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These first two questions come from resident mailbag questioner Pearl jammin' G "don't let me catch you lookin' at me funny" Funk!
1) Don't you LOVE the fact that the last time We drafted a DT in the 1st round, We won the SB - AND it was also cosmically, the 28th pick?!?
Indeed, everything is lining up. We drafted a young stud DT, a self-described TD clone in Montee Ball, AND signed a pass rushing beast from a division rival in Shaun Phillips. Lots of interesting parallels here. The year before we finish 13-3 only to lose to an expansion Baltimore Ravens. In 1996 we finish 13-3 only to lose to the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars. "But Bronco Mike, the Ravens weren't an expansion team!" IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THEY WEREN'T AN EXPANSION TEAM. Just like in 96' the worst team lucked out. Fast forward to today. There is no way any other team in the AFC matches up with our Denver Broncos right now. Flacco and the Ravens? Ray Lewis already sold his soul to the devil and the devil doesn't like the souls of Ratbirds anyway--they don't taste like chicken. J.J. Watt and the Texans? Nah, they're livin' in the late 90's except they have no John Elway, Shannon Sharpe, or Eddy McCaffrey. Andre Johnson comes close to Rod Smith, close. Mr. Gisele and the Cheatriots? Guess what-Manning and Welker are BFF now! We will be in NY come February!
Now as far as Sylvester Williams, I didn't peg DT as a high need pre-draft but it makes a lot of sense. The Broncos went with a rotation of Bannen, Vickerson, Unrein, and Wolfe for the most part last season. I'm doing a study on the defense now and where folks lined up in different fronts, in base downs, you could count on Bannen playing the 0/1 tech (NT) and Big Vick playing the 3 tech (UT). In sub packages (4-2-5) you almost always saw each DT (usually Unrein and Wolfe) playing 3-techs (UT). So here's what I foresee next year. While all DT can be flexible from NT/UT you will see Knighton as the NT on base downs with Sly as the 3-tech. Knighton replaces Bannen, Sly is a step up from Big Vick. More on the front-7 in future posts!
2) Wow, so looks like it's not shaping up to be quite the cupcake AFC West competition of last year? What are your thoughts of Our competition's draft picks? Our chances of a repeat, sweeping of the division in 2013?
It's in the bag, other AFC West teams need not apply. The Faiders will win 6-7 games, the McCoy's will win 8-9 games, the Reid's will win 8-9 games, and we'll comfortably be smokin' them all in double digits. Now, this year isn't a concern, but every team made some solid additions this year in the draft. The Raiders picked up the LB I liked in Sio Moore. He's the real deal--a three down LB capable of helping in all phases. He's even stated he tries to pattern his game after Von Miller. Now, he doesn't have Von Miller's freak athleticism, but most don't. Moore figures to be a thorn in the side of the Broncos for years to come....unlike the guy the Chargers took. Tim Lynch's heart broke a little when the Chargers moved up to take Teo in the 2nd and once I got done laughing at his sorrow, I realized how awesome it was going to be to see Manning and Welker make Teo their play-thing IRL. As far as the Chiefs, I hear they drafted some guy Von Miller and Shaun Phillips will abuse repeatedly twice a year and traded the rest of their draft for Kyle Orton II and a bucket of KFC chicken. I personally would have held out for some authentic KC BBQ, but Andy Reid was hungry, what can you say?
Next up is Jeremy Bolander with a query about the RB situation:
3) What are the chances Willis McGahee gets cut by the end of TC?
If you look at who Montee Ball provides competition to, I would say about 50/50 at this point. His skillset and purpose is a direct threat to McGahee and Jacob Hester. He can carry the workload, doesn't fumble (he stated he fumbled twice in over 900 college carries), and can get that tough yardage inside. He also has great vision, and is tailor made for a zone scheme.
As far as a cap hit, McGahee's cap number is 3 million with 1 million dead money. Cutting him would save 2 million. With Knowshon, he has a 3.3 million cap number with 2.3 million dead money. Cutting him would save 1 million. If anyone is the odd man out it is McGahee. Knowshon still has a team option for next year at a very reasonable price. If they cut McGahee, look for the rotation to be Montee, Knowshon, Hillman, "Blue" Ball. If they cut Knowshon, look for the rotation to be McGahee, Montee, Hillman, and "Blue" Ball. Either way, I don't see Lance being cut this year......let the boos commence.
***I'm not remotely concerned whether or not you take offense to my nickname of Lance Ball, deal with it
Tim Lynch:
Before Willis McGahee's injury, I would have bet the farm on Knowshon Moreno being released. However, Moreno finished very strong and is much younger than McGahee -- and fumbles less. You can be certain Montee Ball will make it, as will Ronnie Hillman, so it has to come down to either McGahee or Moreno. I feel so-so about Lance Ball sticking with the team, but he is starting to make too much money for a third string running back when there are so many other third stringers out there to be had at much lower "minimums".
Topher Doll:
Hard to answer since it entirely depends on his health. If he's back to his old form and 100% he's staying for sure. People forget that last season he was on his way to a better season than his Pro Bowl 2011 season. But if his injury is still nagging or slowed him down, the chance of him being cut grows massively.
