Good to get ahead of this stuff. I love the players we drafted. I like where the franchise is going. If you asked me what I thought the record next year would be I would say 5-11.

So before all the negative guys come back to start screaming for McD’s head and that we were all idiots I think we should say we don’t expect an immediate winner here.

But then again Belichick was 5-11 his first year… he must have been a real disaster in NE.

when they didnt do X i was so pissed, but then they passed on Y and OMG i almost flipped my wig when they didnt even think about doing Z!!!
lol sweet post

I agree with HT. I think this year will be more of a transition year for our team. With all of the new players, coaches and staff its hard to imagine us being contenders this year. I think we fall somewhere around 7-9 or 8-8. As much as i want us to be 12-4 or 13-3, I also know Rome wasn’t built over night. However I’M definately happy with the new direction of the team and what we did in the draft.

It continues to be clear to me that a secondary that was absolutely abysmal last season stands to not only be improved but 200% better at least. That is a major overhaul we’re talking about here.

Whether all the other areas on defense will be improved is hard to know just yet. But the secondary, that is one area I will confidently put my money behind as being a lot better.

We now have a team, a real whole roster team, that is as good or better from top to bottom, offense and defense, talent wise that it has been in many years.

McDaniels has said (and he is absolutely correct ) that the key to the season is in how well the team prepares for it.

And we have a head coach who has a passion and a talent for preperation. We have some coordinators and assistants that have shown a history of detailed preperation.

And we have players that have embraced the promise that is this years outlook and have thorwn themselves into the preperation and the work to make themselves better and master the systems being installed.

I believe that this group has an excellent chance to make the playoffs this year. And if they do, they will be a team that no one will be eager to play.

but even our Super Bowl team of 97, despite going 12-4, were still underdogs for the better half of that year. They were underdogs in the AFC Championship that year as well against a very talented Pittsburgh Steelers, and we were the biggest underdogs against a returning champion Green Bay Packers.

If there is one thing that will always be true in Broncos country, it’s that we perform better as the underdogs. No matter what Broncos team is out on that field, if they are underdogs, they always tend to perform better and find ways to win.

This year is our year to be the underdogs, and embrace that. 13-3 baby!

I think they have done a great job in bringing in players and starting to building something great here for the long term, but I still don’t believe that they are going 13-3. I hope they do, and I’d be ecstatic and root for it, but it’s better to be pleasantly surprised than to be disappointed.

It reads as the executive summary of HT’s piece and should be required reading for all fans this offseason. Fantastic job. Way to bring your A game, bear!

Thank you for the red zone stats…didn’t realize the difference was so great!

We’d begun talking about some comparative stats and he did a killer grouping

I understand optimism, but come on guys.

I think we got the right players, but we’re still going to go 8-8 or so this year. :) 13-3 baby!

Both would be an improvement over last simply because our schedule is so much harder.

I am loving the Smith pick. I think he is going to turn out to be an amazing player.

end of story.

(naive speculation, but still, Brace has not proven he can even play NT, so I wasn’t real big on him being our end-all to save-all for the front seven)

Those additions to the team are quality people. There’s a lot to overcome this year, and I don’t expect a good record. But I also expect to see a lot of good play, even in a losing effort. Last year I was pulling out my hair (figuratively) watching terrible football. I don’t mind losing a game that is coached smart and played hard.

With good coaching and solid players, we’ll get better each year for several years to come.

Nice post Bear – I like your stuff. But the point needs to be not whether the position was addressed, but instead, whether the position was upgraded. Just my opinion, but when putting it all together, just a little bit. We can’t know whether any of the drafted guys or UFA’s are worth anything until they show us something at the pro level. We have a lot of new guys along the DL as well as some holdovers who are probably going to be asked to play new positions and there’s not a scintilla of evidence that any of this will translate into a better defense. I think the defensive secondary is a now a little more talented but the QB position is less so. Injuries are always the great unknown/equalizer. Bottom line: I know it will take awhile, but I don’t see any overall paradigm shift in talent from last year’s team. I’m still a fan though – Go Broncs!

I know it will take awhile, but I don’t see any overall paradigm shift in talent from last year’s team.
Well, I’m fairly sure that we’ll be better at NT, since we didn’t have an NT last year. I’ve got a couple of things that I’m Ok being sure of. The first is that our secondary is better – a lot better. The second is that Nolan is better than Slowik.

I’ll take McCoy and McD over Bates. I’m happy with Moreno over Hall. Etc…You see, when I took the time to look at one to one comparisons, they were everywhere.

Like others, i’m sorry we lost Cutler, but I have no problem with Orton. He’ll be better than Cutler in the red zone and he will have better options in the running than Jay—to say nothing of better play calling! We don’t know how our new additions will fair, but we do know what they bring to the table, strengths, weaknesses, experiences, etc. My biggest disappointment the last several years is that the Broncos often looked like they mailed it in. Our new players won’t mail it in so that in itself will be an improvement.

I can’t say that I like McDaniels at this point, but thenm I never liked Shanahan very much. But likeing or not likeing the coach doesn’t matter. Shanahan won a couple of Super Bowls and I wouldn’t trade the experience of being there for anything. I can say that I think McDaniels has a more complete approach to football than Shanahan did and I’m glad he brought that approach to the Broncos. I think his blue print (like NE & Pitt) is the basis for a stong organization and a contending team, hopefully for the long term.

TY very much for those stats. I suspected it really was primarily on Cutler’s shoulders, with help from a lack of healthy RB’s.

I have a sneaky suspicion that the RZ trouble for Jay will continue in Chicago. With the picks the Bears made, it’s going to be even harder for him…..with the exception of having Forte.

Outstanding post, and a great link to bookmark and send to all the experts!

They really need a better change of pace back – Jones’ 33 carries didn’t do it. Despite some rumors about Orton not being about to throw so the opposing D’s stacking the box (no truth to that at all, IMHO), the real problem seemed to be that opposing d’s knew that Chicago’s offense was simplistic and revolved around Forte and the short pass. Why not stack the box? And, for that matter, with a weak line and poor separation by the receivers, why not blitz off that stacked formation?

If Chicago draws up a new offense, in great part, Cutler will do much better for them. If they ask him to run the same offense with just a few more long throws, it will help a little, but not that much. Perhaps the biggest issue was that Orton was sacked over 11% of the time of third down passing situations. Chi has changed its line some (and hopes for a good outcome) and Cutler has a certain level of increased mobility, but It’s still going to be tough on Jay unless he gets both an open receiver and a better performance from the line.