THE SHOW MUST GO ON
Even though the Broncos fell just short of the postseason, it’s still playoff time in the NFL, and that means that players, coaches and fans are excited.
The Broncos’ excitement is certainly tempered, by Brandon Stokley said he can’t help but to watch some of this weekend’s matchups.
“I am a football fan,” he said. “I love football. I love watching the playoffs. I will be cheering for Indy.”
Stokley used to play for the Indianapolis Colts, and it doesn’t hurt that they’re going up against the San Diego Chargers.
Jay Cutler, on the other hand, said his TV won’t be tuned in to any playoff football.
“I won’t watch them,” he said. “No interest in it.”
RUNNING BACK BY COMMITTEE
This season, the Broncos saw as many as seven different running backs start a game. That’s an absurd amount for any team, but the Broncos continued to find ways to get some production on the ground week-in and week-out.
“I think it’s hard for backs to get a rhythm if they’re not in there every week and taking all the reps every week,” Chris Kuper said. “I think those guys did a great job, though, coming in.”
The team ranked No. 12 in the league in rushing offense with just over 116 yards per contest.
With so many talented backs emerging and then getting injured for Denver this season, the Broncos will have some tough decisions to make come the start of the 2009 campaign.
Ryan Harris for one didn’t know which way the coaches would go, and joked about his odds of picking the right answer when asked to choose who would be next year’s starter.
“I don’t know, you’ve got a one-in-12 chance, right?” he said with a laugh. “Take those odds if you want, but I’m not picking anything.”
DRAFT STATUS
It looks like Denver’s draft position is all set — No. 12.
The Broncos were one of five teams to end the regular season at 8-8. One of the five — San Diego — is eliminated from the conversation because the Chargers are in the playoffs. That leaves the Broncos, Houston Texans, New Orleans Saints and Washington Redskins all tied for the same draft spot.
The tiebreaker formula is all about strength of schedule — the team with the easiest strength of schedule in terms of opponent records gets the earlier draft pick. Out of the four, the Broncos (117-139) played the easiest schedule, and therefore will draft in the No. 12 position. The Redskins will draft 13th, the Saints 14th and the Texans 15th. The Chargers’ draft position will be determined by their results in the post season.
Denver has had some recent success with the No. 12 pick — Ryan Clady was picked in that spot in the 2008 NFL Draft, and he went on to start all 16 games at left tackle, only allowing a half a sack all season.
SIX FUTURE CONTRACTS
The Broncos on Monday signed six players to future contracts.
Defensive tackle Matthias Askew, guard Mitch Erickson, wide receiver Jayson Foster, defensive tackle Ryan McBean, cornerback Rashod Moulton and wide receiver Matt Willis officially will be added to Denver’s roster at the conclusion of the 2008 NFL season in February. All six players finished the year on the Broncos’ practice squad.
-Gray Caldwell, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Brandon Stokley, Chris Kuper, Gray Caldwell, Jay Cutler, NFL Draft, Ryan Clady, Ryan Harris
hrdnokd-Shanny has drafted a great CB-If you were a true fan you would remember the superstar in the making- D-Williams.
A man wiser then me once said-it is better to say nothing and be thought of a fool, then to speak and remove all doubt.
This is not a coaching issue, the defense’s problem is execution and tackling. The issues with the coverage by the DB’s start with the front 4, we need a two big tackles to take up space so our smaller, faster ends can get to the QB. Haynsworth would be a good start. Yes this season is over, deal with it. Let the team regroup and take another shot next year.
hmmmm
go broncos =]
Mr. RMT, aka captain jerky boy, do you remember Middlebrooks, O’neil, any of the other 10 db’s he’s drafted? One good player doesn’t make up for two 1st round busts and a NUMBER of other 2nd and 3rd round flops. Any “true fan” would remember them, so I guess that counts you out.
Y DID WE GET RID OF COYER
Our Defense will suck as long as Slowick is calling the plays and our offense will suffer as a result. It’s too much to ask our offense to score 30-40 points a week. The oppossing offense will be on the field for a majority of the game which keeps us out of a rythym and prevents us from controlling the game.
luigi y would u put bell on the practice squad after what he did in the last game
Defense, Offense, Special Teams, team loss? You win as a team and loss as a team every play counts every missed catch, fumble, INT, missed tackle, blown coverage. You can call it a team loss but when you’re out there playing to only get “yours” there is no team. Everyone seems to be playing to get “theirs” not to benefit the team. Cutler’s head wasn’t in the game he was more worried about sticking it to Rivers instead of leading his team to a win. The D…well when your offense is struggling you need your D to step up and keep the team in the game. Our D hasn’t done that all year long. Whatever has to change needs to be done. I don’t know if that means staff changes or what. 1 year from now I don’t want another 8-8 record sitting at home with no playoffs.
We need to pick up “Albert Haynesworth” a DL, this dude is 6’6 320lb this year he had (8.5 sacks, 51 tack, 3 ff, and 11 STFY) I really don’t know why the Titans let him go…..
We need to try him out for are team
what the hell are you thinking Rebuild the D i can only think of 2 possitions we could use help and who ever said corners is retarded ok champ josh and dre theres 3 amazing corners there now if we could get some pressure on the QB ud see how well they work. so there a DT and like ive said before a MLB thats a vocal captain like Al Wilson was, and seriously get rid of Shanahan? why dont we just get rid of eddie and ryan clady while were at it? seriously? hes still 1 of the most feared coaches in the league he could prolly do a better job if he had his starting RB’s healthy and the defense missed tackles he was’nt the 1 tryin to make the big hit instead of wrappin up
We’ve been “rebuilding” ever since Elway left. You can stack s#it on top of s#it, that ain’t gonna build a mansion for ya. I feel that after this season even Shanny knows something has got to happen.
I hate to hear Cutler say he’s not going to watch the playoffs and he has no interest in them. I hope the statement was one that was made out of emotion and not how he truly feels. Culter, you need to watch the playoffs very closely, so you can see the drive, the passion, intensity and the emotional comitment that goes in to the playoffs. Please watch!
I know a lot of people want to rag on Cutler I do not think it is time for that yet. He’s young and has a lot of potential. It is a lot of stress for a young QB to feel that he must score on every possesion or his team will lose the game. That is an awful lot of pressure placed on his shoulders. Of course, he makes some bad throws that make you want to reach out and choke him, but you have to make some risky throws in order to make big plays some times. Even if they get in the endzone on that INT he throws in the endzone, they are not going to stop the chargers… we all knew that.
That being said, someone needs to work with Cutler on taking care of the ball and not giving up easy picks, that’s his only problem on the field. He’s an emotional guy and he wears that emotion on his sleave. Some times that emotion gets taken the wrong way by unlookers.
The time has come Bronco fans, if we want young Cutler to be successful we must get behind him and support him; through thick and then. It is time to stop with the, ” But ELWAY THIS and BUT ELWAY THAT… HE’S NO ELWAY”. I am one of the biggest Elway fans ever, in all reality he is the reason why I love this game! But it is time to let the past be the past. We do not have to ever forget Elway and the things he did for our Broncos, but it is time to let go. This might be a little G A Y… but if you remember in the movie Titanic, at the end Kate Winslet tells Leonardo Decaprio, ” I’ll never let you go jack, I’ll never let you go”, as she rips her hand out of his and watched him sink. Well we’ll never let you go John, but we are turning away from the past and looking to the present and the future.
Let’s allow Elways memories to be just that, memories! Let’s support Cutler and buckle up for some new fresh Bronco memorable moments. Cutler, we do not want you to be John Elway, just be the best Jay Cutler you can be and I’m sure you will give us a treat!
LET’S GO “D” TOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will say it again. I have been one of Mike Shanahan’s greatest supporters, but I think it is fair to give him two and at more three more seasons. If the Broncos are not close to being a Super Bowl caliber team by the end of the 2010 or 2011 campaign, it will be time to part company and get a new GM, a new head coach, etc. to reinvent and reenergize the franchise.
On a side note, new uniforms with orange being the predominant jersey color are a must. I know once Denver changed uniforms, they won back-to-back Super Bowls, but the logo and uniforms are very late 90s looking and so many teams in the league it seems have navy blue as their main color (e.g. New England, Chicago, Houston, Buffalo, San Diego, etc.). It’s time to go back to orange and royal blue colors and maybe keep the darker blue in there to merely compliment. Bring in a change to a more classic retro jersey and overall uniform design.
