Players to watch when the Denver Broncos take on Tampa Bay

It is an exciting time for fans of the Denver Broncos. The team is off to another 3-0 start as they look to defend their title as Super Bowl Champions. The Broncos will play on the road for the second week in a row when they visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday afternoon.

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The Broncos are one of five teams that are undefeated and with a target on their backs from last year’s championship, everyone is going to give them their best shot.

Since the Broncos victory last week against the Bengals, sports media and talk radio hosts have been making the Broncos a topic of conversation. As we look at the upcoming match up this Sunday, it is important to understand NFL dynamics and team identity.

Most sports media — especially in Denver — believe this upcoming match up in Tampa is some form of a “trap” game. With Vegas making the Broncos a 3.5 point favor, fans and media think the Broncos should have no problem with the Buccaneers this Sunday. Well let me just say right now, they all couldn’t be more wrong.

The Broncos’ identity is not that of the Patriots — where they believe in scoring early and often and score to not only beat your opponent but score to humiliate them. The Broncos are not an offensive heavy team, despite them being the fourth highest scoring team with 28-points per game. The Broncos are defensive and are at their absolute best when the game is close in the fourth quarter.

Every Broncos game last year was close and went down to the last few plays regardless of the opponent. We saw the Broncos go into an overtime game against a bad Browns team and an overtime game against a great Bengals team, whom started 8-0 last year. This is very important as the Broncos play at their opponents skill level.

This means that Denver will not blow out an 0-3 team when they are 3-0. They will play to their opponents means and call upon their clutch defensive players and play caller, Wade Phillips, to seal the deal in the fourth quarter. The Buccaneers are a great football team and should not be taken lightly. Here are the players to watch this week.

Mike Evans

The Broncos will face another tall receiving core this week with Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson. Jackson has had almost zero production in this offense, but his old roots with the San Diego Chargers means he has more experience and insight when playing against the Denver Broncos.

Mike Evans on the other hand is an absolute beast and will be covered by Aqib Talib for size purposes most of the day. He will also draw Chris Harris in special defensive packages.

Mike Evans is Jameis Winston’s clear favorite target as Evans is currently ranked fifth amongst receivers in the NFL for yards with 301. Not to mention he has had a touchdown in every single game this year, including a jump ball in the end zone last week that almost helped the Bucs win late.

Mike is a player that relies on his big body to box out defends deep down field. Although he is fast, he isn’t incredibly quick which means that with safety help for most of the day, Mike shouldn’t be a deep ball threat.

The Broncos need to key on Mike every play. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bucs put Mike in the slot more than they usually do, to help give him a match up edge against Bradley Roby, or one of the linebackers.

Jameis Winston

After three weeks, Winston’s stat line is like that of a heart beat from of a sick hospital patient. The first week, he threw four touchdown passes and showed great life, only to disappear with four interceptions and a fumble the following week. Even last week, Winston was off to a terrible start, only to finish with three touchdowns, coming up only five yards short of a career highlight win.

Despite his ups and downs, you cannot sleep on Jameis Winston. Winston is not just an athletic specimen with god given talent, he also has passion for the game that I can only compare to that of Cam Newton and Tom Brady.

Whether it’s Winston giving the most remarkable halftime speech to his alma mater Florida State this year, or sprinting 80-yards last week on a fumble recovery for a touchdown, Winston gives 110% every play.

Winston is 6-foot-4 and 230 lbs and he is only 22-years old. People forget just how young he is because of his relevance in social media since he was the best recruit out of high school, eventually winning the Heisman as a freshman. Winston is hard to take down and is sneaky mobile. The trend in the league so far has been to blitz Winston the majority of the time. Winston is a smart and well-studied, which means he can hurt you against the blitz.

Lucky for the Broncos, they can get pressure with just four, or five players.

Charles Sims

If Doug Martin was starting and healthy, I do not believe I would’ve had him on this list. Doug is similar to CJ Anderson in size and running tactics, which would’ve made the Broncos defense have more confidence in stopping the run as they face CJ everyday in practice.

Charles Sims is the perfect running back to annoy this Denver defense as their biggest problem is dealing with “all-around” backs that can run and catch, but rely on their shiftiness rather than their speed, or strength. What makes the Denver defense so great is their individual speed and mindset of gang tackling. With a running back that has a non-traditional slashing ability, all it will take is a few early misses and the rest of the field will be wide open for Sims.

The Broncos will need to be aware of his threat in the passing game and be sure to form tackle Sims to the ground.

Trevor Siemian

Once again, all eyes will be on the 7th round draft pick, selected 250th overall out of Northwestern. Trevor set an NFL all-time record as the only quarterback to throw for 300+ yards and 4 touchdowns in his first road start.

Now, although the Bucs have the WORST defense in the league, allowing 33.7 points per game, they now have great footage of what Siemian is really capable of. Last week we saw the Bengals go out of their way to stop the run and force Trevor to win the game. Well they did just that and Trevor won the game. I expect Tampa to do the opposite in this game.

It is clear that Trevor can throw the ball with confidence, velocity and anticipation. And every game that Trevor plays, gives defensive coordinators that much more film and game study on him. The defenses will become more complex and will be designed in a way to specifically prevent Trevor from excelling. After an NFL record setting week, Trevor needs to continue to be humble and realize that as AFC player of the week, he is now on the radar.

READ MORE: How Denver matches up against Tampa

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