I mean really… do these experts do ALL of their own research?

Aren’t there interns or something that can gather the real deal on teams?

If an expert’s job is to analyze shouldn’t they have as many facts on hand as possible or does that make too much sense?

Nice article nyc, good points. There are a lot of similarities between the two drafts. I have some of the same issues with each as well.

I think it’d be hard to make a case for Clady and Royal not being drafted for immediate needs (even though you made your point very well by showing the media guys didn’t know that!) The rest of the draft has yet to pan out really. (I love Hillis but too soon to tell at FB – Larson? Also to soon to tell except on special teams. ) Bringing in two and then drafting another WR seems a pretty reasonable way to go about replacing Javon.

I thought more picks should have addressed to run stopping element of our D the same as I think now. The facts are that I, most fans (outside of MHR – check it, it’s true) and most of the so-called experts are of the opinion that it was foolish to trade a 1 for a two! Stupid! I’ve got friends at work buying me dinner and drinks! (I live in seahawk country) Thanks Josh.

I wish as I did last year that we’d have reached for some big bodies more than we did… I’ll give Josh points right away tho for doing already something that Shanny would never do. Bring in a known defensive leader and let him do his job. So as far as that and the way we picked to support him doing his job… Ok

Spending next years 1? When it could have been combined with the other to do most anything (!!) ? Why? I really feel that was a HORRIBLE move! Teams spend YEARS trying to find a franchise QB! I’m willing to watch those we have but if they fail, we just gave up our golden parachute!!

Couldn’t that pick have been gotten from several teams for real? We knew we weren’t going to be in a position to pick him, couldn’t we have packaged next years two and any number of combinations of later round picks (or even players – given our newfound RB glut) ?? I know they were thinking on the fly but WHAT A RISK!

One other thing. Most of us as well as the experts had Raji going before us. Were we banking on that Low percentage chance and then Jackson ….and then NOBODY ELSE? In retrospect it seems Moreno was the third guy on our list. We should probably not have been surprised then by it. We should have even expected it as the most probable of the three available.

Ok one more thing… "The incompetence of these fools? " Let’s go ahead and print each one of our predictions and put ourselves in the same boat with these fools ok? If there was someone out there predicting who would be good and bad in each teams draft …accurately; they’d b working for one of the media sources next year. They do the best with what they know, just like we do.

My draft grade for overall talent of our picks: B+
For value vs need: D-
For what ever reason the players fell to us as they did, our needs not addressed primarily and the value? All the money we spent on free agents in those SAME positions …poorly planned.

Who out there wishes we still had two first rounders next year to fall back on?

here’s to our new talent, a new year of my favorite sport & me being COMPLETELY wrong. The sad thing is, I could see our team with it’s new and old talent, competing for a playoff spot. My hope is this doesn’t take years to play out.

Here’s to Josh proving he’s a genius the first year.
If not, let’s find out he’s a turd as soon as possible!
Sorry for my run on folks.
Go Broncos!

it was The Sporting News

Grading a team based on the quality of talent each team had added to their rosters.

Who ever would have come up with such a crazy way to judge a draft!! It blows my mind!!

Ooops, exceeded my sarcasm quotient for Tuesdays.

Excellent sig, btw.

Well before this draft I wrote that we may very well be lucky to just break even! We have a new coach, new DC and OC, new QB, new systems, and you’re ready to blame the season on our rookie class?

C’mon now.

Do you think Bowlen has a crystal ball that allows him to tell who the Broncos are going to be able to pick?

Do you think we would be able to draft and start 3 DB’s next year or the year after that when our current crop retires? Who will those rookies learn from when BDawk and Champ are gone? One of the biggest assets the team has right now is a ton of elite experience in the defensive backfield. It would be a terrible waste to not at least try and hand that experience to our next batch of DB’s. Really think this was one of the biggest problems the Broncos have had for the past several years. It usally takes a couple of years for a Safety to acclimate to the NFL, and we had a great one (lynch) to teach his skills to the youngsters (abdullah). Abdullah was sent packing as if it doesn’t take a long time to train the skills he had been picking up, and we had no-one of merit to fill in after Lynch couldn’t hack it anymore.

As for the D-Line, Raji may have been the only NT worth taking, and we took a DE who was graded a 1st round talent by many, so I am having a hard time buying that one.

And finally, it would be wrong to assume that McD knows everything, or that he will come away with nothing but starters, but it is also wrong to assume that anyone but him and his staff know s@#$ about what the Broncos need. We haven’t seen the players in mini-camp, we haven’t reviewed hundreds of hours of tape, and we definitely do not know what players are necessary for our system. You are right when you say, ‘just because you have a position of power in the NFL doesn’t mean you know what you are doing.’ But the converse is of course true as well; just because you have a position of power in the NFL doesn’t mean you DON’T know what you are doing. Matt Millen has proven that he doesn’t know what he is doing, and Scott Pioli has proven that he does. So the only way to know that your FO knows what it is doing, is to let it do something, and watch how it turns out. All the couch-potato analysts out there, myself included, may know a thing or two, but in the NFL they pay people too know several hundred things. Like it or lump it, we are merely fans watching the professionals do their jobs, you can spend your time telling pros what they’re doing wrong based on your one or two bits of NFL knowledge, or you can try to learn from their moves and at least let them run the gauntlet that is the NFL regular season before burning their effigy.

