…hilarious…thanks for the smile. They’re hard to come by this morning.

Regarding Brandon Marshall – Good Riddance. That’s harsh, I know,

Marshall totally quit on his teammates and coaches after they gave him more than a second chance. And actually, I have to question whether he has any teammates – he only plays for himself. Good riddance to him. Please, Coach McDaniels, get rid of this bum.

I think they have their roots and are comfortable settled in Colorado…both have their kids here right? Could that be factor if Shanahan asks them to think it over and stay here?

Im not sure about it..heard it mentioned a couple of times I think…

Any time now or after the Superbowl?

After his preseason stunt I lost any faith I had in the dude to actually step up and be accountable. Glad to see the the the blinders are starting to come off peoples eyes.

As usual, well thought out knee jerks! In particular upgrading the offensive line (and it was offensive in the last 10 games) is a big key to improving the team.

Always have been and always will be…a Broncos fan!

But I am not sure if you can blame Dennison for not being able to teach a system, the fact is the lineman we have in the interior are not very well suited for a power trap game and having them play them switch between that and a zone scheme probably is the bigger issue. I think Dennison has shown he is a good coach in that the units he have coached have generally excelled, it really comes down to is it an effective scheme for the personnel you have.

Neither will leave unless they are fired, IMO. Both have been here a long time. Dennison played collegiately at Colorado State, then for the Broncos. I’m not as knowledgeable about Turners’s history, but he’s been with the Broncos a long time, and he’s not a kid. I doubt he’d want to pull up stakes.

I can’t imagine Bowlen signing a large check to keep Marshall. If it were my money, I wouldn’t sign it either.

Marshall is out best player, but I remember Gerard Warren well – and he may well have been our best player in 2005. Once Warren got paid that offseason, he became a lazy shadow of himself. I have no idea how Marshall will react to getting paid – and he will get paid a ####load of money, but there is certainly a Gerard Warren type of risk with him. And that could kill our cap position for years. Too much risk.

If a 1st and 3rd round pick is the best we can do…. it must be done. And mind you, I think Marshall is worth well more than 1st and 3rd round pick for what he does on the field. If no team signs him, I say we keep him around another year for 100 catches at what is roughly the same salary he made this year. That would really piss him off. It’s a great ROI, even with the headaches. Either way, he is not long for Denver.

I’m in agreement with you and would just add a couple things.

1) Orton I’m not sold on Orton, BUT there are simply no other options and may not be a bad thing. I know, strong endorsement, but hear me out. It’s clear Orton needs time to throw. He simply cannot make plays when he’s hassled, the 3 yd bloop to Lloyd yesterday is a prime example, he couldn’t even make that play on the run. He knows the system now. If the Broncos strengthen the interior line, which is much easier to do than finding good tackles, Orton should be able to have some real success. Bringing in another veteran means another season of assimilation at the most important position which I think McD will NOT want to go through, and a rookie would be the same thing or worse. Keep Orton and groom Brandstater or rookie.

2) Interior O line This HAS to be the number 1 priority this offseason. The pass-protection issues I noted already, and you hit on the Knowshon stuff. To me, the jury is out on him still. How well can he do behind a solid O line? I completely agree with you about the tackles and it bums me out to see Hamilton go down so fast. Plus, Wiegman got old fast. I don’t know how many times I saw him yesterday alone standing in the backfield after a play as the pile was unfolding at the line of scrimmage. He was blown so far back at the point of attack that he didn’t even make it into the scrum. Lame.

3) Marshall How much does this remind you of Anthony Miller when Shanny took over? It’s the same thing: prima-donna receiver who’s me-first. It’ll be the same result too except this time, the Broncos should be handsomely compensated for him. After watching Gaffney yesterday, I’m convinced he can be the possession receiver they need in this offense in place of Marshall. Try to work Eddie in to that Wes Welker role and get a long-ball type receiver this reloading season.

4 Defense The defense looked exposed the last half of the season. I don’t know exactly what the issue was, but I think they need a true beast in the middle. They just consistently got gashed up the middle in the run game. They look decent at setting the edge and not allowing the RB to get outside (obviously, Charles was getting them yesterday, but he’ll do that to just about every defense with his speed and is not a good gauge). It looks similar this year to last year, beef up the middle, bot on the line and at LB.

