FanPost

Aussie Meanderings: Connecting the dots around a BIG assumption!

OK Guys,

This post will create a lot of controversy! There has been so much talk regarding the present and future quarterbacking of the Denver Broncos, and opinions are greatly divided.

I LOVE KYLE ORTON as a player. I LOVE TIM TEBOW and the upside that he brings.....so this article is not an argument one vs the other, but it is designed to get you all thinking.

EJ did a great article about our quarterbacks, and it got me connecting the dots, and brought me to a realization that maybe we are all basing our arguments on an assumption that, frankly, could be wrong.

Read on.......

Things we know as fact:

  • McDaniels drafted Tebow.
  • Tebow has a different skill set and is PROBABLY more athletic than anyone other QB on our roster.
  • Tebow is being taught like all the other QB's to pass from the pocket.
  • McDaniels drafted a vertical threat in Thomas.
  • Charlie Weiss is OC for Kansas.
  • Romeo Crennel is DC for Kansas.
Things that McDaniels has said:
  • He wants to run a offense no one has seen before.
  • That this offense is so different from last years version that ALL QUARTERBACKS ARE ALMOST STARTING FROM THE SAME PLACE.
  • That players will find their own roles in the system.
  • That he will put players in positions to succeed and play to their STRENGTHS.
  • That he wants this offense to be more vertical.
THE GREAT ASSUMPTION:
All the arguments that I have read for keeping Orton, or for installing Quinn, as a quarterback, is that they have experience in McDaniels system. Quinn has all the experience from playing under Charlie Weiss and our system is based on what he implemented in New England, and for Kyle Orton, he will grow in year 2 of a very complex system.

Is it me, or what was really so complicated about our system last year? I have watched many games and footage from last season, and we played a pretty vanilla scheme. Short passes, low risk plays and plenty of screens so that our QB would not LOSE the game for us. There was nothing groundbreaking with what we did.

McDaniels is also on record as saying he wants to do something never seen before, and that this years offense is VERY different from last years.

So the assumption.......

THAT THE DENVER BRONCOS WILL RUN THE SAME OFFENSE THIS YEAR AS THEY DID LAST YEAR!

Now, I want all of you guys and girls to consider this:
What if Denver is NOT running the same system? Does this change your opinion of who our starting QB should be. In fact, I believe they will not, and I will run you thru a game called connect the dots to lead you to what this crazy Australian believes will happen.

CONNECT THE DOTS.

1. MCDANIELS DRAFTED TIM TEBOW:
OK, we all know that. But McD was particularly aggressive in the way he went about it. He pulled off some great moves to get Tebow at great value. It was a plan pulled off perfectly, and you dont do this for just any player, unless you think that said player is going to be a game changer for you.

Guru did a GREAT piece where he linked to a Peter King piece. But just look at how Denver negotiated there way to getting Tebow
First, Denver trading the 40th, 70th and 114th picks in a power draft to pick Tebow is a powerful statement. Check out the draft trade chart that every team uses and you'll see how much Denver wanted to make sure it wasn't leapfrogged in the Tebow derby. The 25th pick is worth 720 points on the chart every team in the league uses -- some more religiously than others. The 43rd pick is worth 470, the 70th worth 240, and the 114th worth 66. That totals 776. The Broncos paid 56 more points than were necessary by the chart -- equivalent to the 199th overall pick, a late fourth-rounder -- to get Tebow. Denver, obviously, wanted to make the deal badly enough to ratchet up the compensation.

Am I also the only one that finds it curious that at no time did McDaniel's go after Jimmy Clausen. This is a kid that just came out of Weis's system. The same one that, apparently according to the majority of people, our system is based on, and the same one that Brady Quinn has played in.....and the very reason why Quinn already has a leg up in the Quarterback race. Would not Clausen have been the perfect fit for our offense based on why we are all assuming our system is based on?

Tebow obviously has something...traits, intangibles, other abilities......that McDaniels coveted more than what Jimmy Clausen had. And to be fair, Clausen is not unlike Quinn and Orton.....maybe a little stronger arm.....but they are similar pocket passing quarterbacks.

2. TEBOW HAS A DIFFERENT SKILL SET AND IS PROBABLY MORE ATHLETIC THAN ANY OTHER QUARTERBACK ON OUR ROSTER.

Tebow's combine results show better than any other QB's on our roster. Brady Quinn is close, yet Tebow's agility drills over shadow Brady Quinn's quite easily. Tebow's agility drills were outstanding and rated up there with the better RB's and WR's results.

