No Matter What Happens On Sunday, The 2011 Denver Broncos Season Was A Success

I have recently been in a long Facebook discussion in someone's post. This guy is arguing that we fire John Fox and we fire John Elway because they are not using Tim Tebow correctly and other than Von Miller, all our draft picks our busts......yeah........enough said.

If the Broncos do not make the playoffs on Sunday, I can guarantee you that I will be as disappointed as everybody else at Mile High Report. We all invest a lot of time and money in this team, whether it is buying a jersey or merchandise and then of course reading MHR and other Bronco news sources or blogs.

However, lets not forget where the Broncos were coming into this season. The Broncos had arguably the worst season in 2010 in franchise history finishing with a 4-12 record. What we saw this year is what none of us realistically pictured coming into the week 17.

The Broncos have an opportunity that a lot of teams do not have. A lot of teams in the NFL wish they could be in the position that the Broncos are in this week. I should not have to state it again but I will:

If the Denver Broncos defeat the Kansas City Chiefs on January 1st 2012, they will make the playoffs.

Isn't that fun to say? We can win and we are in.A lot more fun than wondering what pick we will have in the draft that isn't for four months.

But for a second I want to talk about what would happen if the Broncos do not make it. I understand it is a negative idea. A lot of fans have been upset over what they saw the past two weeks. Me to! We all are. Turning the ball over is annoying, especially when you have a team right where you want 'em. But before the season, if I presented you with this week 17 opportunity, you would have took it. Without a doubt you would have. 4-12 to opportunity to be division champs? Yee-Haw!!

But if we do not make it, was this season a success? Absolutely!

Think about what has improved for the Broncos this season. We saw glimpses that we may have a quarterback of the future. We do not know for sure yet, just like every team with a young first year starter does not know for sure yet. We won games in Elway-like fashion with late comebacks capitalizing off mistakes from the opponents.

We saw a glimpse of what a deadly pass rush will look like in years to come. If Von Miller can be this good in a rookie season, there is no limit to where Von can take his talents. Dumervil has 100% recovered from his surgery and is now dominating again.

Orlando Franklin has improved a lot and been very good in run blocking. This offensive line has developed chemistry and become one of the hardest working offensive lines in the NFL. Critics will look at sacks but lots of them have become partially because sometimes Tebow holds onto the ball too long and runs around. Different than last season, we had an offensive line that that started every game together. Correct me if I am wrong but I think Ryan Clady, Zane Beadles, J.D. Walton, Chris Kuper and Orlando Franklin have started every game together.

Of course there are weaknesses. Every team has them, especially after a 4-12 season. They were not going to all be improved after one year it never is. Just like the problems right now won't all be fixed after this year. We are young and binding together to become a good team.

Those are just a few things I noticed that I really liked and I am happy with and some things I wanted to see going into this season.

I hope to heck we win on Sunday. That would be the ultimate success. But I enjoyed this season a lot. I saw a lot of improving. Our off-season acquisitions worked well, I trust our management to not make scary decisions that hurt the franchise for years. No matter what, this season was something we should be proud of coming off the disaster that was 2010.

What do you think? Was 2011 a success to you?