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At last, Week 1 of the 2009 NFL Season is upon us.  No better time to reach out and talk to some of the other outstanding bloggers here at SBNation.  Up first, of course, is Josh Kirkendall, head man over at CincyJungle.  He was kind enough to answer all of your questions in a FanPost and now he gets to answer mine.

Want to see what he asked me?  Check it out HERE!

I have to admit, Hard Knocks has been must-see TV, for me at least.  What has been your thought son the show and getting an inside look at your favorite team?  How has this changed your impressions of how Mike Brown runs the team and Marvin Lewis coaches it?

I've loved it. Seeing the coaches talk about players in meetings and how they coached was very enlightening. I think the best part was watching Marvin Lewis scream and shout at his players; something we've never seen, because Lewis is typically the cool cat in public. I really liked how other people got a first hand look at Chad Ochocinco; he's not that cocky diva receiver that most people see. He's much more laid back off-the-field, very funny and friendly with mostly everyone. Most of what we saw, as Bengals fans, we really liked.

Then there are the front office moments where we just shake our head; sometimes violently. See, we've known for some time that this front office struggles (understatement of the year nomination?). However, to actually see it, to have everything we believed confirmed, was like a punch in the gut. What's worse is that we don't see it improving and the only way we might sustain consistent success, rather than those once-in-a-blue moon seasons, is becoming lucky as hell.

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That said, I took some time to ask Fooch, who run NinersNation, some questions about our opponent Friday Night and what we can expect to see.  He was nice enough to oblige.

UPDATE -- Here are the answers I gave to Fooch's questions for NN!

The obvious first.  What is the deal with Crabtree??  Is this a situation where he wants Top-5 money because he thinks he should have been picked that high or is his foot a concern so he wants as much money now as possible?

First off, it's obviously difficult to know the truth given how silent Eugene Parker and the 49ers have been on things.  A lot has been said but it's usually a couple sources removed.  That talk though has been that there is a philosophical difference.  Parker thinks Crabtree is a top 5 talent and deserves that kind of money, or at least more than Darrius Heyward-Bay.  Of course, Tyson Jackson was not a top 3 talent but that didn't lead to a worse contract!

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Broncos RB Peyton Hillis, a favorite here at MileHighReport, was nice enough to take a few minutes to talk about how Training Camp is going so far.  Enjoy!

via assets.espn.go.com

This afteroon, I had the great fortune of speaking with The Beast - Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall. Brandon was in Boston participating in a photo shoot for Reebok and the Broncos' 50th AFL Anniversary Throwback jerseys. Turns out BMarsh is already familiar with MHR, and he was quite generous in offering his time to speak via telephone. We covered his hip injury and recovery, the new quarterbacks, and the draft, among other things. Most interestingly, I found out that Brandon gets along just fine with Philip Rivers - that may help answer some questions about who was responsible for the reported bad blood between Denver and San Diego in recent seasons. Many thanks to Brandon for taking the time to speak with me, and I hope you enjoy reading what he had to say.

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It's that time again, time for our weekly chat with RMN Broncos beat-write Lee Rasizer about what he is seeing, hearing and thinking when it comes to the Denver Broncos --

MHR -- OK, be honest. How far into a "Broncos win AFC West" story were you when the Chargers decided to spoil the fun?

LR -- I hadn't written anything. But as I watched the KC-San Diego game in the press box in Carolina early in the fourth quarter, I did plan on maybe doing my story on that topic, discussing all the travails Denver had been through to get to that point. At Bank of America Stadium's press box, there's a bank of TVs behind the rows of seats where the writers work, showing about eight games simultaneously. As the Chargers started their drive inside five minutes, me and about a couple other Denver-area people stood there and watched the TD, onside kick, TD, missed field goal drama, even while the Panthers-Broncos game had begun. The stadium staff had already switched the screens near where we work to the Broncos game and I expected to just see the onside kick recovered by the Chiefs and then go sit down. Oops. Bye, Carl Peterson ... and Herm will be joining you soon."

MHR -- Mike Shanahan admitted that he did a poor job getting the team ready last week, and that allowing them to know what was happening in KC was a mistake. Do you think he is still trying to gauge the best way to motivate his team?

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Nothing says the Holidays more than welcoming old friends.  For Broncos fans, nothing says old friends more than Andrew Mason.  Mase spent 6 years with the Broncos organization, keeping fans close to the action at DenverBroncos.com as well as at his blog, Mason's Morsels.  Upon his "departure", Mason landed on his feet with the Carolina Panthers.

Mase agreed to do a Q&A for us leading up to today's game.  My thanks to Andrew for taking the time, and for the incredible work he did while at the Broncos -- TSG.

MHR -- That was quite a performance on Monday Night. A big game coming up next week as well. Could this be the dreaded ‘Trap Game'?

AM -- Theoretically, it could, but from talking to guys in the locker room, it seems that isn't the case. First, there's the Broncos' spotless record against the NFC South; given how powerful the division has been this year, that quickly got everyone's attention. Then there's the Broncos' performance in some tough road games -- in particular the 17-point dismantling of the Jets.

There's also the collective understanding that the Panthers' postseason place is still precarious. Carolina has the one-game lead over Tampa Bay, but a Bucs win Sunday would give them a tiebreak advantage on division record (Bucs 4-2, Panthers 3-2 in that scenario) and a Panthers loss Sunday would give the Bucs a potential tiebreak advantage on common opponents (the Bucs would be 8-2; the Panthers would be 8-3). The Bucs close at home with San Diego and Oakland, who are a combined 8-18; the Panthers close at New York and New Orleans, who are a combined 18-9.

The players I've talked with this week are confident, but there remains a palpable edge and urgency to the tone in the locker room -- which is what you want to see.

TSG -- Now that we are several months down the road, what effect did the Steve Smith situation have on the football team and how have they used a negative event and turned it into a positive?

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Another installment in our weekly series with Lee Rasizer, Broncos beat-writer for the Rocky Mountain News --

MHR -- Another week, another running back goes on I/R. What does the loss of Hillis do to the offense?

LR -- They'll try to plug and play with the likes of Cory Boyd and Tatum Bell, and maybe soon, Selvin Young. But Hillis' absence goes beyond just carries. He was a bruising short-yardage option and goal-line runner. He was good in blitz pickup. He also was dangerous as a receiver out of the backfield. I'm not really sure who inherits the short-yardage job, and that would be my primary concern. There's been some talk that Boyd has run physically at padded practices. That hasn't been Bell's game, or Young's, either, for that matter. So they'll need him to emerge as that guy to keep this offense humming. Spencer Larsen missed practice on both Wednesday and Thursday, so I think he might be out as a potential option. But Andrew Pinnock is ready to go and the ex-Chargers fullback has the size. So maybe he's a dark-horse choice. The team's keeping it pretty close to the vest. We'll all see Sunday.

MHR -- From the outside it would appear Tatum Bell would get a majority of the work, but I'm not so sure.  What are you hearing about the preparation of Cory Boyd?

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