When comparing the 4 quarterbacks skill sets, their play from college, it is obvious that Tebow stands out as being uniquely different. Many have spoken about Tebow's arm strength, but McDaniel's has been on record as saying his arm is plenty strong. Champ Bailey said the same thing. The mechanics? Kyle Orton came out of college with concerns about a elongated action and Tebow has already taken many step sot correct it.

Tebow cant succeed because he came from a spread offense/ option based offense? Kyle Orton came from a spread offense at Purdue. So did Drew Brees. Option based offense? Interesting! So did Brett Favre and ......wait for it......Jay Cutler. In fact, Cutler ran an QB option offense up until his junior year at Vandebilt. Tim Tebow has been the most successful running QB in the college history, but also have the BEST QB efficiency ratings ever in the SEC. Thats nothing to be sneezed at.

This comment from McDaniels really stood out to me.

When I went to Gainesville Monday to work him out,'' McDaniels said, referring to his hush-hush trip to spend the day with Tebow, "we spent about seven hours together. We went over a lot of things. Now, understand that our offense is pretty complicated, and the terminology and the scheme is totally different from what he did at Florida. But about midway through my time there, we're going through plays, and he starts using our terminology. He's so smart about football that he was able to begin to speak my language and talk apples to apples. He'd already translated what he knew of our scheme into my words. That's something that carried a lot of weight with me.''

McDaniels also said: "The football traits he has is the stuff you die for.''




3. TEBOW IS BEING TAUGHT LIKE ALL THE OTHER QB'S TO PASS FROM THE POCKET.

Well, I would bloody well hope so! As a coach, you try and build up a players weaknesses, while not taking away from his strengths. There is no doubting that Tebow has not played much under center, and many of his plays have been made on the run. McDaniel's would be cock eyed if he did not. One of his mantras is having multi talented players, and having your QB having a weakness like that makes no sense.

Once again, consider this quote:
"I think I've called plays as a coordinator since ‘05 and every year we've been different. That's what the offense is. It's not one thing' it's not (New England) '07, which everybody seems to reference all the time. The offense is ‘Do whatever your players allow you to do because it's versatile enough and your players are intelligent enough and you team is capable of morphing into what it needs to be to be successful.' That is what our offense it. It's not ‘The spread.' It's not ‘This' or ‘That' or ‘The other.' It's not just being in the pocket. We had pocket passers, certainly (in New England), and guys that maybe functioned better from the pocket. (Tebow) will function from the pocket. That's where he will play. Now, if we choose to move him out of the pocket, which we did last year also with Kyle (Orton) on naked bootlegs and those kinds of things, then that's something that we feel like will help our offense. We are going to try to use the talents and abilities of the players we have to make sure that they are always doing something that they can be successful with. If he can do something out of the pocket and he deserves to be on the field - that's the biggest thing - then maybe that would warrant us doing some other things. But he is going to get trained the exact same way the other guys are being trained."


It makes sense that Tebow is taught to be an effective pocket passer too. It makes him twice as effective and dangerous. McDaniels did not draft him to turn him into a pocket passer.....he drafted him because of all the extras he had, but he knew he could change him into an effective pocket passer as well.

4.MCDANIELS DRAFTED A VERTICAL THREAT IN THOMAS.
Now, please no one get confused. Demaryius Thomas was not drafted to replace Brandon Marshall. Marshall is an excellent possession WR who has the ability to break tackles after the catch. But Demaryius Thomas is something that we have not had in Denver since Ashley Lelie. A legitimate vertical threat who has potential to make the big play. He also has the added extras: he is great on the screen and bubble, is hard to bring down, has a great stiff arm and one hell of a blocker.

Eric Decker was brought in to replace Brandon Marshall. A big bodied WR with great hands that knows where the sticks are.

So, whats this got to do with quarterbacks. Remember, McD has already said he wants to get vertical. He has a want to have an offense no one has seen before. He has spoken about play action, naked boot legs and other parts of the game we really did not see in any great quantities last year.

Now, I remember back fondly to Jake Plummer. He ran the play action and naked boots better than anyone. Why? Because he was very mobile.

