Happy Birthday to me! Elway more things I want for 2011.

With the official Return of the King to Dove Valley on January 5th, I got a great gift from my favorite team. Now, I want more. I know, selfish right? But I believe my selfish requests are what we need to turn around this proud organization to glory. Some may be wishful thinking, some may be obvious, but I strongly believe that all will result in a far stronger team. Follow me down, won't you?

1) Go Back to Stanford, Luck!  Woohoo! One down.

As much as I would love for him and the trees to not pound my Bruins for another year, Broncos trump all. I'm sick of hearing about Denver trading up one spot or, if he should fall, taking him with our number 2 when we have 10 other greater positional needs. Whether he is the next Payton Manning or not is unsure. What is sure is there will be another "Can't Miss QB" down the road. Last year, it was Sam Bradford. Next year, it will probably be Matt Barkley. And so on, and so on.

2) Defensive continuity

Mr. Elway spoke on this and I've been waiting for this since Larry Coyer was fired. Then after Bob Slowik was fired. Then after Jim Bates was fired. Then after Mike Nolan was fired/released. You cannot have sustained success constantly changing coordinators. New players have to be brought in to fill a particular system and all players have to learn new terminology unless they are familiar with this new coach; all of which take away from "mastering" the offense during the off-season. Now, should we necessarily keep Don Martindale as our D Coordinator, hell no; that is for our new coach to decide. Whatever scheme our new Head Coach decides to bring in matters far less to me than KEEPING THE COORDINATOR WHO'S RUNNING IT AROUND FOR LONGER THAN A YEAR! Sorry for my outburst; on that note...

3) Switch to a 4-3

This is probably the the most contentious of my wishes. With our coaching candidates like Perry Fewell and Mike "Mark" Mullarkey having 4-3's at their respective teams (only Jim Harbaugh runs a 3-4) it is likely we'll go back to that. Our personnel seems more fitted for a 4-3 anyway. I like Mays' potential at MLB, and DJ is clearly better as an OLB. If we combine them with Woodyard at OLB we could have the kind of LB speed that we enjoyed back in 2005.

Ayers is a more natural 4-3 DE, as he was at Tennessee, particularly as a run stopper. Vickerson, Bannan, and Jamal Williams rotating in the middle would be serviceable as well.  The argument that Dumervil can't be an effective every down DE makes no sense to me. He already was quite effective at it, and at only some 20 lbs more than he is now. He had 8.5 sacks his rookie year and 12.5 his second year. He had a down year in 2008 where he only had 5 sacks, but he was receiving far more double teams with little help from his other DL companions. Also, even in his worst sack year statistically, he still was tied for second this year and 1/2 a sack from the lead. A bonus would be with zone blitzing, as both Ayers and Doom have more coverage experience

4) Get Albert Haynesworth

Okay, maybe THIS IS the most contentious of my wishes, but hear me out. His tenure under Shanny in Washington has seriously made Haynesworth look ridiculous and immature. This may be true, but Shanny has a way of doing that to even the best, most professional players lately (Cough... McNabb... Cough.) All that aside, in a 4-3 three technique, Albert is scary and makes the defense better. Also, we'll be able to get him on the cheap because Washington clearly doesn't want him. He'll be 30 at the beginning of next season, but after the embarrassment of last season he should be hungry and looking to prove his old team wrong. I see his addition to the team, along with a pick like Nick Fairly as creating a dominate front four that we haven't seen in Denver since, well, the late 90's.

5) Sign Champ Bailey as a corner for a year(maybe) then move him to FS

This seems less and less likely as days go by, but we really could use him back. He had a great year not allowing a TD to a receiver he was covering, proving he can still play the position. That said, he would be far better suited as a free safety, IMO. Having Champ sitting in the defensive backfield strictly watching what the QB is doing and not worrying about a receiver would be deadly. Combine that with his ability to still cover well enough to shut down a receiver and that opens up so many different blitzing possibilities and coverages.

6) Better playcalling

I was at every game this year, except the Houston and Pittsburgh preseason games, and this was my biggest problem with the team. The Chargers game was particularly bad. I guessed correctly what type of play was going to be run about 60-70% of the time on offense; and 10% of the times I was wrong, they should've ran what I thought they would. Now, I'm no expert (my football education is a combination of Madden games and simple observation) but it's not hard to see what was coming. For example, during the drive when we had a chance to tie the game, we ran two QB draws with Tebow with an empty backfield for 9 yards. pretty obvious at the time, though effective. Then, on 3rd and 1, what should've been a QB sneak from under center was a regular weak side run... loss of 1 or 2 yards. Then, on 4th down, they run a QB run from shotgun. Everyone knew it was coming and was stopped short. On 3rd and long defense, I hate that we so often run either all out blitz and get burned with a short pass/RB dump off, or a 3 man rush with little chance to get the QB under 9 seconds. There has got to be a middle ground that would be far more successful.

7) Perry Fewell or Gregg Williams for Head Coach / Jim Fassel or Studesville as OC / Tom Cable honorary Head Coach twice a year.

Williams is a stretch, but either way I would like to see our Head coach be a defensive specialist. I know Mr. Elway said it doesn't matter, but we haven't had that since before I was a fan (because I was in single digit years of life) and personally think it's about time. I'm personally high on Perry Fewell simply because I like the way the Giants' defense is run, particularly the front 7. Studesville for continuity and because he would be dedicated to the run and play action for Tebow's sake, much like the Steelers did with Big Ben his first few years. I like Fassel as OC simply for his reputation as a QB developer and because of his experience. He's also all I could think of as "likely" for the job. I'm really intrigued by Tom Cable. Reports say that he lost play calling responsibilities this year, and that was the reason for the record and his quick firing, but he was the head coach of a team that has recently been steadily improving under his watch. I also like that he would be as motivated to destroy the Al and the Faders as much as Shanny was, and that is hard to put a price on.

All and all, I think these 7 things happening will turn this organization around far more quickly than the MSM thinks. Some may be likely, others pie-in-the-sky, but its my birthday and I'll wish how I want to.

I look forward to y'alls thoughts, but be gentle. This was my first real post. GO BRONCOS!!!