Grading The Week: Cutting Tim Patrick was probably best thing for TP — and for Broncos, Bo Nix, DeVaughn Vele
Full disclosure: The football guys in the Grading The Week offices liked Tim Patrick. A lot. Liked talking to him, liked watching him play, liked seeing that he was healthy again.
Lukewarm take: All that being said, the Broncos might’ve done the right thing for the franchise by moving on from him.
And the right thing for Patrick, too.
Much as it pains us.
Hindsight is 20/20 during a bye weekend, and we need something to get chippy about with Thanksgiving finally in the rear-view mirror and the Broncos on a well-deserved break.
But we’re done arguing about Devaughn Vele vs. Patrick on the Broncos roster. Sean Payton’s gotten arguably the same production, if not better, from a player in Vele who’s the same body type (6-foot-5, 210) but who’s also five years younger and a whole heck of a lot cheaper.
Vele’s been one of the sweeter revelations of a pretty sweet last two months in Broncos Country. Over the Broncos’ last eight games (Denver’s 5-3 in those tilts), the former Utah star is averaging four catches for 43 yards with two drops and 19 first downs. The chemistry he’s building with fellow rookie Bo Nix is palpable, the kind of trust that’s made him a viable, if not particularly sexy, WR2.
Vele’s given the Broncos starting production at a bargain rate (average annual salary: $1.03 million). Given the dead cap money left behind in the Russell Wilson breakup, you have to hit on a few of those guys, and the Broncos have hit on five or six.
Ex-Broncos receivers — A (Just not for Broncos Country)
Jerry Jeudy breaks a Broncos (opponent) record on Monday Night Football. Tim Patrick dices the Packers on Thursday Night Football. Talk about happy divorces.
That said, GTW is always happy to see TP make it big on the big stage up in Detroit. The Lions were already fun, fast and nasty, and his size and sure hands have proven to be one of the missing pieces on a roster that isn’t missing a whole lot of them right now. (One GTW wisecracker was at that brutal Lions-Broncos game last December and still can’t get Detroit’s weird, weak, ear-wormy fight song out of his head.)
In Patrick’s last three games with the Motor City Kitties, he’s logged 12 catches, 146 yards, 10 first downs and two scores — both coming against Green Bay on Thursday in a 34-31 Lions win.
The Broncos could use that kind of help, and that kind of veteran savvy in the red zone. But not urgently. One of the singular joys of the last five or six weeks has been seeing Nix and the baby Broncos build their relationships, and confidence, in real time. The WR room at Dove Valley is painfully young — but it’s no longer painful to watch.
So, yeah. If it comes down to Patrick or Vele, the Broncos went cheap and landed a winning lottery ticket while becoming one of the surprise packages in the AFC this fall. TP is staring at home field advantage in the NFC Playoffs and a front-row seat on a Super Bowl contender. We’ll concede to George Paton and Payton there. Happily.
Although, when it comes to a question of Lil’Jordan Humphrey or Patrick, give us the latter. All day long.
CSU volleyball’s journey — A
The Rams’ first NCAA volleyball tourney ride in five years came to an end Friday at the hands of Texas A&M, but that shouldn’t dilute the journey. A belated GTW tip of the cap to coach Emily Kohan for the program’s first Mountain West championship sweep — regular season and conference tournament — since 2011. Fort Fun is even more fun when the trophy case needs new shelves.