To have an adequate vertical game we will need a couple of things we did not have in spades last year:
  • A vertical threat that can beat the bump and get down the field fast.
  • An O line that can protect the QB during 7 step, Play action and bootleg plays.
  • A mobile QB that can buy time for plays to set up.
  • A QB with good long ball accuracy.
When considering these things, it seems to me to play more into Tebow being the fit. We have that threat in Thomas. Our O line will be young, and if Clady and Harris are not 100%, we will need a QB that has even more mobility and escapability who can keep plays alive, or even pick up some yards with their feet. Tebow has the arm strength and his long ball is pretty good. Of all our QB's, he is the best fit for what McD is trying to do.

5. CHARLIE WEIS AND ROMEO CRENNEL ARE NOW THE CO-ORDINATORS FOR KANSAS CITY CHEIFS.

So what many of you say! I find it hard to believe that McDaniels would use a scheme based on Weis's system against Weis himself, and also against Crennel, whos knows more than anyone how to defend against it. (For any of you who dont know, Weis, Crennel and McDaniels were all in New England together. Crennel was the DC there, and defended against Weis offenses on a daily basis).

McDaniels is not that stupid. He understands that he needs to bring things that these guys have never seen before. Sure, there will be parts of the philosophy that maybe the same, but he would be a fool to run a scheme that is nuts and bolts the same.

Here's what I understand:
  • Kyle Orton has his best year ever as a QB and is trending upwards. I believe this too. i think Kyle is very under rated, and has intangibles out the wazoo.
  • People feel comfortable going with a proven commodity, in a system they feel is the same as last seasons.
  • People have concerns about Tebow. I get it, I am just not sure how legitimate these concerns are.
  • Kyle would be the best starter IF our offensive system is the same.
Here's what I believe from connecting the dots:
  • Kyle Orton is the insurance policy for Tebow in the case that Tebow does not develop as fast as McDaniels hopes. McDaniels knows he can dial the offense back, have KO play mistake free football based and rely on his defense to keep them in games.
  • Brady Quinn is a back up, and back up only. He provides experience, youth and mobility, at a cheap cost, but is not seen as a threat to Tebow, or to Orton if McDaniels has to go to plan B.
  • McDaniels has been smart. He has built up the front 7 and O lines and understands that whoever starts, it will be a help too. I actually see the injuries to Clady and Harris as making Tebow more attractive to start. Orton will get killed behind an inexperienced O line, Tebow has the body type and mobility to hang in until our young O line gets their feet.
  • Our offense will be MARKEDLY different from last year. With this in mind, no QB has no clear cut advantage except in terms of experience. All of them are learning new things, and as we know from the quote above, McDaniels has been blown away by Tebow's football intelligence.
  • McDaniels has brought in weapons from the last 2 drafts that will change and transform this offense. A mobile QB who is a great runner, some monster WR's with big play ability that are complimented with already accomplished veterans, a power blocking game, a RB with potential to be great as well as role players that can change the rhythm of a game.
When looking at all McDaniels has done, in free agency and in the draft from the last 2 seasons he has COMPLETELY changed the make up of the team.

From the defensive side of the ball, to the offensive side of the ball, this whole team has been designed for AGGRESSIVE play, and for all 3 segments of the game to compliment each other.

Tebow has been hand picked to be the trigger man.

The defense has a multitude of playmakers, and the adaptability to play different schemes. This is by design, as it allows it to grow based on Tebow's development. If Tebow is struggling, it can be dialled up to keep Denver in the game. As Tebow gets better, it can be changed accordingly.

On offense, Tebow and his offense are VERY complimentary. If the O line struggles, Tebow has the size, mobility and play making ability to still get things done. It has the look of having a very good power running game, which will enable Tebow to still be effective from the get go, while still enabling him to develop and McD to open the play book.

The upside with Tebow at the helm is far larger than any other QB on our roster. McD knows that.....and he has designed a team around Tebow that can adapt and morph with the player himself. He has put the parts in place that will enable Tebow to come in and be effective from the very start, and is hedging his bets in the advent that he is wrong, then Orton can come in and still give Denver a chance.

ASSUMPTION: THAT DENVER WILL RUN THE SAME OFFENSIVE SCHEME AS IT DID LAST YEAR????......I will be dead set surprised if that is the case, and for this reason, it could change our perception of who will be our quarterback.

Hope you enjoyed the read, and please, have at it!

Peace.




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