Thin Air

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

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…

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.

Mike Tannenbaum confirms that Miami will be interviewing Mike Shanahan on Tuesday.

— Jeff Darlington (@JeffDarlington) January 4, 2016

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

Good news for the Broncos on this front, as this means they will get the maximum amount of time possible to heal up, at almost exactly 14 days.  All three of the Broncos’ potential opponents, meanwhile, will play on Saturday, January 9.  Should the Steelers defeat the Bengals, they will face Denver next–if not, the Broncos will take on the winner of the Chiefs/Texans game.

Of the Texans, Chiefs, and Steelers, who would you like to face?

A note on why the Broncos decided to make the switch at QB:

There is a certain phrase that gets thrown around when teams decide to make a crucial but difficult change. This is typically called a cliche because it is one of those phrases that is used more often than it should. But, in cases like this, this saying holds a delicate truth, that many players, coaches, and fans can take the wrong way. Especially when it is heard by someone who is in the unfavorable position of being benched:

Continue reading Observation: “He gave us the best chance to win the game.” SD vs DEN (27-20)

The Broncos are going to be in decent shape regarding injuries on Sunday, while the Chargers will be quite depleted.

On Denver’s side, the only less-than-probables are Brandon Marshall and TJ Ward.  It’s easy to wonder whether both will have reduced snap counts if they’re healthy, especially if the Broncos get off to a good start.  Should the Broncos get a first round bye by winning, Marshall and Ward will get two weeks of rest, and potentially three if they are inactive or have reduced playing time.

Injury woes have been a season long theme for the Chargers, and for their last game they once again start with the offensive line.  Old friend Orlando Franklin is out with a concussion, making this his sixth missed game in 2015.  Left tackle King Dunlap is doubtful with an ankle injury, and his backup Chris Hairston is questionable on his abdomen. Center Trevor Robinson is questionable with both a shoulder injury and a concussion.  The opportunity is there for the Broncos’ front seven to feast once again.

Other notable Chargers questionables include Jason Verrett, Manti Te’o, and Stevie Johnson.  And their injury report also doesn’t account for a bunch of other key players they placed on injured reserve Monday:

Chargers placed safeties Eric Weddle (groin) and Darrell Stuckey (knee), TE Ladarius Green (ankle), NT Sean Lissemore (shoulder) on IR.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 28, 2015

So here we are, the final week of the NFL regular season. We know the Broncos will be heading to the playoffs, the fifth straight year the Broncos have done this, and a win against San Diego will mean the fifth straight AFC West title for the Broncos. It’s been amazing to watch what has happened since John Elway stepped into the Broncos’ front office.

Of course, it hasn’t been a perfect ride and Elway has made his share of mistakes, but what front office person hasn’t done that? Even the best personnel evaluators make mistakes. Just look at the track records of people like Bill Polian, Bill Parcells, Bill Walsh and Bill Parcells (how is it that so many people named Bill seem to be good at drafting players?), which are filled with mistakes from drafting and free agency, but the majority were very good.

So far, that’s been the case with Elway, too. There are those draft picks and free agents we can debate as to whether they were good or not, with some picks that really belong under “the jury is still out” and some free agents who you could go either way with an assessment.
Continue reading Midweek Musings: Evaluating Elway As Personnel Evaluator

The first half was another pathetic display where I honestly thought this game was going to continue what we saw in the second half against the Steelers. I was pleasantly surprised that we went to a no-huddle format in the second half and started a majority of plays in shotgun and pistol formations. This allowed Brock just a second or two more to throw, because our offensive line was getting manhandled the entire game.

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