Perspective Lost??

by Kdo09 on May 8, 2011 12:06 PM MDT

Perspective is like a one year old child. We think we’ve got it, until we lose sight of it. I shared a perspective along with nearly everyone else going into the draft. Our D-line HAD to be the focus of our draft. Well, we all know how that panned out.

It got me wondering WHY I thought this had to be the case. The obvious answer was the play of the team last year. We couldn’t stop the run and our D-Line looked old, slow and unskilled. SOLD! Draft me a DT! Two of them! I’m not sure why, maybe I was looking for a reason to not be upset, but I started looking back. First let me point out that although I wanted a DT in the 1st round, when I was asked to represent the Broncos in a full-blown mock of the first two rounds, I drafted Vonn. When it came time to pull the trigger, I couldn’t do it. But I digress.

I started looking back at the previous four years drafts. No no no. Not who we drafted but who WE WANTED to be drafted and what our reported needs were going into the draft. Here’s what I found.

In 2008- You guessed it. We needed Defense. It was thought that there weren’t going to be any good DTs where we were going to be drafting, outside of Sedrick Ellis, so the names that were being thrown around were Kenny Phillips (Safety) and Keith Rivers (LB), Taylor Mays. For the record, there is a great breakdown of the “mocked” Broncos 1st pick based on several of the football publications http://www.milehighreport.com/pages/2008_NFL_Mock_Drafts (I stink at links). The consensus was Either LT or LB with Safety bringing up the rear. As everyone knows, we picked Ryan Clady and never looked back. But, we didn’t address the team the way most thought we should. The perception was that we failed to address the D-line in free agency so we would nail it in the draft. It was actually a good draft for us. Clady, Royal, Spencer and Hillis were all good to great picks. But what we wanted (thought we needed) and what happened were very different.

In 2009- We had 2 first round draft picks, 12 and 18. Per the news and bloggers, the 3 biggest areas of need were DE, OLB and DT. There was also some considerable talk about trading up for Stafford or Sanchez. The thoughts around here were, Maualuga, Laurinaitis, BJ Raji, Cushing, Maybin and Orakpo and a lot of Moreno (http://www.milehighreport.com/pages/mhr-2009-nfl-mock-draft-da). LB was the position that was most often chosen with our picks with the only real exception being a strong push for Knowshon Moreno. Not exactly what happened. We took Knowshon and later in the round, Ayers. Not what we were expecting or (in our opinion) did we address out biggest need, again.

2010- We all remember this draft a bit better. WR suddenly became a significant need. And we all seemed to have a man-crush on Iupati. But when push came to shove, the clear choice was, once again, LB. Rolando McClain was the consensus pick for us.

I’m not even going to go into 2011. D has been the area of need for at least 4 years with LB leading the way (at least from a consensus standpoint). In 2008, we wanted an LB; in 2009, Rey Rey was our man; and in 2010, Rolando was going to lead us for the next decade. Don’t get me wrong, in each of those years, D-line was an area of need. It was actually addressed a little bit though.

Ryan Clady

Ryan Torrain

Spencer Larson

Knowshon Moreno

Kenny McKinley

Ton Brandstater

Blake Schueter

JD Walton

Syd’Quan Thompson

Notice anything?? Spencer Larson (and maybe Robert Ayers) is the only LB we have drafted prior to this year since 2008 (maybe longer). Each of those years, LB was at the top (or darn close) of our priority list going into the draft. Yet, for some reason, our perspective changed this year. DT was the perceived biggest need. Maybe it was because of the depth at the position, maybe because we STUNK at stopping the run. Whatever the case, I felt compelled to point out that our need and desire for LB help hadn’t been addressed and shouldn’t have gone away. Lets hope Vonn and Miller can make other positions the priority next year.

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR

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Comments

nice post

We had the worst front 7 I can remember seeing. Its been bad for awhile. Fox coaching up this defense has me optimistic. If we landed 2 starting LB’s in this draft, were headed in the right direction. Ayers will be at least above average at his new position and Elvis’s injury won’t slow him down.

The question is, can Fox get mediocre play from our DT’s. If so, we will see marked improvement on D.

Just 5 more months…….

luckily im a bronco and a blazer fan

by chikndnnr on May 8, 2011 2:56 PM MDT reply actions

Some of those fan picks turned out pretty good for other teams. Maybe the Broncos should listen to us more :).

Seriously though I think this new regime nailed the draft (with Franklin being the only question mark for me) in a way the others have lacked in the recent past. I think Shanny was good at drafting Offense but obviously not defense. McD proved to be better his second year but it was looking as if his defensive talent evaluation would be a question mark at best. Still both largely ignored the defense McD mainly because he had to fix the offense he disassembled.

I wanted Dareus and but I though Dareus, Miller or Peterson would be the pick and I was ok with that. I love the way this draft turned out and I love how we addressed need and got great value letting our board come to us. I hope these guys have long successful careers with the Broncos and I hope all of our drafts turn out as good. We’ll be a playoff team again in no time.

Tim Tebow wears 3WM and drinks Tuscan whole milk.

by BroncoMath101 on May 8, 2011 5:34 PM MDT reply actions

That list of yours has no real DTs on it either. A team cannot be competitive if they don’t draft DT and do it often.

Sure we need LB and most of us wanted Denver to draft DT and LB at the 2011 draft. We got our wish with LB, but no DTs. That is not a smart strategy to ignore the DT roster void. Every good team has a lot of bodies to utilize at the games most violent position.

If we don’t draft DT early and often in 2012, you will continue to see Denver struggle to defend the run or collapse a pocket. Unless we outspend everyone for some other teams DT castoffs.

Welcome to Denver Von Miller.

by McGeorge on May 8, 2011 8:42 PM MDT reply actions

Carlton Powell is/was a DT

not that drafting him – supposed great run stopper – helped at all

by DE_BroncoFan on May 9, 2011 6:10 AM MDT up reply actions

It wasn't my intention to

suggest we didn’t /dont need DTs. Just to point out that for the previous 3 years we had been begging for a LB. We never got one. So what changed this year? Our LB dreams hadn’t been fulfilled but this year we all wanted DTs over LBs.

by Kdo09 on May 9, 2011 8:15 AM MDT up reply actions

Taylor Mays wasn't available in 2008.

He was drafted in 2010. He elected to stay out of the 2009 draft where he probably would’ve been the first safety off the board but elected to return for his senior year and it cost him because 4 safeties were taken before him (Eric Berry, Earl Thomas, Nate Allen, TJ Ward).

by JuiceIsLoose on May 8, 2011 11:53 PM MDT reply actions