Just What Is The Denver Bronc. Front Office Thinking?

[vicious2500]

Anderson production can be replicated by Danye, but I have more confidence in Bell finally showing up to camp as a new and improved player and finally taking the starting job by the neck. He has the explosiveness to break any play for a big gain and give us that portis factor. He better show up to camp or his last chance to be a starting RB may very well be gone. Bell also showed some presence in the red zone and can run between the tackels he might not have the power to break multiple tackles, but he can consisently pickup positive yardage. He showed improvement on his blocking this season and his hands progressed as time went on.

Bell could be that game changer for us if he brings the right attitude and playing style forward. He has the right size to be a feature back its just his desire is sometimes questioned. Another game breaker on our team is Ashely Lelie. His number isn't called as much as it should be because of Smith, but we need to get him more touches on the ball and call more stuff to get him open and use his speed. Plummer and Lelie need to work together during the offseason and get that connection back so we can hve a a consistent deep ball threat again.Putzier as a big lost and we need to draft a TE to learn the system and help bring down passes to push Duke/Jackson for the other TE spot.

[Cugel]

You say that the Colts didn't lose much with James, but I must disagree.

The Colts averaged 3.7 yards per carry as a team. James averaged 4.2 yards per carry which wasn't fantastic, but after James there was a HUGE dropoff. Dominic Rhodes, their number two runner averaged 3.0 yards per carry. Mungro averaged only 2.1 yards per carry. Sure, they will likely draft a running back that may pick up the slack, but we don't know how successful they will really be in that endeavor. And let's not forget that their defense allowed an astounding 4.4 rushing yards per carry and allowed the highest completion percentage in the league by a wide margin despite facing paltry competition within their division.

The Steelers lost Randel El and Chris hope. I would expect Pittsburgh to still be a good team next year. I don't think that has changed, but they have regressed so far and not improved.

The Bengals are going to be without their starting quarterback to start the season and still have some substantial holes in their defense.

The Dolphins should be improved, but it's still to be seen whether they can win their division as they still have to surpass New England who lost a couple of good players this offseason.

That same Chiefs team only went 10-6 this season. And while LJ had a very good year and the Chiefs had a powerful offense, we still outperformed them in the running game in all facets. We averaged more yards per carry and we gained more yards. And this was despite the fact that they had a pro-bowler running behind the line.

Their defense was much improved over 2004, but they still had some holes and now that they've released their second and third corners, they now have more holes on that side of the ball.

I agree that Denver will again be playing in a tough division. Neither KC nor SD will be weak competition.

As for your contention that Denver "overachieved". I disagree their two.

Denver had one of the best pass defenses in the league allowing the third lowest completion percentage in the league and the eighth fewest yards per completion.

Denver had a pretty good run defense. Denver allowed a mediocre 4.0 yards per carry, this average was inflated by teams gaining big yardage on our nickle defense (which we played a lot this year due to our having a lead so often).

Denver was pretty good on offense as well. Denver's rushing yards per carry average was 4.7. Only one team had a higher average and that team's numbers were inflated by having arguably the best running quarterback of all time.

Denver's passing offense was not nearly as fantastic this year, but was still pretty good. The completion percentage of 60.0 was ranked 15th. The yards per pass attempt was ranked 10th.

Denver had an above average team in pretty much every category.

Now, why would you say that we overachieved?? Denver was a very good team and most statistics support that fact. I see no reason to think that Denver overachieved.

Once again, a pretty good anyalysis.

I would argue that the football outsiders DVOA ranking system gives a clearer indication (I used to criticize it but after looking more closely at it I've become a believer). eventually!LINK

According to them Denver had a very pedestrian #17 defense against the run. This was obscured by the fact that Denver was the least run on team in football.

Meanwhile the Broncos were #7 against the pass. This was obscured by the fact that they were the MOST passed against team in the NFL.

Despite this their DL sucked at rushing the passer. The ONLY Broncos DL who did anything at all in that department was Trevor Pryce (in a couple games). NOw he's gone (too much money anyway).

Nobody's replaced him. As of right now, the team starts the season with Myers and Warren at the DTs and Engleberger and Brown at the DEs.

Kill me now and save the humiliation!

Now maybe Shanahan can come up with SOMETHING in FA to do better than that, but it won't be easy and right now I don't see it.

The horrible DL will actually be WORSE next year. I see the defense as a whole sliding as a result, despite having great CBs. (If you object to the term "horrible" then explain how 1 John Abraham can have more tackles than almost the entire Broncos DL, and have 11 sacks compared to the Denver DL's 16)! That's "horrible". And don't say they were strong against the run, because statistically they were WORSE than in 2004 with guys like Reggie Hayward and Mario Fatafehi and Monsanto Pope as the DL!

NO pass-rush equals NO defense. You can't just blitz all year and expect teams not to adjust to it!

[theshiverman]

It doesent matter, if you trade for a player you still either have to give them a new contract or you have to pick up their old one, and if the player is a top free agent then you will have to give him big money, you cant just go out and sign a T.O or Abraham to a small contract, they wont go for it, they want to get paid, all that talk of getting T.O for a 1 year incentive loaded contract was Bull crap, that guys ego would never let him sign something like that, he knows he is good and he expects to get paid, Denver cant pay those guys this year.

I guess i was right, T.O got paid, now its Abrahams turn, and he will get even more then T.O got.