As much as it sucks that the season is over, in general, I don’t have as much of a “cupboard is bare” feel as I did after last season. It IS surprising to me though that the issues are offensive line related to me. I thought that was THE strength before this season. Should be another fun reloading season, nevertheless.

(And this just makes me sad because Dumervil was one of the true highlights of this up and down season)

Dumervil to fans: I’m sorry

I’ve been waiting for you to come out and have some passion about your opinion. I know usually that is reserved for the radio show, but that has been absent as of late also.

I agree with every one of your points, though I will add that I’d like to see a QB upgrade in the next few years. Kyle Orton drives me as crazy as Jake Plummer used too…and Jay Cutler. Cutler really drove me crazy, but I’d like to find the next Tom Brady please. Is that too much to ask?!?! lol

Looking forward to part 2…after all, I’m close to “checking out” for the next two months until the draft run up gets going. I hate watching Bronco-less playoffs.

That 6-0 start had me pretty giddy. Oh well. Here’s to an interesting off-season.

Go Broncos!

though I can’t help but feel it would be a shame for Turner to leave. He’s considered one of the great RB coaches, and has worked magic with so many different backs over the years. And they seem to like him. I don’t know, I’m sure you’re right the system probably needs a change there too, to move on, but I’d hate to see him go.

Dennison will probably bolt and it won’t bum me out too much.

on both sides of the ball is my solution.

If resources are finite, keep the skill players one more year (minus Marshall) and beef up the beef.

Your tone was perfect on that point. It is too bad he was lumped in with B Marsh. Can’t excuse what he said, but I’d be crazy if I said I never felt the way he did when I was in a situation where my skills weren’t being utilized. I wish him the best of luck — hopefully traded to the NFC, not cut to be picked up by the Raiders or Chefs.

can’t disagree with anything there, really. i’m pretty much with everyone who sees orton as the qb going into 2010 as well. i’d like the broncs to start grooming a replacement and i do think, depending on how the youngster(s) is (are) doing, orton might be on a short leash as early as next year.

my knee jerk reaction to mcdaniels is just that i hope he matures in working with personnel. i’m sure i’ll get disagreement galore here, but i think it’s his weak point. he’s young and he’ll get a lot better at this but i’m not sure to what extent he gets that you’re never going to nail down a team of 40 men with stellar character. i’m sure he knows that on paper but in real life situations i’m not sure he’s there yet.

bring on part 2! rec’d.

Shanahan could not handles GM and HC and gave the OC job to Bates whereas he should have kept on calling the plays and hired a real GM.

McDaniels, the HC, could call (suggest) plays but may be better served having a real OC to work with Orton on the sideline so that he can keep track of His Defense. I wonder how much input Coach gives Nolan during the game or if Nolan is left to his own devices? Two heads on offense and defense would be better than one.

He has been one of the premier RB coaches for seemingly forever, and has made stars out of everything from cell phone salesmen to Marines. On the surface, this is the last guy on staff to replace. That said, Turner has coached his backs almost exclusively in a zone-blocking scheme for nearly two decades. Much has been made out of our O-line’s inability to make the transition into a power-run scheme. I wonder if the same could be said for Turner? Would he continue to have the streak of success he has had if required by McD to change his own coaching philosophy to something he has not used for at least 15 years (if at all)?

on DBroncos.com

How do y’all feel about him now? Apparently April from the Bills got fired along with the rest of their staff, he might be a nice coup

From what I have seen of Orton with the Bears last year, Orton can throw accurate 20+yards passes, in fact after the Carolina game last year, Orton start throwing an average of 7 or 8 20+ yards passes a game and he play well with the Bears before his ankle injury. Orton had a decent running game last year and he and Forte complement each other well before Orton’s ankle injury.

As for Lloyd, he play well but the problem with him is that he play well when his mind is on teh football game. However, Lloyd is aspiring to be a “rap” star and at times he would have problem concetrating and he also don’t like to play hurt, that is why he was bench after his injury last year.

If possible, I would like the Broncos to try and get Toub, the special team coach from the Bears. Toub is one of the best Sp coach out there and the Bears as an organization don’t like to pay the assitant coaches well so offering Toub more money might be enough to lure him away from the Bears.

