case has taken just two sacks in those games and the instances of holding on the offensive line have become standard-to-non-existent.  It’s been a big part of Denver’s ability offensively.

One more, off-field observation that’s led us to lighten-up on Keenum’s season: