Playing in their fifth game together as a unit, the Broncos’ offensive line turned in their finest performance of the season Week 5 vs. San Diego. Denver quarterbacks were not sacked, and the line led the way for Willis McGahee’s second consecutive 100-yard rushing game.
“I think at this point in time, we’ve done a pretty good job of improving every week,” Offensive Line Coach Dave Magazu said. “I think we struggled early in grasping concepts and techniques that are new. I think that now we’re starting to understand all the concepts.”
Denver’s offensive line is the second-youngest in the NFL, averaging just 25.4 years of age. With three players in either their rookie or second season, the line continues to improve as a unit each week that they spend together.
Much of that improvement stems from the leadership of the unit’s veteran, Chris Kuper, who is in his sixth NFL season and was elected as a team captain in 2011.
“I think (Chris) does a great job. He’s a leader on the football field, in the locker room, in our meeting room,” Magazu said. “He’s been doing a great job of helping with the development of Orlando Franklin.”
With the front five showing improvement each week, so has the Broncos’ run game. McGahee has produced three 100-yard games, which is tied for the most among all NFL running backs in 2011.
Denver ranks 10th in the NFL, averaging 4.3 yards per carry this season, which is a 10.3 percent improvement over its 2010 rushing average. That improvement is ninth best among all NFL clubs.
Magazu credits Ryan Clady with sparking the production of the run game this season.
“Ryan’s obviously an outstanding football player,” Magazu said. “I thought he had his best game last week as far as a run blocker, so it is coming together for him.”
Tags: Chris Kuper, Dave Magazu, J.D. Walton, Offensive Line, Orlando Franklin, Ryan Clady, Willis McGahee, Zane Beadles
daddybronc although I agree do you really think Cutler would think that far? haha
strand – I’m a Californian – we get barracuda offshore – doesn’t cost as much but really have never caught Pike. I hear they’re comparable.
0723 – do you know if CAR has salary space for Lloyd? I agree that this could be one of the best possible places for Lloyd to land.
Test
I had just posted a comment about the broncos playing tonight in the CFL and it must have been moderated. Dang!
I don’t know their cap situation. I just figure Fox would ideally like to swap Lloyd for a player he is familiar with. St Louis would be another strong possibility with McD being the OC over there. And the Titans can’t really afford to pass on Lloyd with Britt on IR. They made a mistake of naming a price as low as a 5th round pick, but maybe having teams fight over Lloyd will up the price a little. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out. It seems pretty certain that Lloyd will get dealt by Tuesday though.
They should send Orton with him. He is used to being a throw-in when it comes to trades lol.
Landing in Carolina would give them 2 recievers who are both deep threats and have great possession skills… But Claytoon reported that Carolina pulled out of talks.
Hard telling. We pulled out of talks with Champ last year and came back and got the deal done. The league works in mysterious ways. Best bet is probably the Titans though. Don’t know what players they have that they could throw in that would help us though.
Granted, the Champ thing happened because McD got fired.
sad fact is we are in alot better shape than the usa but no politics this is a football fourm.
Champ resigning was a huge but welcome suprise but the difference is we have options behind Lloyd if he resigns if Camp left we had nothing
Champ* sorry
I think Cam is a one season wonder. I don’t see him as an overcomer able to withstand the losses that are piling up. Like Michael Irving said about Orton- those are give away yards – meaningless. Cam has got to get it in the endzone. Can he wait until they have a defense? Don’t think so. Cam’s confidence will be gone long before then.
For some reason Cam reminds me of V. Young.
I think that EFX must have some expectations (Do or die) for Royal and D Thomas. We’ve seen about as much of Bay Bay as we have Tebow! Maybe we will see Tebow, Decker and Thomas in the Pro Bowl some day. Then they can re-visit their first interview after their first practice after McD drafted them. I would hate to see Brandon go; however, DT could easily take his place? What are the coaches seeing? I can’t wait to find out.
It seems like Lloyd is Orton’s boy and isn’t too warm to the idea of Tebow. I love Lloyd and think he is pretty good but as wild said he did it one year on a team that pretty much only passed with a QB who only looked his way. His value is good though and his age is increasing so if there is a time to deal him it is now. D Thomas and Decker I think both are loking forward and excited to playing with Tebow where Orton isnt
As said by some, maybe package orton and Lloyd and leave them in Miami. HA HA!
The NFL today u need big receivers. We got 2 Decker and DT. Thats it. Look at the best in the leauge. HUGE. Throw it up and go get it. Slot guys like welker dont come along often. Lets go with height. Can Royal be good in the slot if healthy
Miami would still need a 10ft offensive line wall to make that work. jk
I do appreciate everyone’s opinion on here and have no problem with anybody. Sometimes it’s just fun to be excited without someone coming along soley to take the fun out of it. But honestly it was just about a year ago when I got on here to challenge the consensus opinion about McDaniels and I certainly posted my share of statistic laden posts trying to prove everyone wrong. Didn’t get me very far seeing as I’ve come around to everyone else’s opinion. Who know though. But it may come to pass that we’ll have to acknowledge he was pretty good in the draft. At least the 2010 class. It already looks like Eric Decker and JD Walton are shaping up to be big time career Broncos. We’ll find out real soon about Tebow and the jury is still out on Bay Bay. I know if Tebow is who we think he might be there will probably teams looking to give him another shot at HC in the next couple years. Personally I wouldn’t be surprised if he finds success down the line. Tom Landry didn’t have a winning season with the Cowboys for his first six years as head coach but his schemes were so complex players couldn’t execute them. He figured it out he had to dumb it down a little and next thing you know the Cowboys are “America’s Team”. You don’t get extended chances like that in today’s league. But I can say that McDaniel’s wasn’t ready to be a HC and it was best to part ways.
Oh boy! That would sure be a horrible lose to send B Loyd out of Denver for only a 3-5 round pick, surely he’s worth more? Guess they don’t want to pay the man to stick around. got get something for him i suppose.
Let’s all hope that the young D. Thomas can step up his game. Com’on man
Sure wounder what there plan for Orton is can’t imagine he has much value after us fans rejected the poor young man. Should they keep him as a back up? or send him packing for what do u think EFX would take? just any pick 3-7 give the other team there choice just like B. Loyd? Com’on man. Maybe the right thing to do is keep him and let him go for nothing and choose what team he wants.
That means we could potentially only receive a 5th round pick or nothing and lose a pro bowl WR along with what EFX had as a starting QB. who’s in charge of this operation? Com’on man
It’s to Bad for all partys that EFX couldn’t get a deal done with Miami during camp. we wouldn’t have this problem, we could be paying B Loyd what we r paying Orton to ride the pine. Plus we wouldn’t have had this hole circus act that us fan’s and media have created. #Tebow
How about them Broncos S/L
McD as a head coach again??? Just look at the Rams offence. Bradford looks lost and scared. Whats up with that.
Daddybronc I have to disagree with you about Newton. In all the losses we accumulated with Orton, the vast majority of them were by differential of 10 points or more. Cam is a rookie who got hated on a lot like Tebow and he is going out there and keeping them in every game. Those aren’t garbage yards and completion. They’ve been only a couple plays away from winning most of their games. Haven’t been beaten by more then a touchdown. And Ron Rivera is proving the spread can be a lot more effective in the NFL then everyone let on. For now anyway.
Born and Raised – His 2010 draft could be a very good draft, If Thomas stays on the field, and Tebow proves to be a winner, they have solid guys already in Walton, Beadles, and Decker.
From the 2009 draft Ayers is finally showing his 1st round potential and I think Knowshon can but Mcgahee pretty much buried his chance for carries. Bruton is a staple on ST but thats it. I didnt get the McBath release, tons of playmaking potential just couldnt stay of the injured list.
Any one know if Rod Smith is still working with recievers for denver how he did with Brandon Marshal? Demaryius Thomas could benifit a lot from that.
The Rams don’t have a ton of talent. Their D is even worse then their O. But you make a good point, Canada. McD will probably have to prove he can move an offense before he gets another shot. It won’t hurt his resume if Tebow takes the league by storm though. Drafting him in the first rounds was one of his most criticized decisions.
Born and Raised sorry I think it looks like a was trying to contradict you but I wasnt lol
LAX, I think Ayers could prove to be a good draft. He’s already having more success this year in the 4-3. I’ve been backing up Moreno a lot but I just don’t know anymore. I think if he is used primarily as a receiving back he could have a lot of success if he shows up like he has in pretty much every Tebow start.
If you’ve followed Moreno you can see the guy is a playmaker but he kills himself and has terrible luck.
1. He is injured at bad time (Start of the Season) so gets started late.
2. In the short time he playe in the 1st game the O-line was terrible and has since started to gel.
3. He is always to excited and not patient enough.
What ever happend to the phone call he was supposed to make to TD.
Once Mcgahee starts slowing down (He cant keep this up too long) Moreno may get the chance to grab a hold of the Starting gig for good.
Another thing Canada, all the folks who are in love with Luck should look at Bradford and see that you can’t be 100% sure that ANY player is going to work out. I’m not saying that Bradford won’t but it seems like he is worse this year than last. Just food for thought. All of those analysts who dogged Tebow and say that success in college doesn’t always translate should be fair and apply that logic across the board. Ryan Leaf anyone?
Cam Newton will come into his own over time. He has already WOWd alot of people with his rooky performances. Carolina will be a contender in the NFC next year. Mark my words!
As far as BL-
The coaches must see something very promising with DT if they’re shopping Lloyd. I’ve liked Lloyd before he had his great season last year. He seemed like a character guy. Good luck to Brandon wherever he goes. If we keep him, Tebow needs to be his best friend.
Moreno’s definitely made some big plays. My concerns are just with the injuries. I would love to see what he can do with some carries behind our improved O-line, which will hopefully continue to improve. Shanahan taught us how a great o-line translates into great running backs. I want Moreno to do good, just waiting to see it more consistently.
JaMarcus Russel? Wasnt there serious debate between whether Peyton Manning or Ryan Leaf would make the better pro? Can that debate finally be settled or is anyone still up for discussion?
Just throwing one more stat out there but Tim Tebow had a higher QB rating than anytother rookie passer last year including both Bradford and McCoy who both were “Smart Decision makers” just more food for thought as it were.
I think Decker has stepped up and made enough clutch plays to show he can be WR1 for now. I don’t think they’ve seen enough from Bay Bay to trade Lloyd based on his performance. He hasn’t been able to really practice much all year.
The guy is electric his Screen TD last week showed it too he just kills himself. Is there anything he can do about his hamstring injuries those seem to nag him.
Right on LAX I threw that stat about Tebow out there during the off season this year. Another one is Tebow completed 67% of his passes in college and threw 88 touchdowns against 15 interceptions. I understand the talk about success not translating but there have been plenty of analysts, Merrill Hoge included, that said he wasn’t accurate in college. Donovan Mcnaab only completed like 54% of his passes or something like that and he lead a team the perennially attended NFC championships. And Tebow is a harder worker than he is.
It seems like Moreno has made plays like that every time Tebow starts. Screens are just mo0re effective with Tim as well because defenses put a spy on him. When they call the screen at the right time it can really kill a defense now. Also contrary to what a lot of folks have said I think Mccoy is a good OC. He’s made a lot of great calls. Bronc at you guys later!
The accuracy debate is valid but I think it is more of Tebow being a little jumpy… He will improve with time i=his pocket presence needs to develop because throwing out of the shotgun is mch different than under center. I think Tims biggest problem there is Tebow will come out and fly through his reads but again he’ll improve with time and if the CS supports him
On that note I also think Royal stands to benifit a lot working out of the slot with Tebow because Tem=bow can look to him and Royal with his speed and quickness should be able to thrive with catch and yardage
can’t u see Bradford’s down fall is McD.
Luck is twice the QB Bradford is, well just have to check it out in 10yr
I dont think its mcD I think it his offense and the short time Bradford has had to grasp it. With time he may improve but maybe not
It could be the Offense could be a sophomore slump. No off season may may have hurt more than tebow
True take into account Tebow wil be playing in an Offense very simmilar to McDs because it was basically left with McCoy
LAX says:
“I dont think its mcD I think it his offense”
And on that note good night all see you am as usual.
Bay – Yes I don’t think it is but It is also possible that it is McD. McD is a terrible guy to have in charge but he is in a better position as an OC. The reason I think it is the offense because In NE Both Brady and Cassel had been in the system for years succeeding. In Denver Orton did better his 2nd year from a throwing and read sense. Its not the easiest offense did get a hold of especially for a 2nd year player who didnt have any Off Season to learn it, Just like Tebow didnt have any off season to work and improve. Is that a fair statement to make?
If your QB is having problems with the offense, you adjust your offense to make it work, McD is an idiot in that sense never able to adapt to anyone and therefore is fully responsible with however any of his teams or offfenses perform or don’t perform, remember all the players he got rid of because he had no clue how to deal with them, you mainly say stuff that makes very little sense to me LAX but as long as it makes sense to you, all is good, good night all.
I didn’t mean to bag on Cam – He’s a great QB. I just think that he doesn’t have the character and personality to overcome these losses. I hope I’m wrong. I’d love to see Cam and TT be the next generation of QB’s competing for top spot like Brady and P. Manning.
I’ve also been impressed with Moreno acting like a slot receiver.
Iconic seems to be on the same thought wave is all I’m saying I’m not endorsing McD or defending him that just seems a possibility for Bradfords struggles. You normally don’t need to adjust your offense for the No 1 overall pick QB unles its Cam Newton, Bradford should be able to pick it up but its hard without an offseason. McD set the franchise back a few years with all his bone head moves with power he should have never had. and watch St. Louis Offensive line it is terrible…
Mcd will never be a HC and his days are numbered as an assistant. Not because of his football mind – it’s because he doesn’t know how to respect the men who play for him. He has no idea how to earn the respect of his players.
daddybronc what about Royal working out of the slot with Tebow, seems like a beautiful marriage if Royal stays on the field look what Brady does with Welker and no other options. It seems like Tebow may lok short and Royal is quick and should find himself open enough for Tebow to throw to him