Building a contender

The trade of Keary Colbert made me consider the overall direction of the Broncos once again.  For several years the franchise had attempted to skip the "rebuilding" phase, instead opting to sign aging veterans who were certainly capable, but could not take us to the championship level.  While we had great success with players such as Plummer (13-3), we never got an entire team assembled at once.  To me the problem with looking to veteran players primarily is that if most of your team is towards the downside of their career you never know when the dropoff in talent will occur.  Therefore everything must go just right in order to have a successful season; that is very few of your veteran players can have their abilities deteriorate during that particular season if you are to succeed.

On the other hand, a team that is built on youth usually improves during the season.  While a veteran team cannot really improve merely on experience, instead worsening due to injuries and age, a young team plays with better chemistry as the season goes on and individual players adjust to the game speed and hone their skills as they get more playing time.  Although teams like NE have obviously been successful with the FA/veteran mode of team building, for the above reasons I think the homegrown, build through the draft method of contender assembly is the way to go.  The Broncos subpar drafts of the 2000s stand as an example of how important drafting is.  While trades/FA acquisitions such as those that brought Champ and D. Graham are important, these should supplement the draft as a source for players.

Looking at only the past 3 drafts (including undrafted FA), one can see how quickly the Broncos have reloaded: Cutler, Marshall, Scheffler, Royal, Clady, Harris, Lichtensteiger, Torain, Alridge, Young, and Hillis make up almost all of the starting offense.  Our drafting success on the defensive side of the ball is less impressive (obviously Doom), and look at the overall quality of the two units: our offense is arguably one of the best in the NFL, while our defense is struggling.  The importance of drafting players whose nuances particularly fit your system, cannot be overemphasized.  In the draft one gets a chance to pick through many, many players for little cost (aka 7th rounder).  These players as well as undrafter FA's may make your team if management knows what they are doing (aka Woodyard).

The overall direction of the team is extremely encouraging.  Our offense can only improve with the addition of a true power back in Torain, and Stokely has barely been involved in the offense.  The defense should be the focus of the next draft, and another draft as solid from top to bottom as this one should definitely boost the Broncos into championship contention.  From the last draft Clady and Royal appear to be playing at quality starter, not rookie, levels, J Williams and KLich are providing depth, Hillis is starting, Torain will compete for starting RB, Barrett on practice squad for development (perhaps to active w/ Colbert trade), and Woodyard, Alridge and Polumbus were also keepers.  To acquire basically a fifth of a NFL roster in one year through a draft is simply ridiculous.  If we can even come close to that for 1 more year, we will be set.

Actually the point of this optimistic post is the Broncos focus on the draft after a period of years in which it was an exercise in futility.  While DFox was a quality man and player, exchanging his rights for a draft pick shows the confidence of the organization that they can find a quality player in the 7th round.  The Colbert trade was extremely good value (5th or 4th) for a player of little use to use barring injury, and actually allows us to promote other young talent (Barrett?) to the roster for seasoning.  Acquiring draft picks rather than letting our players walk and continuing to build the roster through the draft makes me extremely hopeful for the future of this organization long term and has me looking forward to next April- were it not for the potential of the Broncos THIS year.  Excuse my optimism, but I have not been this happy with the Broncos for , well, a long time.  It is extremely gratifying to see and I am grateful that our "rebuilding" year was a mere 7-9 year.  Makes you almost feel sorry for the raiders/chiefs and the 3-13/4-12 seasons their fans have become accustomed to.  While I do feel some sorrow when I see that we have traded another player, it also makes me look forward to the future and the many championships to come.

Sidenote: any comments or thoughts on the activity of Josh Shaw who was only recently signed? I thought he was signed to the practice squad originally.  Will he be an important contributor, or a backup?