Facts: Bob Slowik’s history as defensive coordinator in the National Football League. From the NFL website: these figures are based upon team rank in all NFL in total yardage by defense (total defense). From 1993-1998, Slowik was d-coordinator for the Chicago Bears. His teams ranked 4th, 13th, 19th, 12th, 12th, and 14th. In 1999, he was d-coordinator for the Cleveland Browns and his team ranked 31st. In 2004, he was d-coordinator for the Green Bay Packers and his team ranked 25th in all the NFL. This year his Broncos ranked 29th in all the NFL in total defense. His career average rank as a defensive coordinator in the NFL is 18th. And this is the guy who’s going to stay put and lead our defense next season?
we need ray maualuga… he is going to be the next troy polamalu
GET HIM ON OUR TEAM SHANNY!
GO BRONCOS
I’m sorry, I don’t see any speed / pass rush on our D-line. Rivers had ALL night to throw; not even a hand in his face as sat back and had a beer while watching Champ chase Jackson all the way across the field. Same with just about any other QB we played this year.
Our D-line can’t keep our linebackers from getting blocked, or contain the edges on the run either. I saw one running play against SD where the SD o-line blew Engleberger nearly 15 yards off the ball.
Drafting isn’t going to help our D-line. D-linemen need a chance to physically develop. What we need is something on par with the year Shanny brought all 4 D-linemen over from Cleveland.
Draft linebackers and defensive backs, and a new FG kicker, or draft an offensive talent and trade him for a defensive veteran.
Also, I can’t say I’m a fan of Slowik either. We blitz all 8 and still can’t get to the QB because there is nothing inventive about our blitzes. No overload, no twists, no delays… There was a true lack of creativity to solving the problem of what was an obvious lack of defensive talent.
And for the love of God, get a new strength coach. One of our problems is that Slowik espouses 11 hats on the ball, which sounds great in high school, or when you play a straight ahead runner, but it doesn’t work when you play a running back that can cut back as we saw against LT, or on many of the other BIG plays we gave up against the run all year long.
So many posts read, “the defense would have held the other teams running back to just 50 yards if not for the one big play.”
Watching us tackle at times this year would have been comical if it wasn’t so painful. I remember Chris Collinsworth chuckling to himself against the Browns when he remarked, “This Denver defense is just terrible,”
The amount of pressure put on the offense this year was just staggering. No room for ball control or field position, but the need to score a TOUCHDOWN on every single drive might sound great when you live in a perfect world, but is unrealistic in the NFL. Even Elway used to pooch punt for us on occasion.
And to feel like we can’t take some off the pressure off of the offenses shoulders because Prater is going to boot it is another moral killer.
Either we get a largely revamped defensive line, or we suffer the same fate next year.
Alright, you all got your wish,,,,SHANNY IS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So now who do we get, looks like Cowher is going to NY????? Can we pull Carroll from USC?
Wow, that’s all I have to say. I hope this doesn’t come back to haunt the Broncos and their fans…
Oh…. My… Gosh…. I was sitting here on my laptop, turn it onto NFL Network and w/ in seconds they show it…. I seriously wanted to cry… My mom was sitting in here and was shcocked also…. Who the heck is there to get?????????…. Some crappy head coach that was fired already???… or some big head “hot shot” rookie coach… this suck balls
Better watch out what you ask for because sometimes you get it. This will definately make this offseason interesting. Is Cower going to the Jets? We could use him here, at least then we would have someone with a defensive mentaility.
I also heard that Champ was cut is that true?
All of you who were calling for Shanny’s head are going to be really pissed when he takes over at the cheaps or faiders.
I wish Bowlen had asked him to give up the GM position and kept the offense.