As bad as it all seems, their is an Orange & Blue lining.
As many above have stated (including you) were better than in years past.

Refarding Marshall as elite he is compiling stats right now, but there are two standard traits that most game changing WRs have, that he either doesn’t have, or doesn’t have, YET.

Firstly, he doesn’t have multiple gears in the speed department. Hard to stretch teh field with him, as he can’t help you in a bomb-when-they-blitz type of scenario. You can still get a completion to him in that scenario, it just doesn’t force a drastic gameplan switch by a defense, something that speedsters can force. This is generally offset by his better than average YAC ability, and the risk associated with a long pass is similar to the risk associated with lost yards due to lateral or backwards running when he goes after YAC. My thoughts on this aspect of his game is that it is a pretty much equal exchange, since the long threat could potentially be another players job: there is nothing that says that Marshall needs to do that in addition to being a YAC guy. Additionally, it is a terrific fit for a short passing game styled offense like McD’s, so I think he is also a great offensive fit. One of my hopes for his development is that he would abandon the side to side part of his YACing, and just get downfield like Hines Ward. There would be fewer stunning gamebreakers ala Dallas this year, but there would be fewer losses of yards. Ward consistently gains yards, and occasionally breaks them, by being a hard to bring down WR (though there are some differences in style). BM should aim for that kind of productivity, it will help his career and his team out in the long run.

The second part of his game, which he hasn’t mastered, is going after the ball. The greats, the elite guys, the guys who don’t get traded from team to team, they know how to attack the ball consistently. there have been pure catchers like Chris Carter and Randy Moss, but guys like Vincent Jackson, Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, these guys ATTACK the ball when it is near them. Javon Walker had this kind of ability, but a frail body and mind. This is a combination of body control, athleticism and focus all coming to bear at the same time. BMarsh can do any of the three at any given time. he can cobble together two out of three conswistently, but getting all three together is something he can’t do YET, with consistency. As long as he doesn’t hit some kind of stretch of trouble where he is benched or suspended or just generally not starting, he will continue to develop, and will eventually be able to put all three components together consistently. I wouldn’t bet against it taking more than next year to reach that level, but regression or attrition is possible. We will have the franchise tag available in a year if we want to go down that road.

In the interim, he would not be difficult to replace, in terms of roster stability, but we don’t have enough ammo to go around. I think we would need to net two good picks, like maybe a 2nd and a 4th. I don’t remember what the RFA tenders are, but I believe the $1mil a year mark is a 2nd rounder, which might be our max for most of our RFAs this offseason. That is basically an exchange, and is not good enough, so preemptively seeking out a more expensive trade could be in the cards. Otherwise we may look at having to really up the ante with his RFA deal. If they are willing to push the RFA deal up into a high, or multiple picks category, then there is no need to trade him preemptively. you either get the necessary depth to replace him, or you keep him.

The gutsy call of our head coach should have been made when he benched in the 2nd or 3rd game. Gaffney and Lloyd proved yesterday that Kyle can throw the long ball and they got open or got into a situation where they had a chance to catch the ball. Brandon hasn’t showed that ability as much. I’ll take a Lloyd any day, trade Marshall for the moon and then some. There are teams out here right now drooling all over their keyboards trying to make a trade. We’ll get value out of the 4th rounder for sure or my name isn’t Clamcadiddle-Hopper.

Maybe we could get 2 of the Patriots 2nd round picks for the guy..

sounds like Welker is going to be out for a bit..

Right.

Anyone who thinks this team is in a terrible place because of a coaching performance that made Jim Zorn look like Don Shula is just having a “knee jerk” reaction. Because finishing 2-8 down the stretch isn’t enough proof to make an accurate decision.

ZooTown wrote a great fanpost that provides a far better assessment of the situation than yours.

And what’s with the Scheff love? He has never learned to block in four years. BMarsh would be a better TE than him—he can actually block. Then to stand behind him when he goes to the media and’s like ‘all the other guys hate that I was benched’!? Gimme a break, John.

Blame goes to everyone. Unless scheffler and Marshall undoubtedly prove they can change then there is not a reason to give them the benefit of the doubt. They should not be in this situation.