The buildup of excitement for the 2008 National Football League season finally comes to a head this week with the kickoff of regular season play, including the Denver Broncos’ Monday Night Football matchup at Oakland vs. the AFC West rival Raiders.
This game actually will be the second Monday night game of the opening week, and as such the Broncos draw the “three Mikes” announce team, which includes play-by-play voice Mike Greenberg along with color commentators Mike Golic and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Mike Ditka.
This is an exciting team that the Broncos will be taking into regular season play.
There is no question that Bronco followers have had a lot of new names to become familiar with during this preseason, but the excitement generated by the young players in the four preseason games was palpable.
Excitement is contagious, and there was a real energy level at that final game against the Arizona Cardinals. It was obvious whether one was watching the television broadcast, listening on the radio, or present on the sidelines at University of Phoenix Stadium.
I had gone down from the press box to the field for the last half of the fourth quarter and was standing adjacent to our bench area when rookie cornerback Jack Williams picked off that pass and took it all the way to the end zone to seal the win.
The game and score did not count for anything in the standings, but the entire bench was screaming as Williams took off on his long run, and most of the team ran a few yards toward the end zone with him, including jaded veteran players sharing this moment with a rookie beginning to make his mark.
You could see the sidleine response on the telecast as well.
This is an infectious enthusiasm, and there is real talent to go along with the verve demonstrated by these young players.
It is hard for a rookie to break into an NFL starting lineup, but the Broncos go into their opener at Oakland with two fresh starters on offense, number one draft choice Ryan Clady at left tackle and second round selection Eddie Royal at wide receiver.
Rookie punter Brett Kern led the NFL in punting this summer, the Broncos had the fewest sacks (two) and led all AFC teams in scoring this preseason.
Third-year quarterback Jay Cutler had a great preseason, and place kicker Matt Prater was among the scoring leaders in the entire league.
The future does not always automatically belong to the young, but it absolutely belongs to the young AND the talented, and these are positive signs for future development.
Outstanding drafts over the past three years and the addition of young free agent players have made their mark on the Denver roster this year.
It’s going to be an exciting season, and the Broncos are anxious to jump back into their long-accepted status as contenders in the always tough AFC West.
Tags: Uncategorized
the excitement about the rookies is definately realistic,however i think the most interesting aspect of this young team will be the impact of cutler being healthy and comfortable with the system for the first time….lookout afc west the broncos are gonna be alot better than most people think!
GO BRONCOS!!!!!! and thank goodellness we have marshall back for san diego….we gotta sweep’em this season!
Can’t wait til monday. GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I could not agree with you more, Jim.
San Diego’s going down.Eddie royal and Brandon Marshall,you add the slot receiver Stokley and that’s on dangerous receiving crew to give a rocket armed QB,I really think Cutler will be be our most accurate QB in the Franchise and I think we have a good shot at the playoffs this year
Hate to be a glass half empty guy, but didnt anyone else notice that we were lit up by passing in the last two games. Big plays make for great TV, but consistant coverage wins playoff games. May be the basic defenses used in pre-season, but I an concerned with the Broncoes 2nd tier players ability to play man to man. Foxworth and Paymah both looked lost and confused during much of the last two games, as if they didn’t understand where they should be. I’m aware that our best two CB’s were on the bench for most of this, but I’m also aware that they have ten years in the leage and could need some games off with injuries. Our run defense looks solid, but if we play all our games like we did against Green Bay, it may take more points than even this young talented offense can put up to win.
I think a lot of people are missing the BIG picture here…will we make the playoffs??? will we be a superior team this here??? Why should we worry about all of that? lets all as Fans take it one game at a time…everyone can talk about hein-sight all they want…we should have done this…we should have done that. All i know is we look great…actually amazingly great. We have everthing in place, and we have good depth all over, DB’s and line backers could use improvement with depth…but i am not dis appointed at all. we cant get worse…i promise we won’t…and if we get to the playoffs..awsome…but i am gonna watch each game at a time and make my decisions week in and week out…. i can’t honestly presume to know anything at this point so i am not gonna throw my two cents in until week 9 or 10 … then ill start my criticizm or praises. until then …Lets get to another SUPER BOWL!!!!!!! No offnse to anyone either by the way, i like constructive criticizm.
Please dont take the previous post as a slam on those two DB’s. It wasn’t intended as a comment on their talent level, only as an observation about the team’s pass defense. Both are very talented players, and both showed last year that they can play well at this level. I happen to agree with you that the team looks much deeper than in the past, as evidenced by the fact that the 2nd and 3rd tier players were equal to the task of competeing with the Cards first string. My concern is that with a new defensive scheme and cordinator, the players may not be going into the regular season completely on page with where they should be in each situation, an observation formed when they didn’t seem to be able to adjust to the quick outs and crossing routs run by Arizona. Once again, this may just a be a result of the “not show your hand” basic defenses in the preseason.
At the beginning of last season, we were told that the problems with the run defense just required some fine tuning. I hope this is just small glitch because everything else that I saw in the preseason leads me to believe this is a team with much more talent and a shot at making the playoffs.
Of course, the national media isn’t paying much attention to us, but the Broncos are in perfect position to be a darkhorse team and come out of “nowhere.” We, as fans, know of the talent the Broncos possess and in an excellent effort, the team will be solid and all will go well, of this I have no doubt. If Calvin Lowry makes our secondary better and we have to trade Fox, then that’s just something that has to be done. I trust that we’ll have our best possible team at Oakland next Monday and we’ll amass a great victory en route to many this season.
Ready for the season to begin. I just hope these rookies don’t hit the wall around the 12th game as some do. We are counting on them to pull us from a 7-9 season to at least a 10-6 this year.
10-6?!?! Im thinking 13-3!
Okay that might be a little TOO optimistic. Yeah I am thinking 10-6 is a realistic goal
Thanks for your Clarification on that last one…it makes sense what your sayin now ( CisnextE ) . And i do agree with ya… and i am pretty sure that the base defense is a Shanny thing cause he is pretty good about disguiseing (don’t now how to spell!!) a lot so not to give a lot away….yall remember in 98 when we lost to the Dolphins pretty bad and then turned around and beat themtwo weeks later 42 -3??? Yeah that was shanny not giving anything away . So iam pretty sure thats what was going on this year in the preseason. I honestly wouldn’t expect us to really show too much either against Oakland this week, casuse honestly we should be able to beat them no problem…and i am sure that that shanny wants to save the “up his sleeve” moves for San Diego since they have been our Omen for the Past three damn years! but i feel that this team is destined for good things this year……. and to broncoryan…..Be optimistic!!! heck i’ll say 14 and 2!!!! LOL . GO Broncos!!!
ray mcdonalds de san fran to complete our florida nat chapionship d line and get our guy off the practice squad