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Midweek Musings: Postseason Awards For Broncos And NFL

I’ve already said my piece regarding what the Broncos should do at quarterback for the playoffs and won’t repeat it. For this week’s Midweek Musings, I want to talk about postseason awards.

The first ones I’ll talk about are ones I’m handing out specifically to Denver Broncos players. Then I’ll get into the NFL postseason awards and who I believe they should go to.

I don’t see any Broncos getting the usual postseason awards that are handed out, so I figured it was a good idea to recognize those Broncos who made significant contributions. Plus, you have a couple that could have been contenders for the league awards, were it not for some others standing in the way.

So let’s get to the Broncos awards first.
Continue reading Midweek Musings: Postseason Awards For Broncos And NFL

Peyton Manning Will Start In Playoffs

Klis also has this note:

Regardless, the die has been cast and we shall see what happens next.

Ronnie Hillman Named AFC Offensive Player of the Week

Hillman rushed for 115 yards and a touchdown, with said TD the one that decided the game.

It’s the 60th time a Denver Bronco player has won Offensive Player of the Week honors since the award was initiated in 1984.

More information can be found here.

About That Orange Crush Defense…

Lost in all the talk about you-know-what-position is just how good the Denver Broncos defense has been this season. The Broncos D is not only arguably the best defensive unit the Broncos have ever had, it’s one of the best units in the NFL since the switch to four divisions.

Football Outsiders’ advanced metrics ranked the Broncos first overall for the 2015 season at -25.8 percent DVOA (keep in mind, a negative DVOA for a defense is good), but more importantly, those metrics ranked the Broncos as the eighth-best defense in all the years FO has rated teams (their work dates back to the 1990s). Among the defenses since the switch to four divisions, the Broncos rank seventh.

What units have ranked ahead of Denver? FO’s highest ranked defense is the 1991 Philadelphia Eagles (you can follow this link and scroll down for the table), but that team played when the NFL had three divisions per conference and the Eagles missed the playoffs (they finished 10-6, but Washington and Dallas had better records). The other units that ranked ahead of the Broncos were, in order of their ranking:
Continue reading About That Orange Crush Defense…

The 2016 Compensatory Picks Projection At OTC Is Finalized

You can find the details, all in their glory, at this link.  You know the big picture for the Broncos by now, but there are three Broncos-centric points that I’ll emphasize here:

  • Julius Thomas has been going back and forth on the 3rd/4th cutoff bubble, so it’s only fitting that he now is the cutoff bubble.  That’s literal: Thomas was the representative player as the 104th highest ranking player in the league in the regular season out of 2088 total, barely making the top 5%.  However, if my rankings are off by just one or two players, or my snap count adjustments are off, Thomas could just as easily be a 4th instead.  Prepare yourselves equally for either to happen.
  • Owen Daniels also barely squeezed his way above the 5th/6th cutoff, and he could go either way as well.  That doesn’t matter for the Broncos, as he’ll cancel out Rahim Moore no matter what he’s valued.  But it will improve the comp pick the Ravens are projected to get for Daniels up to a 5th rounder.
  • I did lay out one possible scenario in which the Broncos could get a fourth comp pick, a 7th for Jacob Tamme, but so much has to go right for them that I’d consider it a Lloyd Christmas type chance, akin to the Colts’ Week 17 playoff hopes.  Count on the Broncos getting just three comp picks for the 2016 NFL Draft.

Chargers at Broncos: The 10 Things I Liked and the 10 Things I Didn’t

We went into halftime with a 7-6 lead, but 4 turnovers. After one offensive series, we saw the return of Peyton Manning come in. I wasn’t comfortable with the decision as I knew he wasn’t 100% from his injury recovery, but I’m glad his management changed the pacing of the game. Brock Osweiler was getting fooled consistently by the Chargers’ defense, which opened up to one fumble turnover and an interception. Regardless, I think either quarterback could’ve led us to a victory and I’m glad we got the #1 seed spot. Who expected the Dolphins to beat the Patriots!?

What I’m concerned about in the playoffs is that we haven’t played a full game on both offense and defense since December 6th. We either play one half or the other half, and either offense or defense shows up. We need to play both halves where both the offense and defense are full force if we want to win in the playoffs.

Continue reading Chargers at Broncos: The 10 Things I Liked and the 10 Things I Didn’t

Broncos Sign Four To Futures Contracts

Via Andrew Mason:

Four players the Broncos hosted for tryouts in December signed reserve-future contracts Monday as the team began cobbling together its roster for the coming year.

Wide receivers Jace Davis and DeVier Posey, running back Cyrus Gray and defensive back B.J. Lowery signed their deals with the Broncos. They will not officially join the team’s roster until after Super Bowl 50.

Continue reading Broncos Sign Four To Futures Contracts

The Morning After: Leaning Peyton’s Way, But…

If someone told me Sunday morning that the Broncos would win the AFC West and get the No. 1 seed in the playoffs despite turning the ball over five times, I would have told that someone how crazy that sounded.

Well, here we are, the Broncos with their fifth straight AFC West title and knowing they will be playing at home for every AFC playoff game they have. And, of course, the talk is already focused on who should be starting at quarterback for the playoffs.

Let’s make one thing clear: Peyton Manning taking over as quarterback was not the sole reason the Broncos bounced back to beat the San Diego Chargers after turning the ball over five times, and it really isn’t the number one reason. If I was going to name the number one reason why the Broncos won, it’s because they stopped beating themselves and got back to executing. (There is a player who really made the difference, but I’ll get to him later.)
Continue reading The Morning After: Leaning Peyton’s Way, But…

Open Thread: NFL Coaching Carousel

Feel free to talk about any of the NFL coaching and GM changes here. The ones we know about so far:

Cleveland: GM Ray Farmer, HC Mike Pettine both fired, Sashi Brown in charge of football operations.
Miami: GM Dennis Hickey out, Mike Tannenbaum in charge of football operations, Chris Grier named new GM, HC interviews underway.
New York Giants: HC Tom Coughlin out.
Philadelphia: HC Chip Kelly fired, HC interviews underway.
San Francisco: HC Jim Tomsula fired.
Tennessee: GM Ruston Webster fired, HC interviews underway.

ETA: It’s official that one team wants to talk to former Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan.

The Broncos’ 2016 Opponents Are Set…We Think

Normally, I’d start off this post with the phrase “Along with the usual division rivals”, but thanks to the looming meetings on Los Angeles we don’t even know that for sure.  This is the rare year where the non-division rivals have been established first, thanks to the Broncos’ fifth straight AFC West title.  Here they are, beyond the fold:

Continue reading The Broncos’ 2016 Opponents Are Set…We Think