The next team up on our Gridiron Blitz is the Denver Broncos
Music to listen to: Fantasy by Earth, Wind & Fire
One of the lead singers for the group, Philip Bailey, was born in Denver. EWF is an amazing group that doesn’t get enough credit for its musical diversity. Much love to them.
Current State: It was a tale of two seasons for the Broncos last year. The team started 6-0, including a dramatic home victory over the Dallas Cowboys on national TV, prompted some to consider them the favorite to win the AFC around the halfway point. However, reality set in and Denver finished the year 8-8 and missed the playoffs. Which brings me to the next section of the post…
Biggest Offseason Change: The entire Denver philosophy of the past two seasons. Prior to current head coach Josh McDaniel’s arrival prior to the 2009 season, Denver was known as a team that scored many points behind quarterback Jay Cutler, wide receiver Brandon Marshall and the schemes of former head coach Mike Shannahan. None of those three guys are in the Denver organization anymore.
This has truly turned into McDaniel’s organization. The West Coast offense and 4-3 defense as been replaced with a more spread attack and a 3-4 defense. However, you can see the negative effect during the 2-8 slide in the record last season. The offense became more predictable and easier to stop while the defense allowed nearly 30 points a game.
Uniform Grade: I’ve always been a fan of the orange and blue color scheme, especially the orange jersey. Some many find the color obnoxious, but it’s a welcome change from many teams in the rest of the league embracing dark colors, especially black. I’m not a fan of the all-blue uniforms that they sometimes wear at home though. Grade: B+
Best Player: The best player on the roster is linebacker Elvis Dumervil, who led the NFL in sacks last season with 17. However, he’s probably out until at least November and most likely for the rest of the season with a torn pectoral.
Since he’s out, a case can be made for left tackle Ryan Clady but I’ll get to the entire offense during the most important player portion of the post.
I’ll take Champ Bailey, the elite cornerback who has continued to play at a high level, even after he turned 30 years old.
Most Important Player: The entire quarterback situation in Denver is intriguing and deserves the distinction in this category because there are up to three guys who may see significant time at the spot.
Denver was wise to resign Kyle Orton to a new contract that extends him through next season. He may lack the physical abilities to be an elite quarterback like his contemporaries but understands the Denver offense and can execute it well.
The presumed backup, Brady Quinn, is a below-average quarterback but may see time because of an injury to Orton. If Quinn sees significant time this season, Denver may finish in last place in the AFC West.
Finally, we get to first-round pick, Tim Tebow. For those of you new to my articles, I’m going to admit that I’m not a fan of Tebow. I think that his football skills have been overvalued significantly by the sports media and fans. He had a stellar college career but that’s over and now we have to look at his game translating to the pro level.
Tebow has to make major improvements in every aspect of quarterbacking, particularly his overall mechanics and reading defenses. He’s a long-term project but given the place he was drafted, the Broncos must play Tebow in every game to gain his worth.
The Broncos may want to use Tebow in some “wildcat” situations but if he’s designated as the third quarterback, the only way he can play is in an emergency situation. If you make Tebow your backup QB and Orton gets hurt, do you trust Tebow to run the entire offense for a game? I wouldn’t at this stage and that’s the dilemma that the Broncos find themselves in.
The reality s that if the Broncos want any shot of making the playoffs or even having a winning record, the quarterback must produce at a high level.
Best Case: Orton plays like he did during the first half of 2009. The defense finds a way to improve and compensate for Dumervil’s loss. Broncos uses its home-field advantage to win some games it shouldn’t. Sweeps Kansas City and Oakland, splits with San Diego, finishes second in the AFC West and sneaks into the playoffs.
Worst Case: The quarterback situation becomes bad and no one emerges as the top guy. The defense’s lack of pass rush allows opposing offenses to score points easily, putting pressure on an already weak Broncos offense. Drops games to KC and Oakland, gets swept by San Diego and doesn’t finish with a winning record.
Coaching: When a new coach comes to a team, he tends to clean house. He may eliminate a coordinator, draft some new players, maybe even cut some players from the old regime who aren’t compliant to the new systems in place.
Than there’s what McDaniels has done in two years at Denver.
In two successive off-seasons, he has managed to get rid of a Pro-Bowl quarterback, receiver, tight end, change the entire offensive and defensive schemes, chose a reject from another team as his quarterback, drafted an underdeveloped quarterback in the first round of a draft and many other things.
Last season, many adjectives described McDaniels from arrogant, sly, intelligent, wily, seasoned, young, etc. This offseason he has been surprisingly quiet by his standards and maybe taken a page out of his mentor‘s mentality towards coaching, Bill Belicheck. Keep a quiet front and go about your business.
One thing is for sure. The failures or success of Denver lie completely in the hands of McDaniels and that’s probably what he has wanted from the beginning.
First memory of team: Growing up, one of my favorite non-New York Giants was John Elway like many other people in my neighborhood. His style of play was always exciting for a non-partisan fan. He probably had the strongest arm in the league and he could scramble as well. You never knew what to expect and if the Broncos were even within range of winning a game in the fourth quarter, you knew they had a chance to win the game.
I also remember the crappy teammates that he had. I would see teams like the Bills and 49ers have darn all-star squads on their rosters and look at the Broncos and say that besides Elway, I wouldn’t take any of their other players. This was in the early 1990’s before Shanahan got there and brought in the championship squads of the later part of the decade.
I don’t get into the sentiment of wanting to see players win titles because they’ve been in the league a long time and they deserve it. You earn what you get. However, when the Broncos won its first Super Bowl, I was happy for Elway.
Schedule: The Titans will have to deal with San Diego, Oakland and Kansas City in the division.
The home games are Seattle, Indianapolis, New York Jets, St Louis and Houston. Tall five of those are winnable contests. The away games are at Jacksonville, Tennessee, Baltimore, Arizona and against San Francisco in London. The overall schedule isn’t impossible but there are some easy wins for those guys as well.
City Nicknames: We can all agree on the Mile High City.
Fantasy Focus: This is a tricky team to look at on offense. I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking Orton because I don’t think he’s going to put up good fantasy numbers. They rotate running backs and receivers so it may be best to avoid this team at all costs.
Overall Outlook: The Broncos can be a surprise team this season. We saw their max in the early part of 2009 and even than they needed some luck to win games. They will have some good moments like beating San Diego but also look bad in games like at Tennessee. That sounds like an average season to me.
Final Record: 8-8
Gridiron Blitz 2010 Season Previews:
AFC East:
AFC North:
AFC South:
The Sports Inquirer 
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