This was a great question that was asked in a post:
4) I was thinking and I just wanted to throw it out to the community. If there was one player you could add to the current bronco roster that would make the Super Bowl a lock. Any player from any time.
I answered this in the thread as Terrell Davis. Thinking about it a little more though, the Broncos used tons of two back sets with FB Howard Griffith. FB doesn't jive in a PM offense. I'd have to go with RB Marshall Faulk. He was tailor made to play in an offense like this. Such a deadly threat receiving the ball, such a dynamic runner capable of breaking one.
On defense, I would go with J.J. Watt. Could you imagine this defense with the two best defensive players in the game wreaking havoc on the bones of opposing QB's? That pair will get you soon than later, and there's nowhere to hide!
Tim Lynch:
Any player, from any time....my mind is exploding right now. I'm going to go with Barry Sanders. Imagine what he could have done had he played for a great football team, with a great offensive line. He ran for 2000 yards with a pretty terrible team and a pretty terrible franchise. However, if I were to go defense...let's say Lawrence Taylor. How frightening would it be to have Von Miller coming from one side and Lawrence Taylor on the other. It would be a certifiable nightmare for every single quarterback in this league. Period.
Topher Doll:
Oh tough question because I don't think the Broncos are one player away from winning the Super Bowl, they have the talent across the board. But if I had to say I'd go with a true three down middle linebacker of top tier safety. Peyton has had great RB's and offensive lines and still didn't win a Super Bowl so upgrading there wouldn't do much overall. This isn't fantasy football, take Welker, he'll make this offense slightly better but he isn't going to make it the best ever or anything like that. A great RB or WR on an already great offense won't do much overall so I'll avoid those positions. Give this defense a true leader at one of those key positions would likely put this team into a new class. I'm going to go with either Ronnie Lott or Brian Urlacher, either of those two players would be three down players who are mental giants and leaders on the field who can change games. Plus if you look at Super Bowl Championship teams, 79% of them had Pro Bowl safeties on their team and 89% had either a Pro Bowl middle linebacker or safety on their roster. Hard to argue with those numbers
In honor of 1st round pick Sylvester Williams and his radiator factory job
5) What's the most difficult job you ever worked and why?
Worked an asphalt crew for a summer. Up at 5, to the yard at 6, fill the truck with 4 tons of pavement, and portion it out wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow into the middle of a square patch about 10x8 feet. Our work boots used to melt due to the heat and and we would clean the sticky tar covered concoction off of them by dousing our shoes in diesel fuel and walking over pavement that had been heated by a machine. Repeat the process 35-40 times until the truck was empty. Done with the job by 7, back to the yard by 8, clean out the truck and home by 9pm. Shower, eat dinner, fall asleep, wake up and do it again. I would rack up about 130-140 hours every two weeks and I was one of the fortunate ones that only worked 6 days. Never again. In fact, I would love to take all the high school kids I teach who take school for granted and throw them on an asphalt crew for a couple months. Guarantee it would straighten them right up.
Tim Lynch
Freelance SEO. Nothing is worse than working your tail off for pennies on the dollar (because you have to compete with Indian and Bangledeshi prices) only to have clients expect the world to be handed to them on a silver platter with no budget and no time given to get there. I grinded that job out for nearly a year before I realized it was much more profitable to work for yourself and far less time consuming, so I have given up the 60+ hour work week(full-time job plus the freelancing on the side) and focused more other ventures.
Boo hoo Tim--what a pansy! "It's so hard sitting on my ass 60 hours a week nerding out on the computer" Plus I'm pretty sure that bit about Indians and Bangldeshi's makes you a racist...
Topher Doll:
McDonalds, I was in high school, was busy with that, prepping for college and moving out and working a 10 hour shift for a week was enough for me, between the grease burns on my arms and face, dealing with the crap from other kids at my school, and missing some key moments in my families life that week, I couldn't stand it any longer. I didn't realize it, and I don't think most people do, but working at McDonalds is just terrible.
And your new nickname is McDoll ;)
And for our final mail-bag question of the week G-Funk is gonna put all you freeloadin' MHR's in your place:
Why is it, do you think, that so many MHRians refrain, so often, from sending mailbag questions. I'm asking you (and Your fellow bagger... retort-ers..?) to gauge these in priority from 1 - 5. With 1 being the most impactful.
MHR has too little time
I would just chalk it up to being lazy.
MHRian is not creative enough to actually come up with a question of any relevance on a reliable basis.
Plenty of creativity, plenty of laziness.
MHRian feels nothing pertinent going on (aka it's the bleepin' off-season)
Only lazy fans view the offseason this way
MHR has the most Trolls ever. Just awaiting their opportunity. Only, We're such a bunch a bad-@$$es, that We provide very few opportunities, except guys like sadaraine, who make posts that have polls with options for Trolls to admit that's what they're doing and sech)
I think you were drunk when you typed this, I don't know what this garbled up piece of crap even means.
Moral of the story?
