D - Al = ?

by HBBeough on May 4, 2008 5:09 PM MDT

From week 2 to week 7 of the 2006 season (including a game against Tom Brady and the Patriots) the Denver defense held their opponents to single digit scoring and consecutive victories even though the O was sputtering. But then something happened and the unit failed to keep anyone under 10 from that point on and in only 7 of those 27 games kept the other team under 20. At first it was due to some good competition (Indy, Pittsburgh & San Diego) but then on December 3rd Al Wilson was carted off the field with a neck injury and the run defensive has never been the same… or even close. The final game of the season (when they still had a chance to make the playoffs) Frank Gore ran through the Bronco’s D like they were the “second leading brand” on a paper towel commercial.

Enter Jim Bates. Brought in to fix the ailing defensive corps Bates began pounding his round pegs into the square holes of the Broncos D in 2007. His archaic scheme was designed for enormous defensive linemen to “hold the point of attack” rather than penetrate. Because this was not the kind of team he had, Mr. Bates went shopping. He looked to bring in anyone that weighed more than a Volkswagen and ship out anyone that cheated by jumping in a gap. The result was a lot of meat up front not making any tackles, a group of linebackers out of position and defensive backs spending far too much energy supporting the run. Mercifully Jim Bates was aborted after the 2007 season and his hired heft wasn’t invited back.

So, after the dust settled from 2007 here is what you have:

D-line: Stocked with young players with a lot of potential (Jarvis, Elvis, Thomas & Crowder) with a quality DE in Ekuban coming back from an injury and a free agent DT (Robertson) that has played through bad knees.

Defensive backs: A veteran squad that is proven but may not have many years left

Linebackers: DJ Williams moving back to his ideal spot, Champ’s brother Boss will upgrade Ian Gold and Niko Koutouvides coming in to play the middle. What should we expect from Niko Koutouvides? I have no idea. Seattle bloggers either say he didn’t start because Lofa Tatupu is so good of that they got Tatupu because Niko wasn’t good enough. If he struggles the Broncos will have a mess and the conspiracy theorists will begin to talk about Al Wilson emerging from retirement like a phoenix.

So my point is that there are reasons to be optimistic but in general this defense has much to prove. At least the challenge is being presented to young athletes hungry for success instead of past-successful athletes who are just hungry. One way or another they have to be better than 28th in points against next year. I can’t remember a Denver D that was so vulnerable to the run.

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR

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D-Al=

Bronco Offense-Elway and TD circa 1999. ;)

MHR's Bronco History

by Tim Lynch on May 4, 2008 7:31 PM MDT reply actions

wow!

finally, a post that is more realistic than optimistic. al was a huge loss. as i’ve said before, he and lynch have been the run-stoppers on this team. w/out them, look out. i also have posted many times before about the supposed seamless transition of a backup/st to qb of the defense on another team. he is the key to this whole d, and that is a lot to put on an unknown quantity. this 1 question will determine our success this season more than even the d-line play, which is also a real concern to me, d-rob or no d-rob. this guy really needs to bring it, and to be a leader. back to the d-line, i am not sold on moss at all, but he has been hurt, so let’s give him a full season and see. i just haven’t seen anything special out of him. crowder looks solid and appears to be a keeper. doom already is a terror, and should draw 50 holding calls this year if they call them all. thomas i can’t figure out yet, i still think he has potential, though, but again, no sure thing. if he falters, our d-line is done. the secondary i’m pretty confident in, we just need to draft a safety next year, and maybe hamza improves and stays. overall, we need a dt or 2 for this season still, and the ‘backers need to tackle well. that, and some solid schemes should greatly improve the d, to at least the middle of the pack. btw, we are going to miss lynch big time, too. you can write that one down

by davecheffy on May 4, 2008 9:36 PM MDT reply actions

I'm optimistic

because our d-line is so young, our run-stopper at end, who was injured, is back, and the linebacking corps has been sharply upgraded. Young players usually improve markedly from their first to their second year, and again from second to third. That means Doom, as good as he already is, will likely be even better. What helps also is that, with more depth, he won’t have to play as much and won’t wear down so much late in the season. Thomas was not only a rookie but hadn’t played since early in his senior year, and started and played pretty well for a rookie until he hit the rookie wall late in the season. Ekuban’s return helps because run defense has always been his strength. The only question mark is D-Rob’s knees, but they haven’t slowed him so far and he’s been effective despite playing out of position (i.e. nose tackle).

HBBeough is correct, I think, in dating the defense’s decline from Wilson’s loss of effectiveness. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think he was injured twice that year, and the fall-off dates roughly from the first injury. Things got worse during the ill-fated Bates experiment, with the super-sized veterans ineffective and the rookies who replaced them being, well, rookies. At Mike D.J. was tentative but improved markedly as the season wore on. Production fell off drastically at Will and Sam. This year we’ll go from ineffective to possibly best in the league at Will, with D.J. returning to his favorite position. Boss will be a clear upgrade at Sam. And I think Koutouvides will give us strong play in the middle. From what I’ve heard he played well as a rookie and would have become the starter if the Seahawks hadn’t struck gold with Tatufu the very next year. K2 is a very good player who got stuck behind an extraordinary one.

Not only will the run defense almost certainly improve this year, it improved noticeably from the beginning to the end of last year. After five games we were not just dead last at 187 ypg, we were 19 yards worse than the 31st ranked team. By the end of the season we were 30th at 142.6 ypg. That means that over the final 11 games we gave up about 122.5 ypg, which is probably about the league average. And that’s with the ongoing turmoil of players coming and going, changing schemes, and finally rookies getting significant playing time. That includes Doom having to be a three-down lineman rather than situational pass rusher. I agree that, given the stability of staying with a familiar system, the maturation of young players, and the off-season additions, we should be middle of the pack in rush defense. That plus some improvement on offense, with Cutler at full strength, could mean a move in the standings.

"In the empty spaces - lacunae, vacuums, pauses, voids, black holes - new things begin. We are born anew from the unexplored space, the badlands, the outlaw territory." - Sam Keen

by spock on May 5, 2008 1:54 AM MDT up reply actions

It couldn't possibly get worse than last year.

1) A 2nd year QB who had played in only 4 NFL games
2) An offensive line that had no one in the same position as the year before.
3) A defensive line where all the free agents were canned leaving mostly rookies
4) A Wil or Sam playing Mike and no other LB doing much
5) #1 RB injured early in the season
6) #1 WR injured early in the season

Cutler had to feel like he was back in Vanderbilt.
And there was still 11 teams the finished worse than Denver?
What happened to them?

by HBBeough on May 5, 2008 8:56 AM MDT up reply actions