On DenverBroncos.com, Broncos TV took a look back at the top five plays on defense from the team’s 2010 season.
They are as follows:
5) Brian Dawkins’ interception of quarterback Matt Hasselbeck against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 2. The veteran safety said he let the tight end gain a little space, hoping to bait a throw by Hasselbeck. The quarterback obliged, and Dawkins leaped to make the interception.
“I didn’t think he could get there, but he got there,” Hasselbeck said.
4) Jason Hunter’s interception of Mark Sanchez in a close loss against the New York Jets. It’s not the last time Hunter is featured in the top five.
3) A goal-line stand by the defense against the Baltimore Ravens, the final play of which was a fourth-down sack of Joe Flacco.
2) Syd’Quan Thompson’s interception on a pass tipped by Brian Dawkins and Justin Bannan. It effectively sealed a Broncos win against the Houston Texans.
1) Mario Haggan’s takedown of Matt Cassel — he had three sacks on the day — which resulted in a forced fumble. Hunter picked up the ball and raced down the sideline for the defense’s sole touchdown of the year.
Let us know what you think of the selections. Agree with the rankings? Did we miss any? As always, leave your comments below.
Tags: Broncos TV
Also, check out this article! It is funny because start off and read the Panthers first pick and the guy talks about Peterson and also makes a comment about Bailey with Peterson! The guy has the Panthers selecting Green, and with Fairley available, still has us taking Peterson!
http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2011/2/20/2004827/2011-nfl-mock-draft-first-round-draft-pick-profiles
I definitely see Peterson as being the DeSean Jackson type of dual threat but on defense! We could even use Peterson as Punt returner and Kickoff returner but I don’t know if we would do that with having Peterson as a starting CB.
Here’s a scouting report on Marcell Dareus
Height: 6-2 3/4
Weight: 309
40-yard dash: 4.95
Current projection: Top-10 pick.
Against the run: Is a difference-maker. Unlike most defensive linemen, does not let his desire to pressure the QB negatively affect his ability to be a force against the run. Gets out of stance quickly to take on offensive linemen with excellent leverage. Uses hands well to hold his ground, shed the block and make the tackle at the point of attack. When aligned at end, maintains good outside containment and forces runners back inside. Against option teams, showed the athleticism to play the QB, force the pitch and still chase down the running back. Grade: 9.0
Pass rush: Is disruptive. Shows the quickness and snap anticipation to split gaps or beat offensive tackles around the corner. Once in a gap, has the strength to drive through contact and hit the QB. Beats one-on-one blocks with good hand usage. As a bull rusher, can jolt offensive linemen and drive them into the QB. Gets hands up nicely to bat down a lot of passes. Grade: 8.0
Initial quickness: It’s tough to grade him here because in Alabama’s scheme he often had two-gap responsibilities. Has flashed the quickness and snap anticipation to shoot gaps from time to time. Grade: 8.0
Run/pass recognition: Is smart and instinctive. Never gets fooled by fakes or misdirection plays. Shows good awareness to play blockers correctly and get into position to carry out his assignment with ease. Grade: 8.5
Pursuit/tackling: Shows the quickness, speed and burst to chase down ballcarriers. Plays with good knee bend at all times, enhancing ability to consistently wrap-up and tackle ballcarriers. Must learn to better use hands to protect legs from cut blocks. Grade: 7.5
Bottom line: Dareus doesn’t make as many highlight-reel plays because Alabama’s scheme required him to do a lot of grunt work, but he is perhaps the most consistent player in the draft and is productive in every facet of the game. He can play in any scheme: Defensive tackle in a one-gap or two-gap 4-3 system or end in a 3-4 scheme. Dareus is a top-10 pick who could contend for the No. 1-overall spot, someone who will start from Day 1.
— Russ Lande, War Room scouts
Like I said Dareus is my favorite option and official pick for our #2 pick for the draft contest, but I won’t dare reveal any of my other picks since UKBroncos is waiting in the wings to pick our brains and beat us up in the draft contest once again, LOL.
Just a reminder:
I will take entries for the draft contest starting April 14th through April 27th ONLY. You need to guess who we will pick and in what order for the first three rounds, so this year it looks as if you will have to give us your first 4 picks since we have one first, 2 seconds and a third. Get your mocks in order, haha.
Man, even Legwold is running out of things to say, I will spare you his article today where he says we should give Von Miller, Aggies OLB, a Dumervil look alike, a long look for our #2 pick. Yeah and totally forget that our achilles heel is that we haven’t been able to stop the run for years, so yeah pass on Dareus and Fairley and pick yourself another guy who can rush the passer when we already have Doom, geesh Legwold, for once you sound like a total idiot to me and that’s a first.
