Good morning, Broncos Country!
The most difficult part of the preseason is not allowing yourself to get carried away.
Good or bad, you have to remain even keel regarding what you see on the field. In Thursday’s preseason game, there were encouraging and concerning facets to the Denver Broncos 22-14 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
On the MHR Radio Podcast (ApplePodcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher), Adam Malnati and I said there are two positive takeaways that should make Broncos fans intrigued — Joe Flacco and the starting offense and the starting defense. I’ve felt for a while now that Flacco and Denver’s offense would surprise people. There are still some issues that need to get fixed, but this unit should be fun to watch. The defense is where I have to check myself, but I think this unit could be really, really, really good.
Time will tell and I could be way off, but those two areas are something fans should be champing at the bit to see come the regular season.
Broncos tone setters
Tone setters play a vital role for their unit and team.
The Broncos have been blessed with some incredible and unique guys who set the attitude for their teams over the franchise’s history. The Orange Crush had Lyle Alzado and Tom Jackson. The back-to-back Super Bowl years had Shannon Sharpe and Steve Atwater — talk about two extremes. You could also include Bill Romanowski for those two teams. In the 2000s, there was Al Wilson. Most recently, Aqib Talib and T.J. Ward served in that role for the Super Bowl 50 team.
Who will take on that role for this year’s Broncos?
On the MHR Radio Podcast (ApplePodcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher), Adam and I discussed who we think could take that role. The inspiration for the topic came from Cecil Lammey, who asked me the question at Tuesday’s practice. As Adam said on the podcast, some guys are so good they set the tone with their play. Von Miller and Chris Harris Jr. do that for the Broncos. That’s not to say they don’t set the tone, they just do it in different ways.
For me, Kareem Jackson will serve as the defensive tone setter this season. The way he plays, the confidence and swag he possesses, is reminiscent of Talib and Ward. It’s fun to watch Jackson play the game because he has so much fun. Derek Wolfe is an obvious choice for some. The comparison I’ve made with him is to Alzado. The other who could take on that role, who may surprise some, is Bradley Chubb. You can tell the second-year edge rusher has a ton of confidence and will play a larger leadership role this season.
The offensive tone setter is obvious. For me, it’s Dalton Risner. The rookie guard wants to beat the crap out of his opponent on every snap, and if he doesn’t, he doesn’t feel like he did his job. That attitude is infectious for the other guys on the offensive line but also for the whole offense. It’s also been an approach the offensive line and offense haven’t had in a while.
The closer we get to the regular season, who takes on various roles becomes more defined. Who takes on the role as tone setter for the defense and offense will be interesting to watch unfold.
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