The 2015 NFL season has been a strange one -- for a lot of reasons.

I mean, if the playoffs started after Sunday of Week 16, the starting quarterbacks in the AFC would be Tom Brady, A.J. McCarron, Brock Osweiler, Brandon Weeden, Alex Smith, and Ryan Fitzpatrick.

What are we to make of that?

Well, for one team in the playoff mix (a team that can actually finish with the top seed in the AFC or miss the postseason entirely), it means a lot. The Denver Broncos, led by Osweiler, enter a Monday Night Football tilt against the McCarron-led Cincinnati Bengals.

That's not nearly as intriguing as a Peyton Manning-Andy Dalton showdown to determine the fate of these two franchises, but we have to take what the NFL gives us.

And for superstar wide receiver Demaryius Thomas, that's not a good thing this year.

Thomas' Downward Trend

Entering 2015, much was made about Thomas' contract, though he wasn't the only star receiver whose new deal was a big talking point. Thomas, Dez Bryant, Julio Jones, and A.J. Green were all in the mix for new, monstrous deals, and Thomas wound up with a 5-year, $70 million deal.

Despite the immediate and (somewhat) unbelievable struggles of Peyton Manning, Thomas got off to a solid start in the box scores.

He saw double-digit targets in six of his first seven games, and he recorded at least 92 receiving yards in five of those seven games. Yes, he reached the end zone just once, but the volume and yardage were there.

His per-game averages of 12.29 targets, 99.29 yards, and 8 catches, though, fell off pretty quickly.

From Week 9 through Week 15 (another seven-game sample), Thomas' averages fell to 10 targets, 5.29 catches, and 61.86 yards.

Thomas did score four times since Week 9 and just once through Week 8, but what are we to make of his season?

Thomas' Metrics

Even with other receivers' Week 16 numbers (and before Thomas plays on Monday night) baked in, his 156 targets rank fifth among all players this year. His 93 catches are 7th, and his 1,128 yards are 10th.

It's hard to say he's having a bad year if you look at those season-long marks.

But if we look past those stats and into some advanced numbers, Thomas' season has clearly been affected by something -- likely his quarterbacks.

In terms of our Randall Cobb. His Catch Rate (47.17 percent) would be 73rd. His Success Rate (88.00 percent) would be a less-bad 33rd, but without the upside, those catches are limited in use even if they are more consistently contributing to NEP than they were with Manning.

Thomas' future with Denver is assured, as he has four years left on his deal, but how he performs with Osweiler, Manning or any other quarterback while with the team might end up being the biggest piece of the Super Bowl puzzle for the Broncos for years to come.