Ok thanks bay, that was good time last year doing our own mock draft.
I liked this report regarding Dareus who looks to be a very consistent D-lineman. He did really well with the grading system by this scout/scouts. He should be more effective in 4-3 where he would have one gap assignments. (inside/outside shade of O-lineman).
BTW, today is the deadline for putting the tag on franchised players, don’t expect us to tag anyone though…
Yeah I’m fully sold on Dareus and I can honestly say he is the only one who makes me feel that way. All there is for me to hope now is that Carolina doesn’t feel the same way and that our triumvirate does….
Bay, so do you think that we will take Dareus with the 2nd overall pick? I found a website last night regarding that we have been most intrigued by Peterson. I personally think we can get D-line help in the second round and them still be instant starters/impact makers. It hasn’t worked out for us in recent years drafting d-linemen in the first round even though we didn’t have Fox’s very keen skill for accessing defensive talent. The combine will be very exciting!!
Yeah, I thought I have been clear about that.
I honestly believe that if we really want Dareus that we can trade down to the 4-5 pick! Fairley, Peterson, and Bowers will all most likely be the first 3 players taken in the draft, or most people believe, and even if we do mess up and Dareus is taken, we could still draft Quinn who has been most consistent and was believed to be the best defensive linemen this year if he wouldn’t had been suspended.
I think if we want Dareus, which I really do not see us getting, we will trade back a few spots and pick up some more draft picks and then draft him. I honestly think that we will take Bowers or Peterson. Bowers due to the similar size that he has of Julius Peppers and Peterson due to the freak athleticism that he has and questions with Goody’s health issues and Cox’s probable prison time and if we sign Bailey back which I really believe that we will do!
All of our starting DB’s are over the age of 30 and are all going downhill! I COMPLETELY understand that DL is our biggest need but as I stated before, there are so many great prospects at DL in the second and third rounds for us to grab.
Fairley/Peterson
Jones/Wilson
Taylor/Austin
Black/Sands/Stocker
No Bay,
You made it clear who you want to draft and not with who the team would most likely draft! These are both two VERY different things! When is the last time they drafted who us fans wanted them to draft?
We should be set with putting Doom and Ayers at DE and also have Hunter who used to play DE as well. So we need our middle Defensive Tackles and we should be good given we also get a really good LB as well! We will also still have Bannan who was our best DL last year and is still in his prime. Williams should still also be here giving us more options on certain run plays. Phil Taylor would be a perfect candidate to replace Williams though!
About drafting Peterson with the #2 pick:
Since the inception of the draft in 1936, not a single CB has been picked with either the #1 or #2 pick in the draft.
If we did draft Peterson with the #2 pick, we would become therefore the first idiots in the history of the NFL to do so and we would have to live with that forever.
Any pressure anyone? Haha.
Don’t you know that my track record here for getting what I want is excellent? Why change now…
Fairley, on field discipline issues and doesn’t want to play in cold weather.
Bowers, one great year, one yea wonder?
Peterson, CB.
Dareus, haven’t found the downside yet.
Just like hamma said very eloquently on a previous blog last night:
imma say wat i said last yr on da blogs we need a man who can stop the run n b n da qb face we moved back 2 a 4-3 i hate da 3-4 we still have jamal williams draft another yung dt cause im tired of seein rbs run up da damn middle on us on 3rd n long afta playin great da 1st 2 downs.
How can anyone argue with that?
Whomever we get with our 1st overall pick, I hope that we get either Taylor or Austin in the second round. Both are bigger guys that busts open the offensive line very well!
We cannot judge Peterson with just being a CB in my opinion. He has shown the most consistency in the draft and is the next big CB since Bailey was drafted! Just think with us having Bailey on one side and Peterson on the other with Doom and Ayers on the ends and Austin/Taylor in as D Tackle along with DJ, Jones/Wilson, Haggan/Hunter.
I think that automatically gets our defense to at least 15 overall in the league, but that is just me! Added with to the fact that we have Fox as our HC and knows how to orchestrate a defense and having Allen as DC and him knowing New Orleans system and being the DB’s coach for them!!
The sky is the limit with that defense! I believe that we do sign Bailey back within the next few days. Like I said earlier, it is my birthday on Thursday and I hope we sign him then! What a great present that would be!
Our DB’s have been injury prone the last couple of years and we all saw what happened when Goody was out for most the season last year, even though we also couldn’t get pressure on the QB!
Just as I said earlier, even with the guys that we have now, our defense automatically is better due to switching back to the 4-3!!