Oh well, we’ll see what next year brings.
that does suck to see him go but i assure u he’s not goin to the raiders he’s a hater for life cause of what al davis did to him. actually the jets are lookin at him.
go broncos!!
ok i was just making sure that my blog went through. but enough said..
my best interest is in the broncos..
believe it or not i read every single blog everyone wrote..
i agreed with alot and disagreed with alot of them also…
but hey the season is over and we need to move on and hope for the best next season .. we have .. wat i think is the hardest schedule in the league.
to start off i would like to say our offense was incredible this season… jay had a spectacular season and so did marshall . we have a lot of young talent coming in. the moment i saw woodyard play in pre-season i really believed we had a starter in our defence..hes a machine!!
clady was the best offensive line player in draft.. royal did great things also and brought some exitement to our team.. i just wish that he would have returned every kick and punt return . i know for sure he would’ve had a TD. I hate to say this but for all of you who think our defence played well and did ok… u are sooooo wrong.. we really did sucked. and you wanna know why .. no pass rush. i read sum ppls comments about how bailey is getting old and bly is the cancer in the team.. just like peyton and brady and any other QB. if given the time in this league any QB can make a throw .. c’mon!!!!! this is the NFL……. if we dont get pressure on the QB we are going to loose every game. we cant just rely on our offense scoring huge points every game..
on shanny being fired….
well i was really shocked and sad…… you got to suck it up and move on…he was a good coach.. and thanks to his drafting skills over the past 3 years we should have a good team.. i always was frustrated that mike didnt get good free agents in defense he always got special teamers like niko to prove themselves in the team.. well that was crap.. we need good quality free agents in our team if we want to improve our defense for next year… we need to spend sum money for our defense… the only players who i think deserve to be starters for next season in our D is champ, and D.J williams.. even though both of them had injuries.. the rest of the players will have to compete for their jobs … cuz i smell competition this offseason with the broncos Defense. no ones job is really safe though….
but enough said our offense is exellent we dont need any other players.. we just need to focuse on bringing defensive players to out team…
for the draft here our my picks..
i hope that we get either rey maualuga or that hard hitting safety both from USC. Im from southern cali and a USC fan also and i know wat they can do i had the priveledge to meet with both of them at the university in practice.. with sum of my friends.. they are really good players. and we need maualuga at middle to be the heart and stop the run and make tackles not like webster …. ohh webster was very dissapointing this season for me.. he does not know how to tackle . in the chargers game when the chargers where at the goal line. he tried tackling L.T. but it was more like a arm tackle moving away from him.. that was pathetic .thats why i think we need mmaualuga i know he wont do that. if it was woodyard in there he would of made the stop 4 sure…
we need to get a DT and i read on here that sumone said hayesworth is in the market. the broncos should try everything is their power to get him no matter wat it takes. if we get him and another good DE or abraham from the falcons .OMG!!!! wat an improvement this defense we will have. and dre and champ will have more picks cuz the QB will make stupid throws.lol
i just hope we make good moves this off-season and in the draft..
thanks for all of you who actually read all of this … this is actually my first time writing a comment cuz i just became a member… plez give me feed back in wat you think i wrote. i wanna know wat all of you think..
07elway, your offensive genius is unemployed…
Shocked to hear Shanny got the boot…but we all know it was time. Yes I to am worried about who they are going to get, but this decision had to be made. The decisions Shanahan was making as vp were just as bad as Matt Millens decisions when he was in Detriot. Someone had to stop him! It could take years to fix the mess he has made and the money he has wasted on that defense!
Shanahan was only effective with Elway, Davis, and Sharpe. Most of the talent was already in place from the Dan reaves years. Ever since Shanahan started making vp decisions the team has been on a decline. Even though there were some years where we were winning games, we were never truly competing for a Super Bowl since the Elway years; the team was mediocre and never put fear in to the oppositions heart, never.
The one playoff when in ten years was a game against the Patriots, which if any die hard fan remembers was a game Denver probably should not have won (Vert fluky win). We did not belong in that AFC Championship game in 2005, we were embarrassed at home by the steelers; the “D” was herrendous in that game.
Bottom line, Shanahan had to go! I appreciate him for being a peice to the puzzle that won 2 Super Bowls. Thank you ! The bad decisions started early going with Griese, then Gus Ferrotte, and then the Plumber experiment and the constant horrific moves made on defense.
In the end I believe Shanahan was nothing more than a really, really good offensive coordinator who won 2 Super Bowls with the GREATES QB to ever play the game and talent brought in by a coach reeves. Shanahan rode those Super Bowls for 10 years and we as fans allowed it because we had stars in our eyes, but we have come back to reality; reality said we were in trouble if Shanny stayed!!!!!!!!!
Please comment if any one believes they can refute this arguement!