Category: Blue Originals

While there are still two weeks left in the regular season, it doesn’t hurt to get an idea about where things stand with the current roster and a rough idea about what the Broncos need to do this offseason.

I will go over each position, including any practice squad players and those on injured reserve, and go over relevant status as warranted. I will include my own thoughts on what might be the best approach for the Broncos to make this offseason at each position.

Basic info: The Broncos have an estimated $30.7M in available cap space, but that number is based on an estimated cap of $166M. The cap may go higher than that, so the Broncos may have a little more room to work with. They have 37 players who are under contract for next season, nine players on the practice squad who will likely get futures contracts, nine players who will be exclusive rights free agents (ERFAs), three who will be restricted free agents (RFAs) and 11 players who will be unrestricted free agents (UFAs).
Continue reading Analyzing The Broncos Roster And Offseason Priorities

I’m planning to get something up later in the week about where things stand with the current Broncos roster and what to consider about an offseason plan, but I wanted to get another topic out of the way first.

That deals with one of the means of acquiring players: Trades.

When one puts together an offseason game plan, you first need to ask yourself which pending unrestricted free agents of your own should be re-signed, which restricted free agents should be tendered and at what level (regarding exclusive rights FAs, they are almost always tendered because there’s no risk to do so) and which players must be cut for performance reasons, cap reasons or both. Once you have those in mind, you consider how to fill holes through, in order, the draft, free agency and trades.
Continue reading Why You Can’t Always Count On Trades

Everyone should be aware of that the Broncos need to win out to ensure themselves a spot in the playoffs. Everyone is aware by now of the weaknesses the Broncos have (mostly on offense). And everyone is aware that the Broncos are not likely to secure the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, even if it’s mathematically possible.

But while all is not perfect for the Broncos, nor is it perfect for the remaining four opponents on their schedule. Each of those opponents will pose a problem for the Broncos to some degree, but those opponents have problems that will affect them, too.

Let’s get the Broncos’ issues out of the way first: They still have issues at right tackle, their running back corps has thinned thanks to injuries, the starting QB has battled injuries, the backup QB still needs development before he becomes the starter, and the defense, while still one of the best units in the NFL, is no longer capable of making up for the offense’s inability to move the chains or of constantly holding off opponents who get good field position.

But we’ve discussed these issues many times over. Instead, let’s turn our attention to the opponents the Broncos will face in the coming weeks and examine what each of them has done well and the areas in which they have struggled – and, in particular, anything noteworthy as it pertains to their specific matchup against the Broncos.

We’ll go over them in order of when the Broncos play them.
Continue reading We Know About The Broncos, But What About Their Opponents?

In continuing information about the offseason work that the Broncos are likely to consider, I wanted to keep people updated as to where things stand with the veteran players on the roster and how the Broncos might approach things in the offseason.

One thing to keep in mind with players is the difference between fully guaranteed money and non-guaranteed money. While certain players have money in 2017 that is currently “injury only” guaranteed, that money becomes fully guaranteed if a player is on the roster by a certain date. So, for the purposes of this post, I am treating things under the assumption that money will either be locked in toward the start of the 2017 NFL year or it will not be locked in.

When money becomes fully guaranteed makes a difference in terms of when you need to make a decision regarding a player’s future. If you have a player that isn’t guaranteed any money until he is on a game-day roster for the regular season, there is no risk in keeping the player on the roster and no rush to getting him to take a salary reduction, unless your cap space is tight. Because the Broncos are projected to have nearly $39M in cap space, their only focus will be on which players are guaranteed money at what point.
Continue reading Offseason Overview: Veteran Contract Situations

Over the course of the last few decades, professional sports have gone from an American Pastime to a World-Wide Entertainment Industry (DaDaDa, DaDaDa). Revenue is up, Records are routinely broke and wining at all cost has led to the unfortunate call for asterisks to be placed next to some of  sports’ greatest of all time.

After the fold , @BobMorris and Myself (@KushLash) have teamed up for some bye week-esque journalism. Together, we peel back the layers of the professional sports entertainment industry and show you what role performance enhancing drugs really has played in our community’s favorite pastime: Professional Football

Continue reading Performance Enhancing Drugs – Is It Time for a Rule Change?

Back in May, @BobMoris wrote a really good post about the nature of live sports and network broadcasting, worth the read if you haven’t seen it yet. Well, yesterday the NFL announced it will offer the NFL Network and NFL RedZone to SlingTV subscribers (You have to love the photo The Verge used to accompany this article). This comes on the heals of a recent NFL partner$hip with Twitter and their continued partner$hip talks YouTube.

That being said,  if you are a Broncos fan who doesn’t live in Denver media market (as Bob and I both are), it is still not that easy to watch a live game broadcast without shelling out some serious dough. I mean, there is a reason the NFL is King three days a week from September to January. The same reason he’s always $miling.

After the fold, I’m going to walk you through the traditional thievery, I mean viewing options fans have for live broadcasts as well as open the thread to a discussion, where I hope you’ll share some of your own unique Denver Broncos game viewing experiences.   Continue reading Watching Broncos Games: A Guide and Discussion

As the ‘QB Controversy’ nears its end in Broncos Country, I wanted to share some fun insight on the Sanchize and why success in the league has more to do with stars aligning in a perfect environment than individual statistics.

Don’t worry; this is not an article to remind you about our to-be starting QB’s famous rear-end collision. Rather, after the fold, I’m going walk you back from the spoiled quarterback ledge we’ve all been on and tell you why we should embrace ‘Suns Out, Guns Out’.

Continue reading The Curious Case of Mark Sanchez

Now that this is out of the way and while we all wait for @Nick full break down, I thought it was worth taking a moment to reflect.

While participating in the Broncos Greatest Game Tournament put on by @Jeremy (KUDOS BTW, this has been a lot of fun taking so many trips down memory lane), I had to force myself to consider just how great the last few seasons have been for Broncos Country and where it all is going to rank in NFL history.

In the last round, I made a comment that I thought last year’s regular season game against the Green Bay Packers was the “Greatest regular season game for a Defense in NFL history. ” This prompted @VonSwenson to, rightfully so, question if I really believed that (see thread here).

After the fold, I think I can answer for Broncos Country how great not only that game was, but also just How Lucky We Are. Continue reading How Lucky Are We?

With Bob’s musings on the Hall of Fame nominees, this past weekend’s induction of Mr. B to the Ring of Fame and THIS hilariously gone wrong Denver Broncos ‘Ring of Fame Generator’ got me to wonder if #18 is a lock for the team’s Ring of Fame after he retires.

My personal favorite:

Continue reading Does Peyton Manning Belong in the Ring of Fame?

Earlier today, our nation was ‘rocked’ by another ‘explosive’ NCAA ‘sex party scandal’ (all terms pulled from Google news headlines). ESPN and OTL have reported former players and recruits from the University of Louisville Basketball Program allege they attended campus parties that included strippers with one player admitting to having sex with a stripper, paid for by the team’s former graduate assistant coach.

Stop the press if you’ve never heard this before: College athletes go to parties. Escorts are paid for sex. Multi-Billion dollar amateur sports industry figure heads claim they had NO knowledge.

What does this have to do with the Denver Broncos? Not much directly, however and I’m willing to bet if you were to ask many active players on the Denver Broncos if they experienced anything remotely similar during their recruitment and playing days in college, they’d smile and say “On to Cincinnati”. Continue reading Jesus Shuttleworth