OHHHH HOW I LOVE YOU 4-3!!!
I hope the Triumvirate gets it, if not let me know I can translate it for you guys, LOL.
Haha, I do not think anyone can argue with that! Either way, I am very excited of this upcoming draft and am anxious to see who we draft as LB. We definitely need a guy that has the speed and skills to get to the football! We shall see everyone’s speed in the combine!
That was regarding hamma’s post.
It still comes down to Fairley or Dareus, the two DT`s with the #2 pick. If the two players are in a dead-lock as far as their workouts it will come down to who is the most mature. Which of the two is more of a team player. I`ll make my decision after the NFL combine that starts tomorrow. Looking forward to watching it.
Looks like all these mock drafts that have us taking Peterson at #2, are presuming Champ will be gone. Even at that, I don’t see us taking a DB that high. If we do, then we’re back to square one not addressing the most glaring need. (No McD in the house anymore….right ?).
We definitely need a D-lineman to step in for us. Granted we were getting blown off the line of scrimmage in 3-4 but we did play 4-3 quite often and still couldn’t stop the run. What were most Teams averaging against us… 4.5 yds a carry?? We were ranked 32nd in the league in Defense….dead last.
What was the sales pitch by the old lady with the Wendys commercial back inthe ’80′s?
“Where’s the beef?” — Surely not in Denver last season.
Count me in for the beef (Dareus), and out for the trimmings (Peterson).
Peterson would be a horrible pick.
That is all I have to say about that.
Thank you 88.
LMAO @ Royal. Hilarious.
I’m with you and Forrest Gump..mhm88. LOL!
bay..LOL on the trimmings !!
You don`t want to get in a PICKLE with the wrong pick. HaHa!!
LOL – strand !!!
This all goe`s back about 4 maybe five years back. It`s like what Hamma has said. We are on defense as it`s 3rd and long and we need to stop the OFFENSE. It dosn`t matter what position our defense is in, it seems like 85% of the time the opposition gets a first down. I`m sick and tired of it. I say no more. Lets stop the bleeding. Start by getting the BEEF up front Dareus or Fairley, whom ever. That`s where it all starts with DT. Paraphrasing a bit on what Hamma said but we all get the picture.
hamma is wise beyond his writing! LMAO…
I was just think that also about Hamma. Good medicine.
I`m going to be looking forward to the draft predictions coming in April. I`ve got some idea`s. I wonder if we are going to trade Orton for a 2nd round. I heard Jogn Clayton mention it last night on ESPN.
You know something about the CBA I don’t?
Not sure what he meant. It sounded as if it might happen Only during the draft. That would be a neat trick if there is still no CBA as of then. I do hear ya on that. Trippy though.
This is all I got:
Negotiators for N.F.L. owners and the players union met for the fourth consecutive day in the presence of a federal mediator Monday, just 11 days before the collective bargaining agreement is set to expire. While nobody is discussing what is being said behind closed doors in Washington, the sides have spent more than 25 hours together, by far their most consistent negotiating time toward a new deal. They are expected to reconvene on Tuesday, the fifth of the scheduled seven days of negotiations with the mediator, George Cohen.
They must be as bored as us at times. Maybe they need to just make something up just to bide the time. Oh well.
The way I understand it, if there is no cba in the draft, you will only be able to trade picks for picks, not players for picks or picks for players.
Now that makes more sense. Why would anyone in their right mind trade for a player who is owed 8 million just for one year and know that there might not be any football played in 2011. It just wouldn`t make any sense to me anyway.
So without a new CBA, if thats a rule then, I`m just not going to think on that then. Rules are rules.
Without a cba by draft time, all trades will have to be made later after a cba is in place, meaning all the draft picks we could get from our trades including Orton will be for the 2012 draft.
That would be awful for a team like ours, in a re-build year with only 6 draft picks. We need a cba as bad as anyone. I know this is like the kazillion repeat of this fact, but it still bears repeating…
There`s a good chance that both Nick Fairley and Marcell Dareus are picked #1 and #2 over all. Two DT`s taken back to back. We`ll find out in two months.
I feel bad for all of the free agents who want to sign with other teams. They are all in limbo right now.
I would be surprised if they get this (CBA) resolved anytime soon, but it would be a welcome suprise.
strand…. did Clayton mention anything re: CBA?
With no new CBA and the posibility of free agency happening at the end of summer our 2011 season will be status-qou. That would really suck.
John Clayton is saying the same thing as Baylinocrush, (smoke screens really).
ok thanks strand. Haven’t tuned in lately but I do plan on watching the NFL combine.