I think we have to give the FO a pass on the RB situation – who could have known at the point the RB FAs were picked up that we would have a different QB? – (and if there are any “McD had it planned all along” dinosaurs still breathing, I’d be happy (not really) to rehash the many ways in which that makes no real logical sense) – so the plans made in preparation for one kind of offense with JC got blown up and the coaches started thinking a little differently about pass v. run, and – bam! – Moreno falls to 12. That does not seem unreasonable to me.

As much as I support McD&Co, however, the trade for our ’10 #1 seemed a bit of a reach. However, I have to give it some time.

As to your “I think it is a faulty statement that Xanders and Mcdaniels know better, because honestly we can’t be sure if that is true.” Wow! That seems a bit over the top for me, although from a strictly logical perspective it is absolutely “true” that we can’t be sure about something like that. However in the real world, “know better” than what/whom? – us, the MSM – I would certainly hope so and Bowlen would have to be a gigantic idiot it if that weren’t true. “Know better” in an abstract sense of being able to tell the future? Of course not, but that’s really meaningless since no one can.

I remember a line from the “Awakening” – the film based on Oliver Sacks’ real-life experience with people in a catatonic state. He experimented with a drug that brought them back to life again, but after the drug wore off the patients returned to the “living dead.” The Sacks actor asked another doctor if he thought the patients, having returned to their apparently unfeeling state, could feel or think anything. The answer was no, because the alternative was unthinkable.

Do I think McD&Co know what they’re doing? Absolutely.

McD had no idea that Moreno would be our pick at #12 when he signed those FA RB’s. Even if he knew he would like to select Moreno he could easily have planned to take Jackson or Raji before Moreno if they were still on the board. He also did not know if someone else would take Moreno before 12 when he addressed the RB position in FA. If he was targeting him all along those signings were insurance against the very real possibility of Moreno going before 12.

Signing 3 veteran DB’s to start for us and then drafting 3 more gave us quality starters and depth for this year. It also addresses the fact that all 4 of our starting DB’s are over 30 and will need to be replaced in the near future.

“while not adding any significantly quality to the DL”. Not adding ANY significant quality to the DL? Are you serious? We spent a 1st round pick on a DE. A DE who was highly regarded in this draft. He was listed as high as the 4th best player in the entire draft by at least 1 draft “expert”. That’s hardly not adding any significant quality, on the contrary, that’s adding 1st round quality.

I admit, the jury is still out on McD and GMX but let’s at least give them a year to evaluate their talent as a HC & GM before throwing the Matt Millen comparisons at them. Bottom line, when you draft for BPA in a draft class that is weak on D Linemen, it’s no surprise that we only came away with 1 D Lineman. We went for the best players available, regardless of position and the D Linemen in this draft did not stack up to other players available when we were picking.

Yes, ideally I would have used the same people’s draft reviews. But the point was the similarity of the criticisms between last year’s and this year’s. It also wasn’t about how many liked or disliked the Broncos’ drafts.

You think this team has to be 8-8 this year, or McDaniels should be fired? Seriously? Shanahan wasn’t just fired on the basis of one year’s results. I’ll stick with my statement that the 2008 Broncos were much worse than their 8-8 record would indicate. They can be 6-10 next year but in reality be a much better team, IMO.

The way to refute his point would be for you to hunt down the same authors and post their stuff for both drafts.

But the accusation is baseless at any rate, and here’s why. The quotes were selected to highlight the notions floating around last year, and how they are similar to this year. Even if you found a writer who loved CLady and Royal last year, it would ony prove that the writer was smart (a fortune teller). The point of the article is that you can’t make judgements on teams you don’t write about if you don’t really know what you are talking about. Clearly the selected writers were wrong. Clearly, selecting writers who were right wouldn’t change the premise.

We were wildly lucky to go 8-8 last year. Check our stats for last year. We got lucky and this needs to be factored into expectations for this year. 8-8 with a better turnover margin and point differential would be a step in the right direction.

I think you are cherry picking stats to back up your position.

What was the Uber Genius’ record in NE his first year there?

If you don’t know the answer I bet you Pat Bowlen does.

u hater

Perhaps i missed it, so pardon if it’s repetitive, yet, there are some good view points and fairly entertaining stuff in the MSM! When the reactionaries regain their senses; Casserly has a good take on Smith’s selection…. http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d810070f6 .Until the season starts and evaluation trumps speculation, all we have left is debate.

but they can’t be very high. Arrington pulled out of negotiations over guaranteed money issues, but got lured back in again. Frankly, both he and Buckhalter have a lot to prove, so training camp should be interesting.

on the RBs next year would be:
1) Knowshown starter by beg of year or soon into it
2) Buckhalter – will share some carries, be 3rd down back
3) Torain, agreed we can’t count on him given his injury prone history but he’s talented enough to have a good shot at sticking.
4) Arrington — KR and situational back

Yeah, Selvin is a goner. So long, SY.
The Broncos may eat the guaranteed $ and lose Jordan before season starts — my prediction anyway.

Unless he is completely healthy and impressive from the start of camp, I don’t see Torain making this team.

I also don’t see Buckhalter making this team or Young either for that matter.

Arrington was signed to be the third down guy as well as a KR because of his versatility in both blocking and recieving. I see him still filling that role and giving Moreno a break on some third downs.

And welcome aboard, Velveeta!
Go Broncos!!!

Good job Shanny!