Category: Uncategorized

As part of OTC’s ongoing 2016 Free Agency Preview series:

The Broncos may make a big push before free agency to lock [Malik Jackson] up before having to turn their attention to Von Miller. It actually may benefit the Broncos to use up some cap room on Jackson to try to show a more limited pool of money when dealing with Miller. If Jackson hits free agency expect the teams that miss out on Wilkerson or don’t want to spend top tier money on a 34 end to be very active in acquiring Jackson.

Projected Value: 5 years, $36-$40 million

[…]

If the Broncos don’t see any positive signs with Jackson they will quickly turn their attention to [Derek] Wolfe. It’s possible they may prefer Wolfe if they had to choose one or the other though Jackson is probably the more expensive player with a bit more upside. If the Broncos don’t push to re-sign him, he should find a pretty robust market as he should be about as sure a bet as there is in free agency to fill a specific role as good as anyone else in the league. If Denver lets him go I would not be surprised if he lands with the Chargers.

Projected Value: 5 years, $33-$37 million

These projected deals fit well in line with the current gap between the first and second tier of 3-4 defensive linemen (excepting that JJ Watt is in his own world).

My own take on how to deal with Wolfe and Jackson remains simple, and unchanged from the beginning of this season: whoever takes the more team-friendly deal first stays, and the other one walks. It will be very difficult for the Broncos to keep both of them while at the same time retaining Von Miller, Brock Osweiler, and their wide array of RFAs and ERFAs.

I’ll take a win when we get one, but I wasn’t a fan of the offense. The Broncos scored less than any other team against the Chargers. The average score against the Chargers is 28 points while we only got 17, 7 of those points coming from a defensive interception.

If we win every game the rest of this season then we are guaranteed home field in the offseason. However, the Cincinnati Bengals will be a very difficult opponent.

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

We all know and respect John Elway mostly for his accolades in professional football.  But the Pac-12 made incredibly sure not to ignore his college accomplishments, as in the lead-up to Saturday’s conference championship between Stanford and USC, Elway was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player Of The Century.

Legends in the house. The Offensive and Defensive Players of the Century @johnelway and @RonnieLottHOF. #Pac12FCG pic.twitter.com/o5L0Tjnd8V

— Pac-12 Networks (@Pac12Networks) December 5, 2015

Continue reading Stanford University: A Wealth Of Broncos Connections

So after 12 games, how do advanced metrics measure how the Broncos have performed? Let’s examine a few numbers.

We’ll start with Pro Football Reference’s Expected Points. I’ve gone over this previously when examining Super Bowl winning teams, in which I’ve used the following scale for evaluating PFR’s Expected Points and what they mean for each area.

Positive double digits: Great performance
Positive single digits above 2: Good performance
Between +2 and -2: Average performance
Negative single digits below -2: Mediocre performance
Negative double digits: Bad performance
Continue reading The Morning After: Broncos and Advanced Metrics

Broncos need safeties: David Bruton just said he has 2 sprained left knee ligaments and bone bruise. Out 1-2 weeks. #9news #9sports

— Mike Klis (@MikeKlis) December 7, 2015

It remains to be seen if T.J. Ward will play this week, but all things considered, it was a smart decision for Gary Kubiak to rest DeMarcus Ware. Getting him to full strength will improve the pass rush and take pressure off the defensive backs.

If Ward can’t play against Oakland, it’s likely you’ll see plenty of Josh Bush and Omar Bolden. Bradley Roby could play safety on a couple of downs, too. And it might mean Lorenzo Doss sees a couple of snaps on defense.

The important thing at this point is to get everyone healthy, as after Oakland, two key games against Pittsburgh and Cincinnati await.

(EDIT 1:25 P.M. MST: I meant to say Lorenzo Doss, not Taurean Nixon, although it’s possible the Broncos could move Nixon up from the practice squad.)

I spent a lot of words talking about this last week, when more scenarios were open. But I made sure to bold the simplest and best path for the Broncos: “win out and one Patriots loss”.  Well, thanks to the Eagles, that one Patriots loss came earlier than we thought.  Coupled with the Broncos’ win at San Diego, Denver now controls their own destiny to the #1 seed.  Win out, including defeating the Bengals, and the path in the AFC goes through Denver.

The Broncos are going to be nowhere close to clinching that for a while, but they will have two paths available to get into the playoffs come Week 14:

Continue reading Broncos Playoff Standings: 2015 Week 14

Good game. Here some of my observations afterwards:

Continue reading Observations: Denver vs SD (17-3)

I don’t know if you know, but in 2012, before the draft, Jon Gruden had a film session review with ten QBs that were going to that draft.

Here’s Brock’s one, and I found it amazing. He was already intelligent, good at recognizing his mistakes, easy to put the blame on his shoulders and also the way he takes notes and pay attention to what Gruden says is incredible.

Continue reading Here’s Brock Osweiler at Jon Gruden’s QB Camp

It seems we can’t have a single high-profile or prime-time game go by this year without having a questionable call by the officials that gets scrutinized to death and debated as to whether or not that call should have been made and, if not, that it decided the game.

The latest one was in last night’s game between the Packers and the Lions, in which the Packers attempted an endless lateral that led to the Lions’ Devin Taylor tackling Aaron Rodgers, but Taylor getting flagged for grabbing the face mask. On the next play, Rodgers completed a Hail Mary pass for the winning touchdown.

It’s not the only high-profile game to have a debated call, but it’s only compounding the narrative that officiating has gotten worse. There have been multiple suggestions about how to solve issues with officiating, but most of them tend to be reactionary or not understanding all the facts. Let’s go over a few things:
Continue reading How Can NFL Officiating Be Improved?