FanPost

Colts west? Hold the phone....


Peyton Manning. Guy is a surefire HOF'er. He has had 11 seasons with 4,000+ yards passing. So it stands to reason that we will become the Colts West and Denver will have a QB entered in the 5,000 yard derby right?

I have nothing to truly support this, its just a collection of thoughts from various actions or non actions that we have taken since Peyton came to town. This is my first post on here, so I hope I dont bore any of you to death. But thanks for reading at least this far.

Front Office Vision:

Elway made it very clear, that he would like us to be a balanced offense. He made it very clear that he knows what it takes to surround an older QB with the talent necessary to win later in his career. He knows because that was him. Watching those early Super Bowl's was painful, and make the back to back wins all the sweeter. And John is a revered figure and rightfully so. But truth be told, he could not do it on his own. SB's XXI, XXII and XXIV proved that. It wasn't until an unheralded 6th round pick out of Georgia blew up a niners player in Tokyo on a kickoff return did we finally have a running game which enabled John to finally realize his dream. Hoisting a Lombardi. So no one short of the guy who has a say so in any and all football decisions in the building could be the key to us actually being a balanced offense.

Coaching Staff:

Fox served on Chuck Noll's staff in Pittsburgh for a couple years, and it looks like those 2 years had a profound effect on him as he has always been a ball control/tough as nails D kind of guy. Correct me if I am wrong, but we havent had a coach like that in a long time. Wade Phillips comes to mind. But Fox is a big proponent of the running game and Elway has gone out of his way to commend Fox on his knowledge of the game. I think that Fox has the support of Elway to be able to say we are running the ball. I in no way see a "3 yards and a cloud of dust" type of offense in our future, but I think it will be more running that people expect. And my next point is where most of my cockamamie idea is born from....

The Players:

Chris Gronkowski. If not for his famous younger brother and his other brother (why did I just think of the Bob Newhart show?) that played for us, we would not have any idea who he is. But he is a FB. And not a dynamic running/pass catching FB, but a follow-me-through-that-brick-wall kind of FB. If we are running a passing offense, this guy has no business tying up a roster spot. Do you see a guy like that in New England? New Orleans? Heck and we gave up a player that had value as both a DB and a return man. So this was in no way a move to just get a guy. They have plans for him. We added TE's, which could be used to say we are going to pass the ball more, but Fox knows that run games are most effective with excellent downfield blocking. Imagine an ACE formation, one RB with game breaking speed like Hillman, or bruisers like McGahee (hopefully Fannin) with two 6-3 220 lb+ WR's and two 6-4/6-5 240+ lb TE's blocking for them. Next play, same formation, same players those TE's block and release and suddenly Manning has 4 targets all 6-3 or bigger or the option to dump it off to a shifty back with 4.4 speed or audible back to a run. That is the goal of every offense, to truly be unpredictable. Opposing defenses know what Manning brings to the table. If the running game is extremely effective and capable of big plays, the opposing DC now has to tell his guys to look for run, pass, play action and when the triggerman is Manning....well lets just say it could get ugly. Another thing I want to bring up is our O-line. Overall, I do like them. But Walton and Franklin were just atrocious last year pass blocking. If we were going to be Colts West Jeff Saturday would be on the roster now, Franklin would be a guard and we would have a new RT. The strength of our line is run blocking for sure. Now Manning's ultra quick decision making is going to make them look better than they really are pass blocking, but run blocking is their forte. Our draft pick (Blake) further cements our line identity. Big, strong and physical.

Again, this is just a collection of thoughts from the 486 processor I call a brain, please treat it as such. Thanks for reading.

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