On paper this is the better edition of The Broncos, '20 vs '19. I had pretty high hopes for a number of reasons:
- Lock would progress, and coming off a nice rookie season of 4 and 1
- Some good signings including Gordon, Casey, Bouye
- More weapons in the draft, with a top 3 WR, and a variety of pretty solid picks
- An Oline that had potential to improve
- Another year of coaching chemistry
But the season started off very harshly due to injuries. It's hard to sustain momentum when you do not have Miller, Sutton, Casey and so many others hurt, even if for a few games.
All along, covid was going to rear its ugly head, probably for some teams more than others. But as we saw yesterday, even one game well into the season can look pretty messy minus some key players, and what appeared to be a certain "non readiness", possibly leading to some injury. It's a level playing field, but it's not.
As for The Broncs, clearly Drew did not progress as I had hoped, but he's got some time. The injuries were brutal, but with many players returning, it's hard to say how much better we really are. I know, can't put much stock in this last contest. But I think we will get more answers this Sunday, and dare I say, I would not bet on The Broncs in KC.
So here we are, 4 and 7, maybe 4 and 8 this Sunday. One can speculate, and get into what ifs and so forth, but if we are 4 and 8, we are still not a good team. The injuries at some point have to be reckoned with. Other teams have injuries as well, and to some top tier players. I will say however, that there comes a point when even good teams can only be competitive for so long, depending on how many quality players they lose.
There are some encouraging elements in all of this....Bolles is a better player, our D has done well considering, and we are establishing some depth. And no doubt, there are other positives that we can elaborate on.
But all in all, in some ways we're looking a bit like the team from last year, at least on record.....and in one fundamentally important aspect as well, at QB. With 5 games left in '19, in came Lock. Here we are, 5 games left, and we are essentially in the same QB situation in my opinion, with a very critical assessment ahead pre draft, and yes, pre free agency (and do not rule out trades). We must determine if we have our long term QB on the roster, and if not sure, we must gauge what level of investment we are willing to spend to acquire the one that best fits our needs. Some might want to aggressively pursue one or more of the top draftees, some will say wait til round 2 at least, some will want us to pursue acquisition of a seasoned NFL QB. The latter two have been exercised with some regularity over the last number of years, and not with a great deal of success.
And I won't go into depth re: our Leadership, but I do hope things improve overall, whether it be in terms of ownership or otherwise. Lets just say we have some work left.
- Lock would progress, and coming off a nice rookie season of 4 and 1
- Some good signings including Gordon, Casey, Bouye
- More weapons in the draft, with a top 3 WR, and a variety of pretty solid picks
- An Oline that had potential to improve
- Another year of coaching chemistry
But the season started off very harshly due to injuries. It's hard to sustain momentum when you do not have Miller, Sutton, Casey and so many others hurt, even if for a few games.
All along, covid was going to rear its ugly head, probably for some teams more than others. But as we saw yesterday, even one game well into the season can look pretty messy minus some key players, and what appeared to be a certain "non readiness", possibly leading to some injury. It's a level playing field, but it's not.
As for The Broncs, clearly Drew did not progress as I had hoped, but he's got some time. The injuries were brutal, but with many players returning, it's hard to say how much better we really are. I know, can't put much stock in this last contest. But I think we will get more answers this Sunday, and dare I say, I would not bet on The Broncs in KC.
So here we are, 4 and 7, maybe 4 and 8 this Sunday. One can speculate, and get into what ifs and so forth, but if we are 4 and 8, we are still not a good team. The injuries at some point have to be reckoned with. Other teams have injuries as well, and to some top tier players. I will say however, that there comes a point when even good teams can only be competitive for so long, depending on how many quality players they lose.
There are some encouraging elements in all of this....Bolles is a better player, our D has done well considering, and we are establishing some depth. And no doubt, there are other positives that we can elaborate on.
But all in all, in some ways we're looking a bit like the team from last year, at least on record.....and in one fundamentally important aspect as well, at QB. With 5 games left in '19, in came Lock. Here we are, 5 games left, and we are essentially in the same QB situation in my opinion, with a very critical assessment ahead pre draft, and yes, pre free agency (and do not rule out trades). We must determine if we have our long term QB on the roster, and if not sure, we must gauge what level of investment we are willing to spend to acquire the one that best fits our needs. Some might want to aggressively pursue one or more of the top draftees, some will say wait til round 2 at least, some will want us to pursue acquisition of a seasoned NFL QB. The latter two have been exercised with some regularity over the last number of years, and not with a great deal of success.
And I won't go into depth re: our Leadership, but I do hope things improve overall, whether it be in terms of ownership or otherwise. Lets just say we have some work left.
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