In Week 4’s Thursday night matchup, there’s a good chance one team will be getting their first win. The Denver Broncos will face the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium. Kickoff is at 8:20 PM Eastern on the NFL Network.
The Jets opened up their season with a loss in Buffalo to the Bills and racked up losses against the 49ers and Colts. The Broncos have lost games against the Titans, Steelers, and Buccaneers.
Both of these teams have started 0-3 in each of the past two seasons. The Jets enter this game as one-and-a-half point favorites.
Injured Broncos
The Broncos had a bad start to their season with the news Von Miller would not play in 2020. Since then, Miller has been joined on the injury list by Jurell Casey, Courtland Sutton, Phillip Lindsay, and A.J. Bouye.
Drew Lock was the opening day starter but had to be replaced by Jeff Driskel. After starting in Week 2, the coaching staff benched Driskel after poor play. Now, they will be starting their third different quarterback.
Denver will give the ball to Brett Rypien for his first start under center on Thursday. Rypien is in his first season out of Boise State and is the son of Super Bowl XXVI MVP Mark Rypien. He has just 53 yards of passing and one interception this season.
“We understand the situation we’re in,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio said. “We can’t change anything that’s happened. All we can do is look forward and prepare for our next game, which is coming here quickly on Thursday. I think our attitude is good.”
Darnold Struggles for Jets
There has been a lot of hope for Sam Darnold in New York. He is in his third year but hasn’t made much improvement so far this season. It doesn’t help that the Jets’ injury list is also stacking up.
Among those injured is Le’Veon Bell. Although he hasn’t been nearly the running back he was in Pittsburgh, the Jets still need him to be healthy to succeed.
“For me, I have to do a great job of making sure that I keep our players in the right headspace,” Jets coach Adam Gase said. “When a lot of negativity is coming at you and things are hard, that’s when everybody’s character has to really show up and they’ve got to go to work, and we’ve got to get it fixed.”
The Jets defense has struggled to start the season, giving up 27 points, followed by 31 and 36. While their struggling offense cannot keep up with those numbers, the offense has regularly put the defense in tough spots.
Prediction
This one is going to be tough to call. These are two teams that look to be among the worst in the NFL.
However, I think the Broncos are going to struggle with their rookie quarterback. They have hung in there with the Titans and Steelers, but they have had many changes on offense.
Darnold provides a bit of stability for the Jets’ offense, even if he hasn’t been playing well.
I’m taking the New York Jets to cover the one-and-a-half point spread on Thursday night against the Denver Broncos.